Founded in 1973 as a state institution, the Center for Art (ZfK) played a key role in shaping cultural exchange in the GDR during its 17 years of activity. After its dissolution, the graphic art part of the collection was transferred to the ifa. The processing of this unique inventory within the ifa art collection makes the institutional structures of East German (foreign) cultural policy visible and lets contemporary witnesses speak.
From the “Weltreise” to the “Traces of Interest”. Since 2013, the ifa has been exploring its own art collection and, in particular, the 10,000 works of graphic art from the GDR Centre for Art Exhibitions it contains, in three large-scale exhibition projects.
An examination of the works from the collection of the Center for Art Exhibitions shows continuities and ruptures as well as influences and relationships that make it clear that artists in the GDR not only worked in accordance with the system or conformed to it, but also found their place in the in-between against the odds. The ifa presents eleven of the artists behind this art in particular.
