History and Contemporary Life in the Prefab Block

In the GDR, prefabricated housing was considered a central pillar of social policy and symbol of the progress of real socialism, as a site of community life that beckoned with modern living in vibrant residential neighborhoods. To remedy the enormous housing shortage after the war, the socialist government relied on the industrial production of homes, a scheme that culminated in the Wohnungsbauserie 70, a type of dwelling first presented in 1970. After German reunification, the prefab housing estates soon fell into disrepute, becoming scenes of wrenching transformation and emblems of social decline and racist violence. Now modern ruins, the buildings awaited demolition, underwent redevelopment or alteration. In today’s eastern Germany, this form of housing remains a defining element of the urban scenery. 

Accompanying the exhibition at DAS MINSK curated by Kito Nedo, the catalogue Wohnkomplex. Art and Life in Plattenbau surveys the ways in which art has grappled with East Germany’s prefabricated housing estates. It presents installations, paintings, drawings, photographs, and films created between the 1970s and today. In addition to texts by Kito Nedo and Kevin Hanschke, the catalogue includes a literary essay by writer Grit Lemke, a cultural-historical overview of GDR prefabricated housing photography by cultural historian Bernd Lindner, a glossary of essential terms related to prefabricated housing by art historian Juliane Richter, and a chronicle of the development of prefabricated housing architecture by architect Philipp Meuser. 

Artists 

Karl-Heinz Adler, Sibylle Bergemann, Manfred Butzmann, Kurt Dornis, Markus Draper, Wolfram Ebersbach, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Seiichi Furuya, Peter Herrmann, Sebastian Jung, Gisela Kurkhaus-Müller, Harald Metzkes, Sabine Moritz, Henrike Naumann, Manfred Pernice, Uwe Pfeifer, Sonya Schönberger, Nathalie Valeska Schüler, Wenke Seemann, Robert Seidel, Christian Thoelke, Stephen Willats, and Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt

Museum issue - sold on behalf and for the account of Museen der Hasso Plattner Foundation gGmbH, Museum Barberini, Alter Markt 3, 14467 Potsdam, VAT ID DE280321691