Aesthetics of Memory – The In-/Visibilities of 'Communist' Art in Germany and Peru since 1968

Museums, for example in Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin, are increasingly focusing their exhibitions on the history of relations between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and countries in the so-called Global South. The reference countries are often Chile, Cuba, Mozambique, and Vietnam, the so-called “brother countries” of the GDR, which, however, were subject to constant change depending on the political situation and were sometimes only unofficially referred to as such. Peru was not a brother country of the GDR, but here, too, links between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and Peru can be traced, albeit to a much lesser extent than the corresponding links with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Peruvian government documents bear witness to the agreement of art and cultural cooperation between the GDR and Peru from 1975 to 1990. The PhD project researches this yet unknown entangled history of art and cultural agreements between Germany (GDR/FRG) and Peru. To this end, exhibitions themselves are understood, following Jacques Rancière, as part of a “Distribution of the Sensible”, which not only produces visibilities but also invisibilities. The historical and current exhibitions and histories of cooperation and relationships represent indicators of the conditions of invisibilities/visibilities and enable an analysis of the struggles for the legitimacy of categories of perception and evaluation in the (entangled) fields of art. In particular, memory practices actively shape the sphere of the sensual, which is why the research project understands memory as an aesthetic practice.