The project

In the public perception of artistic freedom and freedom to travel in the GDR, both have been regarded as equally restricted for a long time. It is therefore scarcely known that artists from the GDR did travel abroad beyond the Iron Curtain, usually on behalf of the state. The experiences and impressions gained there were often processed artistically. The research project "Affektive Archive - Auslandsreisen von Künstler:innen zur Zeit der DDR" (Affective Archives - Artists' Travels Abroad during the GDR) is dedicated to this aspect of international cultural exchange between the GDR and countries beyond the so-called Eastern Bloc, which has received little attention in previous research.
The study focuses on the political framework conditions for artists' travels, the various reasons for traveling abroad, and artists' personal motives and experiences, and analyzes how they were reflected in the visual arts. In order to examine the tension between travel freedoms and restrictions, cultural politics, and private interests, various source corpora from archives and museums will be consulted and interconnected. In public archives, traces such as travel reports, applications for study trips, and press articles bear witness to the desire of many artists to discover the world behind the Wall - but also to the difficulties that stood in the way of applications due to political and bureaucratic hurdles in the one-party dictatorship. 
The project aims to build a bridge between these archival holdings and Oral Art History interviews with contemporary witnesses as well as the investigation of private archives. Works of art that are connected to trips abroad will be included and analyzed. Projections onto other cultures and forms of 'othering' will also be discussed.

The project is funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation from 01.04.2023 - 31.03.2025.