Past
Netherlands-based and Romanian-born performance artist and theatre-maker Ioana Tudor will present “About how my emotions were stolen by the machine. While I was just sitting there, reading about my father,” in response to the exhibition Facial Recognition.
A lecture and Q&A by A. Ross Johnson, with an introduction by German Consul General in Los Angeles Hans Jörg Neumann
The exhibition explores the dynamics of artistic collaborations behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War period.
The exhibition presented people from the Eastern Bloc as they were portrayed in paintings and photographs during the Cold War era.
A project by Dutch visual artists Daphne Rosenthal and Richtje Reinsma from the Netherlands, with assistance of Chief Curator Joes Segal and kindly supported by the Mondriaan Fund.
Selected from the Wende Museum’s vast collection of more than 1,200 pieces, this exhibition tells the story of the GDR through the lens of its commemorative plates.
Meet Bond’s villains, uncover their evil schemes, and explore their exotic lairs and weapons in this special exhibit at The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Bond films. See over 100 film artifacts from the archives of EON Productions, the Bond film producers. Featuring items from The Wende Mueseum's collection.
In collaboration with Berlin and Los Angeles artists Sonya Schönberger and Friedrich Kunath, acclaimed conceptual artist Christof Zwiener appropriated an architecturally typical guardhouse from the parking lot of the East German news agency, known by the acronym ADN. In response to imminent destruction of the ADN headquarters and guardhouse in the wake of a frantic rush to get rid of a dark past, Zwiener rescued the guardhouse and transformed it into mobile site-specific installations, exploring themes of media, surveillance, propaganda, and the military.
Friedrich Kunath was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, a town in former East Germany. His work for the ADN guardhouse entitled some power, that hardly looked like power, said I’m only perfect in an empty room (from the song ‘The Wild Kindness’ (1998) by David Berman) symbolizes the collision between different times and cultures. With the ADN guardhouse from East Berlin as its exhibition venue, one might also speak about the collision between dream and nightmare. Friedrich Kunath lives and works in Los Angeles.
The 12th annual Home Movie Day takes place this fall in dozens of international cities including Los Angeles on Saturday, October 18th 2014. This free event invites Angelenos to share family and amateur films of all kinds in an afternoon open screening. Later that same evening, the program FROM THE EAST: Home Movies in the Collection of the Wende Museum offers a glimpse through the Iron Curtain at amateur filmmaking in Cold-War era Eastern Europe. Both events will be held for the first time at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile.
Sonya Schönberger’s work KEY DELIVERY for the ADN Pförtnerhaus symbolically reflects the power and influence of the gatekeeper within a system of absolute control. Simultaneously, her installation visualizes the loss of power and control following the disintegration of a political system. Placed in the East German ADN Guardhouse in Los Angeles at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard, the work consists of some 2,000 keys from the barracks of the People`s Police (Volkspolizei). There is no one left to handle them. As decontextualized as their container, the keys are remnants of a past they are not able to disclose.
The Goethe-Institut presents a screening of Freedom Rocks vignettes to mark the opening of an exhibition of wall pieces and souvenirs in the Goethe-Institut lobby on view through November 7, 2014.
On the night of November 9th, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, opening the border between East and West Germany. As The Wende Museum marks the passage of 25 years since this monumentous event, we’re also highlighting the anniversary of a lesser-known milestone that occurred on the very same night: the debut at East Berlin’s Kino International of Coming Out, the first and last queer feature film produced in East Germany.We hope you’ll join us as we co-present Outfest’s special screening of this groundbreaking piece of Cold War LGBTQ cinematic history on October 1st in West Hollywood.