Past
Join curator Ljiljana Grubisic, Director of Collections and Public Programs at The Wende Museum, for a fascinating look at this period in Russian history and the unique political artwork it generated.
Join author and illustrator Eugene Yelchin for a presentation about his new award-winning book Breaking Stalin’s Nose—the moving story of a boy’s transition from devotion to disillusionment with the Communist Party. Eugene will discuss his creative journey and the use of personal experience to create historical fiction. A book signing will follow the presentation. To find out more about the book, visit breakingstalinsnose.com.
The Craft and Folk Art Museum hosted a reading of poetry created in response to artworks exhibited in the Deconstructing Perestroika exhibition. The event is organized by Brendan Constantine, Los Angeles poet and author of Birthday Girl With Possum, and features poets Ilya Kaminsky, Cecilia Woloch, and Arash Saedinia.
COLD WAR: A PERFORMANCE PROJECT is being developed over three years by the Netherlands-based PeerGrouP and the Los Angeles Poverty Department.
While the Cold War in Eastern Europe is in a geographic and even historic sense a long way from here, its legacy is global and relevant. Then, as now, entrenched social, cultural, and political systems were subverted from below and within.
The unblinking eye over today’s conflict zones has its origins in the surveillance technology that emerged in the Cold War-era as a dutiful aid to intelligence operatives, those individuals who assimilated themselves into the culture of their enemy and passed along secrets. Western agencies were watching the east as under the watchful eye of the KGB, the USSR created a particularly sinister climate of fear and political oppression. Yet the KGB, which employed one agent per 583 Soviet citizens, was dwarfed in its efforts by the East German model in which one Stasi agent observed 166 individuals.
As a part of The Wende Museum’s SURVEILLANCE PROJECT, Behind the Berlin Wall brings together street artists from Los Angeles, London, and Berlin to interpret the role of surveillance in our lives from the Cold War until today. The murals by Retna, D*Face, and artist duo Herakut, cover nine segments belonging to the ‘east side’ of the original Berlin Wall – the side that faced the East German death strip and was never painted. In keeping with the Wall’s original function as an organic, ever-changing site for art happenings, these artists offer a commentary on the eroding space of the private individual operating in a public place that uses technology as an agent of social control.
British Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay and former U.S. Ambassador Rudolf V. Perina shared their stories about the joys as well as difficulties of life as expatriates and diplomats, their adjustments to the culture of Moscow, and their contacts with other diplomats, state officials, dissidents, journalists and average citizens. Moderated by UCLA History Professor J. Arch Getty, this conversation touched upon the challenges that foreign diplomats faced during the Cold War, the culture and institutional framework in which they had to operate and how they remained discrete, cheerful, flexible and smart as the politics and leadership kept changing at home, abroad and ‘in the office.’
The Wende Museum launched Breaking Stalin’s Nose, the debut novel by Eugene Yelchin, St. Petersburg-born and Los Angeles-based artist and author. The Museum also presented an exhibition of the artist’s dramatic graphite illustrations for the book.
To mark the 20th anniversary of German reunification in October 2010, The Wende Museum hosted an advanced, rough-cut screening of the documentary film One Germany: The Other Side of the Wall, produced by Gabriele Hayes and directed by Mark Hayes with support from The Wende Museum. The film explores the ongoing cultural impact of Germany’s reunification in 1990.
On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's groundbreaking 108-minute voyage around the Earth on the Vostok 1 rocket captured the entire world's fascination with space as the next frontier. His voyage with the Cedar call sign (referring to a Siberian pine) made Gagarin into a national hero. His flight was a landmark victory in a Space Race that served as a key ideological site for Cold War confrontation.
To mark the 20th anniversary of German reunification in October 2010, The Wende Museum hosted an advanced, rough-cut screening of the documentary film One Germany: The Other Side of the Wall, produced by Gabriele Hayes and directed by Mark Hayes with support from The Wende Museum. The film explores the ongoing cultural impact of Germany’s reunification in 1990.
The film will be screened again in Berlin on Wednesday, October 12 at 8 PM at Filmkunst 66, Bleibtreustrasse 12, 10623 Berlin.
The Spring Salon presents a discussion about the Politics of Memory between the Romanian-born, LA-based artist Claudia “Cotrutza” French and Gail Kligman, professor of Sociology at UCLA.
Contemporary American artist Lawrence Gipe spoke with Andrew Jenks, associate professor of History, California State University, Long Beach about the appropriation of and fascination with Soviet myths and icons in contemporary art and culture.
The German Democratic Republic, founded in October 1949, invested considerable energy in its international relations. At first only recognized by the Eastern bloc states, the People's Republic of China and Korea, the GDR launched an initiative in the 1950s to establish diplomatic relations with countries in other parts of the world, especially in Africa, the Middle East and East Asia.
The Wende Museum joins in presenting the 2nd Hungarian Documentary and Short Film Festival, sponsored by the Consulate General of Hungary in Los Angeles.