»Die Tage waren gezählt« (The days were numbered) is dedicated to artists‘ books and magazines from the GDR and East Germany from the period 1980 to 1995. The exhibition explores different aspects of this subject area, which is being treated for the first time in a museum, and equally reflects the BLMK collection, which contains a unique inventory of artists‘ books and magazines, mostly so-called samizdats.
The exhibition consists of approximately 300 artist books and magazines created between approximately 1980 and 1995. The chapter themes derived from these publications are almost programmatic: The Days Are Numbered, Language Spaces, Nature Under Pressure, Pebbles in the Sand, Voices of Silence, Action = Hope.
Publications, mostly published in small and very small editions, contained original graphic works, hand-printed photographs, unique pieces such as paintings, drawings, or collages, paper foldings, and sometimes even music cassettes, and functioned as intermedial, transdisciplinary productions at the interfaces of various artistic disciplines such as visual arts, literature, and others. These publications, some of which are designed to be dismantled and presented as expansive installations, inherently possess the character of portable and distributable „pocket-sized exhibitions.“ Essential here is the interweaving of individual artistic work(s) and community-building and community-based creation. The publications, created as critical, microcosmic worldviews within the closed art scene of the GDR, offer not only interdisciplinary, artistic-aesthetic, but above all, socially utopian designs.
The books and magazines are complemented by photographs, drawings, and paintings created as preparatory work or subsequent to the production of the publications.
Many of the books and magazines, such as the complete 17 issues of “schaden”, will be included in the exhibition and the accompanying publication in animated form thanks to digital options.
The publication accompanying the exhibition is being published by Spector Books in Leipzig in Summer 2026.
Until February 15th, the DIESELKRAFTWERK Cottbus will host a major exhibition of artists’ books and magazines from the late GDR and East Germany. However, even after the exhibition’s official run, this rarely explored artistic output from the GDR era will not be entirely forgotten.
The two exhibition sections, “The Other Collectives: Parallel Spaces of Thought and Transgressions” and “The Other Collectives: Conceptual and Experimental Images,” located in exhibition spaces M2 and M3, will continue as a separate exhibition for an additional two weeks, until March 1st. The focus will be on the artists’ magazine Schaden and the booklet series Poe-sie All Bum / Poe-sie All Peng / Dolorosa, as well as books and magazines that explore the question of visual languages, particularly in photography, but also in printmaking and comics.
Framework program
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Wednesday, Dec 3 & 17, 2025, 2 pm
Guided tours (de)
Admission incl. guided tour with Julien Rathje: 5,50 €
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Tuesday, Dec 9, 2025, 4:30 pm
Guided tour (de)
Admission incl. guided tour with Ulrike Kremeier: 5,50 €
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Wednesday, Jan 28, 7 pm
Film & Talk “GO CLARA GO – Überlebenskunst am Zonenrand”
Film screening and discussion with Sylvie Kürsten (director) and Ulrike Kremeier (director of BLMK) | Tickets: Regular €8 / Concession €6.50, available at Obenkino/Gladhouse, Straße der Jugend 16, Cottbus.
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Die Tage waren gezählt
Intermedialität in Künstlerbüchern und -zeitschriften der späten DDR
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