‘We were broke, but fascinated by freedom’: exhibition showcases East German artist Gabriele Stötzer

Gabriele Stötzer remembers the days when she had to decide: “Am I buying a sausage, or film for my Super 8 camera?” Stötzer was one of the most radical artists in communist East Germany , and her desire to create was born in defiance of and in spite of the material conditions and oppressive restrictions of the GDR regime. “We were broke, but we were totally fascinated by freedom,” she said. Gabriele Stötzer: ‘We made use of everything we experienced – our dreams, traumas, the exaltation, the humiliation.’ Photograph: Jens Kalaene/dpa Now 73, Stötzer has her first major show at one of Germany’s foremost galleries for contemporary art, in what is the biggest ever celebration of an East German female artist in a state museum. Dabei Sein und nicht schweigen (Show up and don’t be quiet) is on display at the sprawling Martin Gropius Bau gallery in Berlin, where 150 of Stötzer’s works are being exhibited in a dedicated wing until 6 December. The title is taken from the book Stötzer wrote about her year spent locked up after protesting against the expatriation of dissident singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann . It was during her incarceration in the notorious women’s prison of Hoheneck in Saxony during the late 1970s that her artistic streak began to emerge. A piece from the exhibition. …