Participating artists:Nathalie Valeska Schüler, Karl-Heinz Adler, Sibylle Bergemann, Kurt Dornis, Markus Draper, Seiichi Furuya, Peter Herrmann, Sebastian Jung, Gisela Kurkhaus-Müller, Harald Metzkes, Sabine Moritz, Henrike Naumann, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Manfred Pernice, Uwe Pfeifer, Sonya Schönberger, Wenke Seemann, Robert Seidel, Christian Thoelke, Stephen Willats, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt among others
opening hours:Wed-Mon 10-19 h
Venue:DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam
Max-Planck-Straße 17
14473 Potsdam
In autumn 2025, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam is showing the exhibition Wohnkomplex. Art and Life in Prefabricated Housing. In this group exhibition, guest curator Kito Nedo explores the question of how East German prefabricated housing estates are negotiated in art.
Wohnkomplex is showing around 50 works by artists:Karl-Heinz Adler, Sibylle Bergemann, Kurt Dornis, Markus Draper, Seiichi Furuya, Peter Herrmann, Sebastian Jung, Gisela Kurkhaus-Müller, Harald Metzkes, Sabine Moritz, Henrike Naumann, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Manfred Pernice, Uwe Pfeifer, Sonya Schönberger, Nathalie Valeska Schüler, Wenke Seemann, Robert Seidel, Christian Thoelke, Stephen Willats, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt and others.
The exhibition presents installations, paintings, drawings, photographs and films created since the 1970s. In the exhibition, Kito Nedo brings together works that view and categorise prefabricated housing differently - as a place to live, as a symbol of social utopias and as a projection screen for social change. The focus is not only on prefabricated housing as an architectural legacy, but also as a cultural resonance space that raises questions about belonging, community and memory. The exhibition dovetails artistic works with socio-political issues and reflects on how urban spaces affect lifestyles and social structures.
Wohnkomplex opens up new perspectives on a building and living model that continues to have an impact today. Originally, prefabricated housing was the centrepiece of GDR social policy, a place of socialisation and a symbol of real socialist progress - until 1990. After the end of the GDR, it became the scene of painful transformations and a symbol of social decline and racist violence. As modern ruins, the buildings awaited demolition, were renovated or remodelled. The prefabricated blocks never became a monument, but remained a living presence. It is a place of remembrance of the GDR where living continues.
