It is the job of the press to document the times and their changes, the arguments and sometimes also the struggle for the right path – in text, pictures and sound. It doesn’t always suit everyone. During violent demonstrations in West Berlin in 1988, press photographers and film teams were beaten up by the police. Currently, an extreme right-wing party in the Bundestag is questioning public broadcasting, and lateral thinkers are not only threatening journalists with violence, they are also hitting them. If there is to be no press on site, then there should be no independent pictures and reports. A free press is always in danger – even in our country.
Even press photographers do not know what and when something will happen: Who will hold a press conference, when will a secret nuclear waste transport start, where will a vacant house be occupied? At 6 p.m. on November 9, 1989, Dirk Wildt did not yet know that three hours later he would be standing at the Sonnenallee border crossing in East Berlin, where he would experience world history and document it with his camera for many others: the opening of the GDR Wall.
From 1982 to 1991, he took nearly 30,000 photos. For this exhibition, 220 were shortlisted and just under two dozen are now being shown as exhibits in the exhibition space of the artist group Agon. Dirk Wildt will tell the background to some of the photos. As a special guest, contemporary witness and interlocutor, Member of the Bundestag Erhard Grundl will build a bridge from the past to the present.
The Vernissage on Saturday, 04 November begins at 20.00 o’clock as satellite meeting in the context of the WoZu democracy.
Place: AGON exhibition rooms | Höllgasse (corner Steiningergasse), Passau
Time: Saturday, 04 November 2023, 20.00 – 22.00 hrs.
Exhibition duration and opening hours: will be published here soon
Admission free
