The Mechanics of Oblivion. A German-Polish Conference

Susanne Altmann

Susanne Altmann studied art history and philosophy in Dresden and New York. After her studies she worked as a teacher and lecturer on the practice and communication of contemporary art, e.g., in Karlsruhe, Dresden, and Leipzig. For 2004 she won a research fellowship to Green College, Oxford University. She is the author of numerous publications on contemporary art and has curated several exhibitions, e.g., in 2005 for the Goethe-Institut, the German Embassy in London, and the Glasgow School of Art. In 2005 Susanne Altmann was awarded the Marion-Ermer-Prize of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.
Since 2000 she has been a regular contributor to the art magazine “art”. Susanne Altmann lives and works in Dresden and Leipzig.

Else Gabriel

Else Gabriel was born in 1962 in Halberstadt and studied from 1982 to 1987 at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Dresden (Dresden Academy of Fine Arts). This is where the performances and exhibitions of Autoperforationsartistik took place from 1982 to 1991, with Micha Brendel, Rainer Goerss, Via Lewandowsky, and others. Until 2004 Else Gabriel was a professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts) and subsequently at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (Braunschweig Academy of Fine Arts). Currently she is a professor at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Under the name “(e.) Twin Gabriel” she has been working together with Ulf Wrede since 1988.

Eckhart Gillen

Eckhardt Gillen was born in 1947 in Karlsruhe. After studying art history, German literature, and sociology, he earned a doctorate in art history.
Eckhardt Gillen curates exhibitions of 20th century art; thus he curated, for instance, the exhibition “Deutschlandbilder”. His writings likewise deal with 20th century art; his most recent publication is the book “Das Kunstkombinat DDR. Zäsuren einer gescheiterten Kunstpolitik” (Köln 2005).
He was awarded the Bürgerpreis zur deutschen Einheit. Eckhardt Gillen works at the MuseumsDienst Berlin.

Paul Kaiser

Paul Kaiser was born in 1961 in Freiberg. He studied Culture and Art and today is an academic researcher in the “DFG special research field 537, - Institutionality and Historicalness”, at the Dresden Technical University. Beyond this, Paul Kaiser also works as a curator of various exhibitions of art from the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and as a publicist (e.g. author of the periodical “Cicero”)
Current focal areas of research:
Anatomy of the GDR’s art system
History of the “Leipzig School”

Dr. Izabela Kowalczyk

Zbigniew Libera

The artist Zbigniew Libera was born in 1959 in Pabianice and lives today in Warsaw. He produces objects, photographs and sketches; in the1980s his work also included films and video installations. In those days he also published the Samizdat magazine “Tango”. In 2000 and 2001 he was co-founder of two artists’ societies in Warsaw. Zbigniew Libera has been part of numerous international exhibitions.

Aneta Panek

Aneta Panek was born in Warsaw. She studied art history at the Sorbonne in Paris, completing her diploma with a thesis on “Geometrical abstraction in France, Germany and Poland in the 1950s: contacts, exchange, parallels and isolations.” She currently lives in Berlin, as a freelance art historian and publicist working for the German, Polish and French press, as well as the RBB.

Łukasz Ronduda

Lukasz Ronduda was born in 1976. He completed his doctorate in Art History in 2005, at the University of Lódz. Today, he lectures at the Warsaw College of Social Psychology and at Warsaw University.
Ronduda works as a curator at the Centre for Contemporary Art at the Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, where he is head of the Polish experimental film archive (www.csw.art.pl/archfilm). He has published many catalogues and other publications.
Exhibitions:
Marysia Lewandowska & Neil Cummings, The Enthusiasts from the Amateur Film Clubs (2004, Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London and others);
The Workshop of the Film Form. Polish Structural Film from the 70s (Electronoc Arts Intermix, 2004, New York and others); Zbigniew Libera, Photographic Atlases and other Publications (2205/6, Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw).

Anda Rottenberg

Anda Rottenberg lives in Warsaw. She has worked as an art historian, critic and as the curator of numerous exhibitions since 1969. From 1991 to 1992 she was head of the Art Department of the Polish Ministry of Culture. From 1993 to 2000 she was influential as the director of the public gallery “Zacheta” in Warsaw, and from 1993 to 2001 she also headed the Polish pavilion at the Venice Biennale. On several occasions she has held the chair of the Polish section of the association of art critics, AICA. At present, Anda Rottenberg is Programme Director at the National Museum in Warsaw.

Britt Schlehahn

Britt Schlehahn studied Cultural Studies and Art History at Leipzig University. Since 2000 she has been a member of the post-graduate college for “Technology and Society” at the Darmstadt Technical University, researching for a doctoral thesis on “the body in the closed circle of camera and monitor - physicality in the post-modern”. Her research focuses on the architecture of employment offices in German-speaking areas from the 1840s to the present, and the staging of manliness in sport.

Christoph Tannert

Christoph Tannert was born in 1955 in Leipzig and has lived since 1976 in Berlin. As one of the few freelance art critics in the German Democratic Republic, he was particularly interested in the unofficial art scene in East Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden. Since 1991 he has worked as project manager and then managing director of the “Künstlerhaus Bethanien” (Bethanien House of Art).

In September 2005, Christoph Tannert was awarded the Golden Cross of the Polish Republic for his services to German-Polish cultural exchange.