Luise Schröder (Currents in Motion) – Strömungen in Bewegung

At the invitation of Anna Bromley and Andreas Langfeld, Luise Schröder presents her recently published artist's book Strömungen in Bewegung (Currents in Motion). The book draws on Schröder's transgenerational artistic research into the women's and lesbian movement in the GDR. In the book, Schröder examines documents from the Archive of the GDR Opposition, which the Robert Havemann Society established in 1992. After the artist's presentation, Anna Bromley and Andreas Langfeld will speak with the artist about her zooming in on archival materials. The discussion will focus on materialities, but also on artistic care work, the handling of sources and references, and the artistic writing that the artist engaged in for this book.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Even thirty years after the German reunification, the experiences of independent women’s and lesbian groups in the GDR remain largely unknown. They represent a historical void, not only in relation to the Cold War narratives but also with regard to an all-German women’s* history. In Luise Schröder‘s artistic works, photographs, videos and publications, history and memory, as well as their significance for the present, always play an essential role. Based on her East German biography (born 1982 in the former GDR), Luise Schröder explores the often forgotten activities of non-governmental women’s and lesbian groups and queer people in the GDR in the 1980s and 1990s in her publication Strömungen in Bewegung (Currents in Motion) in terms of content and aesthetics. She devotes herself to previously unpublished image and text material from the GrauZone Collection of the Archive of the GDR Opposition of the Robert Havemann Society and the Spinnboden Lesbian Archive & Library Berlin. By processing and alienating the archive materials subjectively and from an artistic perspective, Luise Schröder not only addresses the historical gaps, but also sheds light on the significance of archives as powerful institutions in the context of remembering and forgetting. In addition, the artist explores the poetry inherent in archive materials and reveals utopian moments, who apparently disappeared within the historical narratives about the GDR and the Cold War Period in general. By highlightening those moments visually and materialwise, the publication creates and offers pluralistic perspectives on historical conditions. In addition to an extensive image section, the publication also includes an essayistic text in which the Luise Schröder discusses her research processes and thus the construction logic of history. The author and sociologist Judith Geffert, who co-curated the traveling exhibition Gemeinsam sind wir unerträglich - Die unabhängige Frauenbewegung in der DDR, wrote an accompanying text for the publication, which reflects about the political and historical background and context. The publication also contains a 28-page, newly compiled reprint of frau anders, the only lesbian magazine in the GDR, which served to promote networking and the exchange of information between lesbian groups and individual women.

Strömungen in Bewegung sheds light on the complex relationship between history and the present, truth and fiction, the private and the public, and equally addresses strategies of feminist self-empowerment and resistance practices with regard to East German women*‘s history.

The artist Strömungen in Bewegung book was designed by Anika Rosen and published in 2025 by  FOTOHOF>EDITION. It was commissioned, supported and financed by the Berlin Artistic Research Programme, the Berlin Senate for Culture and Social Cohesion, the Stiftung Kunstfonds / Neustart Kultur and the SpallArt Collection.