Subversive and Self-Assured

The works of women artists from East Germany are still only marginally represented in the contemporary art and exhibition scene. Worin unsere Stärke besteht sheds light on the creative approaches of fifty women from three generations who were born in the GDR before the fall of the Wall and confronted a wide variety of challenges under the socialist system and in the wake of the wrenching changes after the reunification of Germany. Individual lives are front and center in the exhibition, which was conceptualized and curated by Andrea Pichl, probes the question of how an artist’s background and circumstances inform her thematic interests and aesthetic propositions.

The catalogue of the exhibition at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien traces an arc from the earliest to recent works and embeds the exhibition in its broader historical context. With extensive illustrations and essays by contributors including Sarah Alberti, Hiltrud Ebert, Kevin Hanschke, Hanna Krug, Klaus Lederer, Charlotte Misselwitz, Andrea Pichl, Angelika Richter, Elske Rosenfeld, Erika Stürmer-Alex, and Suse Weber.