Making Public: Courage — Sisters in Spirit

An exhibition of artworks by women artists, exclusively from Eastern Europe, reversing the historical underrepresentation of women's voices in the gallery. About The municipal Prater Galerie has existed on Kastanienallee in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg for many decades, a few brief interruptions notwithstanding. Founded in 1967, the gallery was endowed by the Prenzlauer Berg district and was long run by artists. The space connected to Berlin's Prater beer garden was an important exhibition venue for contemporary art in East Berlin. The employees of the Centre for Art Exhibitions of the GDR (Zentrum für Kunstausstellungen der DDR or ZfK) and the artists operating the Galerie am Prater maintained a lively exchange. This was a place for seeing and discussing contemporary art, and works on view at the gallery were often selected and acquired for ZfK exhibitions. It comes as no surprise that the ZfK's collection includes numerous works by artists who also held solo shows at the Galerie am Prater. Women's voices were noticeably underrepresented—an asymmetry typical of the time. The exhibition ›Courage‹ reverses this dynamic by showing artworks exclusively by women. In particular, these women artists critiqued the status quo and openly practiced resistance—and continue to do so—both in their private lives and in their art. Works by Eva Vent, Gundula Schulze Eldowy and Magdalena Jetelová from the ZfK and ifa collections are juxtaposed with contemporary works by their ›sisters in spirit‹ from Eastern Europe.