We warmly invite you to the opening of the group exhibition “UNCOVER. East German Artists Between Gender, Labels and Visibility” on Friday, 6 November 2026, at 6 pm at co/site exhibition.
With UNCOVER, Women in Arts and Media e. V. launches an interdisciplinary exhibition project dedicated to artists from East Germany. At its centre is a gap in the perception of East German art: many artists who were born and socialised in the GDR, or who grew up in eastern Germany after 1989/90, continue to receive limited recognition beyond regional contexts.
“More than three decades after reunification, the question of which East German artists become visible within the history of German art as a whole remains open. UNCOVER addresses this issue by connecting the historical rupture of 1989/90 with contemporary questions of canon formation, recognition and access.”
Kerstin Lorenz and Nadja Schütt, exhibition organisers
The influence of regional background and gender on artistic practice forms the curatorial framework for the selection of artists. Although their works do not always engage directly with these categories, both factors shape their respective artistic biographies. The participating artists represent experiences of exclusion, perseverance and self-assertion under different political, social and institutional conditions. Their biographies also point to the many East German artists whose work remains inadequately represented in the canon and public sphere to this day – a situation that UNCOVER critically addresses.
The exhibition features works by Gerda Lepke, Barbara Toch, Karin Hunger, Nadja Schütt, Tobia König and Vivien Schlecht. The participating artists were born between 1939 and 1992. Their artistic biographies thus bring together several generations: careers that began in the GDR, paths shaped by upheaval and the period of transformation, and younger positions that developed in reunified Germany.
The works and biographical interviews bring together diverse artistic positions and biographies of artists from East Germany. The conversations explore how political systems, institutional frameworks and social upheavals shaped artistic trajectories, and what strategies artists developed to continue their work. They address artistic autonomy beyond ideological appropriation, individual spaces of freedom, and the search for sustainable working conditions in times of social change. The works do not always explicitly address these experiences. However, materials and forms of expression are often deliberately chosen to give artistic form to biographical experiences – through painting, graphics, installation, objects, material experiments, images of the body, spaces and fragmented forms.
The upheaval of 1989/90 brought new freedoms while also introducing uncertainties that had previously been unknown. Networks and institutional structures disappeared, the art market became strongly oriented towards the West, and many East German artistic biographies remained underrepresented in the now all-German canon and public sphere. At the same time, UNCOVER turns its attention to younger artists whose lives and working conditions took shape in reunified Germany. Spanning more than 60 years, the works bring together historical experiences, artistic continuities, transformations and new starting points.
The opening on 6 November, just a few days before the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November, provides a historical framework for the exhibition. Through the works on display and the life trajectories they trace, UNCOVER asks how an all-German history of art takes shape: Under what conditions do works and biographies become part of its narratives – and what mechanisms lead to others being received primarily within regional contexts?
The project comprises three closely interconnected formats: a digital 3D exhibition, the centrepiece of UNCOVER; a physical exhibition at co/site exhibition (hosted by loop – raum für aktuelle kunst); and a podcast series. Together, these formats combine direct encounters with selected works, access to works and biographies regardless of location, and personal voices, memories and historical contextualisation.
UNCOVER is conceived as a long-term, evolving format: the digital exhibition and podcast series will be continuously expanded to include additional artists and connected with physical exhibitions at changing venues in eastern and western Germany.
Artists: Gerda Lepke, Barbara Toch, Karin Hunger, Nadja Schütt, Tobia König, Vivien Schlecht
Organisers: Kerstin Lorenz and Nadja Schütt
Contact: Katharina Schrade (Chair of the Board of Women in Arts and Media e. V.)
Email: vorstand@womeninartsandmedia.de
Project: www.instagram.com/uncover_ost
Website of the organising association: www.womeninartsandmedia.de
Further Events
Press Breakfast
Wednesday, 4 November 2026, 11 am
co/site exhibition, Berlin
A preview of the exhibition for the press, with curator and artist Nadja Schütt, Kerstin Lorenz, co-creator of UNCOVER, and Katharina Schrade, Chair of the Board of Women in Arts and Media e. V. The programme includes a brief tour of the exhibition, insights into UNCOVER’s digital content, and an opportunity to ask questions, conduct interviews and obtain image material. Registration is requested.
Discussion Evening: Between Generations. East German Artists in Conversation
Friday, 20 November 2026, 6 pm
Guided Tour with curator Nadja Schütt and artists Karin Hunger and Tobia König
Panel discussion Kerstin Lorenz, organiser and artist of the exhibition, in conversation with Vivien Schlecht, artist featured in the exhibition, and Sabine Herrmann, painter and graphic artist from Berlin.
The panel brings together two artistic generations: Vivien Schlecht, whose artistic career began in reunified Germany, and Sabine Herrmann, who studied in the GDR and was already working as an artist before 1989. The two artists will discuss how the different political and institutional conditions before and after 1989 shaped their artistic trajectories and the reception of their work.
Finissage: What Remains Visible?
Saturday, 5 December 2026, 2–6 pm
To conclude the exhibition, curator and artist Nadja Schütt and artist Vivien Schlecht will lead a tour of the exhibition. Together with the audience, they will revisit the perspectives on East German artistic biographies opened up by UNCOVER and ask what will endure beyond the end of the exhibition. Afterwards, we invite everyone to join us for an informal closing gathering.
The co/site exhibition space accompanies the future development of Urbane Mitte Am Gleisdreieck with artistic autonomy and thus at the same time enters into a dialogue with the overarching themes of the overall project - forms of new work, co-working, culture and sport - and creates synergies between artistic, cultural and social approaches. The artistic director of co/site exhibition is Rüdiger Lange (loop - raum für aktuelle kunst). |
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