Gabriele Stötzer: Dabei sein und nicht schweigen

For more than five decades, Gabriele Stötzer has been grappling with questions of justice, gender and self-determination. Her own body often plays a central role in her work – not as an object, but as a site of resistance and feminist self-assertion. Dabei sein und nicht schweigen (Showing up and Not Remaining Silent) is the artist’s largest institutional solo exhibition to date.

Stötzer’s artistic practice is inextricably linked to her social and political engagement. In 1976, she was detained for organising a petition, which the GDR authorities declared a “defamation of state.” Following a year-long imprisonment, she joined the literary and artistic underground and later co-founded the art collective Künstlerinnengruppe Erfurt. Many of her works formulate radical counter-concepts to state repression and control by pushing boundaries through experimentation and making space for vulnerability and desire. With around 150 works, the exhibition highlights the diversity of her œuvre – encompassing painting, literature, photography, textile art, Super 8 film, performance and public interventions – and intends to catalyse the long-overdue broader recognition of this groundbreaking artist.

Gabriele Stötzer is also one of the key artistic voices in the programme marking the 75th anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele. For this occasion, she has created a poster in an exclusive special edition, which is available in our online shop.