(smow)offline: EAST_for the record

After our turbulent week in MIlan the (smow)blog team is looking forward to the ever faster approaching May bank holiday weekend here in Germany.

The 2008 Spinnerei "Spring Gallery-Tour"

On Friday we will be at the traditional May Day Horse Racing Meeting at Leipzig Scheibenholz Racetrack, Saturday the Leipzig Spinnerei “Spring Gallery-Tour” with among others Damien Hirst at Gallery Hilario Galguera and then Sunday the exhibition “EAST_for the record” at the Leipzig Museum of Contemporary Art.

And there are people out there who still think that all we do in Leipzig is que for bananas  :)

The (smow)blog team have already viewed EAST_for the record but it left such a strong impression we will be returning with some friends for a second view.

Organised by VNG-Verbundnetz Gas AG and curated by Frank-Heinrich Müller and Christine Rink “EAST_for the record” is really three exhibitions in one; a collection of paintings and graphics from graduates of Leipzig Art School, including, naturally, Neo Rauch, a wonderful documentary film over the build up to and events of October 9th 1989 in Leipzig and as central element a photo exhibition.

The photos are a sort of calender from September and October 1989 – if you like a “What I did as the DDR crumbled”  – using images that the curators have prised from the private archives of numerous photographers and artists. Juxtapositioned with highly emotive, dramatic and descriptive images of the last days of the DDR are images that are so banal and ordinary that under normal circumstances even those who took them would find them uninteresting after 20 years.

However, through this juxtapositioning one is, one the one hand, confronted with the fact that despite the dramatic and far-reaching consequences of October 1989, for the vast majority of people life was going on as normal – and has continued to do so – and on the other hand one realises just how abnormal the events in Leipzig, Berlin and Dresden really were. It is all to easy to fall into a complacency  about historical  events – so,  OK Columbus sailed to America … what about it?  – which is wrong and the joy of “EAST_for the record” is that it really stops you in your tracks and forces a re-evaluation.

EAST_for the record

And in addition there are some wonderfully poetic and beautifully constructed photos on display.

The exhibition”EAST_for the record” is on show at the Leipzig Museum of Contemporary Art until 07.06.2009

We will almost certainly view it several times and can thoroughly recommend it to all who will be in Leipzig in the coming months.