August 14, 2023
4:30–6 pm

The third OPEN WORKSHOP is devoted to Mail Art in the GDR. It takes a look at two actions by the Berlin artists Robert Rehfeldt and Joseph W. Huber: in 1975 and 1977 they called for other artists to send them works on various themes through the global Mail Art network. The resulting conglomerates were presented in 1975 and 1982 in Warsaw and Berlin. Based on the presentations in both cities, the WORKSHOP examines how the exchange between artists in the international Mail Art network functioned and what it resulted in: Which social, political, and art theoretical questions did the early Mail Art actions take up in the GDR? Which solutions did Rehfeldt and Huber find for the presentation of postal art? And what conception of an artwork can be applied to such projects? Are the conglomerates each an artwork of Rehfeldt and Huber, are they artistic collaborations, or self-contained collections? The scholars present their current research projects on both Mail Art actions and then discuss the relation between artwork and collection in the Mail Art genre with the visitors at MINSK.

In the OPEN WORKSHOP format, DAS MINSK lets scholars use the workshop space during the exhibition WERK STATT SAMMLUNG, opening up the workshop as a working and thinking space for current research projects on art from the GDR. 

Participation in the event is included in the exhibition ticket. 

The event will be in German.