Clara Mosch

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Clara Mosch was a gallery and artist group in the GDR from Karl-Marx-Stadt , today Chemnitz. It existed from 1977 to 1982.

history

The group was founded on May 30, 1977 by the artists Michael Morgner , Thomas Ranft , Carlfriedrich Claus , Gregor-Torsten Schade and Dagmar Ranft-Schinke . The name comes from Thomas Ranft and was formed from the beginning of the artist's surnames: CLA = Claus RA = Ranft MO = Morgner SCH = Schade.

Shortly before the gallery opened, the artists' association set a mandatory date for those involved. On the one hand, the Kulturbund took over all the costs incurred for the project; on the other hand, the Mosch group had to accept that the gallery management consisted of representatives of the artist group and officials of the Kulturbund in equal parts.

Many of the group's exhibitions took place in the Galerie Oben in Karl-Marx-Stadt. On November 27, 1982, the group disbanded, as over time more art objects by other artists were exhibited in the gallery and this did not meet the artist's wishes.

Exhibition 2020 in Chemnitz

An exhibition by the Chemnitz Art Collections as an institution of the City of Chemnitz from February 23, 2020 to June 21, 2020 highlighted the group's actions as one of the most important examples of alternative art creation in the GDR - which was realized independently of state art doctrine. The actions of the Karl-Marx-Städter artist group Clara Mosch are essentially passed down through the photographs created by Ralf-Rainer Wasse. The photographs taken between 1975 and 1986, which Wasse also took for the Ministry for State Security and which form the focus of the exhibition, document the actually ephemeral actions of the group. They document the artistic self-staging of the members of Clara Mosch between obstinacy and performative art forms and at the same time reflect Wasser's aesthetic demands as a photographer.

However, the photographs shown in the exhibition are also evidence of the surveillance and breaking up of the group by the Ministry of State Security. Because of her idiosyncratic and independent art, Clara Mosch was classified as "negative-hostile" and was the subject of several operational processes, which Wasse worked on through photographs and reports. The Kunstsammlung Chemnitz published a catalog for the exhibition on February 24, 2020, which also documents an excerpt from the surveillance by the secret service. The pictures come from the extensive holdings of the Carlfriedrich Claus Archive of the Chemnitz Art Collections and the Wasse estate kept in the Lindenau Museum Altenburg.

Movie

On May 10, 2020, Das Erste showed a documentary entitled “Clara Mosch and Ralf-Rainer Wasse - Action and Photography” on the television program ttt - titel, thesen, temperamente . The report refers to the 2020 exhibition of the Chemnitz Art Collections and lets artists from the Clara Mosch Group speak in front of the camera.

Michael Morgner said in the program “there was always desperate trying to make some kind of art that doesn't - looks like the GDR” and documentation created about Wasses “it was really lucky for us” and “it's like Faust and Mephisto, when someone does not want the good and still does ". Thomas Ranft added "all the pleinairs and all the actions would never have been documented without him (Wasse) and none of them (Clara Mosch) would have been left."

The documentation reports "Wasse fled after the exposure (as an informant for the Ministry of State Security) in 1992 before any discussion" and left. Ralf-Rainer Wasse passed away in 2017.

literature

  • Clara Mosch and Ralf-Rainer Wasse, action and photography, February 24, 2020, publication on the occasion of the exhibition of the Chemnitz Art Collections 2020, 127 pages, ISBN 978-3-930116-51-5
  • Galerie Gunar Barthel and Galerie Oben (eds.), Clara Mosch 1977–1982: Works and documents: Claus, Ranft-Schinke, Ranft, Morgner, Schade, Berlin and Chemnitz 1997, ISBN 3-00-001984-7 .
  • Sommerschuh, Jens-Uwe, Five years after the fall of the Wall: "Clara Mosch" is memory - your art lives on: The heroes of yore are now going their own way, in: Gruner + Jahr (ed.), Art: Das Kunstmagazin, No. 10, October 1995, Hamburg 1995, pp. 44-52.
  • Gunar Barthel (Hrsg.): Clara Mosch - Documentation and impact history . Galerie G. Barthel, Berlin 1992, OCLC 312685387 .
  • Thormann, Olaf, Clara Mosch: On the history of a Chemnitz artist group and producer gallery, in: Reiter in Dresden the culture journal, No. 7 of January 1991, Dresden 1991, pp. XVI – XXI.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See: boheme und dictatur in der gdr, An exhibition of the German Historical Museum in Berlin , September 4, 1997 to December 16, 1997.
  2. ↑ Clara Mosch and Ralf-Rainer Wasse, exhibition, 2020, The Chemnitz Art Collections as an institution of the City of Chemnitz . Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  3. ↑ Clara Mosch and Ralf-Rainer Wasse on lesejury.de . Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  4. ↑ Clara Mosch and Ralf-Rainer Wasse - Action and Photography, ARD Mediathek . Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  5. ↑ Clara Mosch and Ralf-Rainer Wasse - Action and Photography, ttt, youtube . Retrieved May 24, 2020.
  6. ↑ Clara Mosch and Ralf-Rainer Wasse - action and photography, ARD media library, video download, duration 00:06:05 . Retrieved May 12, 2020.