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In many respects, Berlin has had a particular and unique role in recent German history. Its political significance has taken the city through a manifold and eventful course of history in the twentieth century, the most decisive point of which was its destruction in World War II and subsequent division. However, following this fate, Berlin still mirrored the destiny of the entire nation as did no other city in Germany: a city at the front lines during the 'Cold War' and a center of the revolts taking place in the 60's and 70's, then an eldorado of subcultures. And after these times, Berlin was the center of attention in the sense of history once again: when the Iron Curtain was ripped away in 1989. With the fusion of the German Democratic Republic (the former East Germany) with the Federal Republic of Germany (the western part), the reunification of the long – divided country was achieved. Since 1999, Berlin has again been the capital and seat of government, thus the political center of the 'new' Germany. Thus where can better be observed the process of 'that which belongs together comes together' than in this city? Here, at the 'construction site of reunification', the course of change in Germany is most noticeable. For art in Berlin, the years of rapid and radical change between 1989 and 1999 brought decisive changes in the art scene as well. It was not only the fact that a new generation of artists from both East and West Berlin emerged at the end of the 1980s – the city also became more and more a point of attraction for artists from inside and outside Germany. The selection of male and female artists takes its orientation from the following developments: in the 1980s, in the West Berlin of that time, there was already a way of working specific to situation and location, upon which the artists of the so-called Büro Berlin [Berlin office], represented by Raimund Kummer, Hermann Pitz and Fritz Rahmann, exerted a decisive influence. Through this, the widespread conception and image of art greatly dominated by painting which existed up to the late 1980s underwent modification, and conceptional tendencies, context art, and ways of work related to space and location came to the fore. In the course of the reconstruction of the city, numerous temporary places were found and then occupied by artists and art projects. The emerging non-institutional structures contributed greatly to manifold reproduction and accleration of the production of art. From the eastern part of the city come, around the year 1990, members of the so-called group of 'Autoperforation Artists' (e.) Twin Gabriel, Via Lewandowsky, Rainer Görß and Micha Brendel – gain supraregional attention and appreciation. They belonged to a younger art and music scene which had developed outside the state structures of the GDR. Process art, installation and performative tendencies mark this radical change in East German art. The QUOBO exhibition shows works by international artists who worked in these connections in the Berlin of the given years, and who stand out for their work from 1989 to 1999. An integral part of the exhibition is formed by its 'Network Archive', which offers information on leading projects of the 1980s and introduces the myriad spectrum of independent projects that emerged during the 1990s in Berlin: www.quobo.de Exhibition catalogue
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