Please see this forward from Matthew Shaul about a new exhibition which 
may be of interest to list members.


Departure Lounge Contemporary Art & Media
37 High Town Road
Luton LU2 0BW
07506 041 244

Thursday and Friday 3.00-7.00pm
Saturday 1.00-6 pm (and by appointment)


Escape from Colditz - Annette & Erasmus Schröter
22 January – 5 March, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday January 22, 5-8 pm, Admission free, all 
welcome. Erasmus Schröter ‘in conversation’ from 4pm prior to the launch 
(details below)

The Exhibition will be formally opened at 6.00pm by Cord Meier-Klodt 
Cultural attaché at the German Embassy, London

Artists Annette and Erasmus Schröter are based in Leipzig, South Eastern 
Germany close to the former prison camp at Colditz Castle. For its 
second exhibition Departure Lounge is delighted to welcome them to the 
UK to mount one of their bewitching shared exhibiitons.

Both were born in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), and both 
attended Leipzig’s internationally acclaimed Academy of Fine Arts – the 
Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (or HGB). Political differences with 
East Germany’s Stalinist regime saw the Schroeters entering voluntary 
exile the West in 1985 only returning to Leipzig in 1997 following the 
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Annette Schroeter has been 
professor of painting and graphics at the HGB since 2006.

An ambitious series of staged analogue photographs forms the core of the 
exhibition in which the artists - dressed as giant rabbits – bring a 
bizarre and slightly twisted flavour to the folk-tales, personal 
memories and urban myths that they grew up with.

Annette Schroeter - one of Germany’s highest regarded painters also 
produces giant paper-cuts which radically modernise this traditional 
German craft skill by adjusting scale and expanding its range of motifs 
to include the grafitti covered derelict buildings and war damage which 
are part of Leipzig’s post-communist cityscape. A tapestry of objects 
and artworks from their past made, or obsessively collected, by both 
artists including socialist children’s toys, GDR postcards (their 
‘holiday’ motifs served up with a with a particular ideological flavour) 
and home-made household decorations gives the exhibition a domestic 
feel, which points to the artists’ interest in the use of ornamentation 
pattern and colour as tools of ideological control.

Both artists’ work is marked by an intensive analysis of Germany’s post 
war and communist history. and their own place within it. Their work – 
which evidences their very traditional training and an enduring 
fascination for a western consumer culture that they first encountered 
in their late 20s, is unique in international contemporary art. The 
exhibition’s title Escape from Colditz is a reference to their own 
escape from the social and cultural paralysis of the GDR in the mid 
1980s, and their continuing efforts to digest this legacy in their artwork.

For further information and images please contact Matthew Shaul on 07950 
397 536.


Events and Activities (all events subject to final confirmation)


Exclusive ‘in conversation’ event with Erasmus Schröter. 4.00 pm 
Saturday 22/1/2010. Prior to the opening reception.

Erasmus Schröter will be in conversation with Departure Lounge’s 
Creative director Matthew Shaul discussing the exhibition and both 
artists’ past and future projects giving a remarkable insight into the 
artistic life of the city of Leipzig – one of Germany’s most influential 
creative hubs. Admission free but please book in advance at 
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Wednesday February 16, 7.00 pm. Gallery Talk with Departure Lounge’s 
Creative director Matthew Shaul.


About Departure Lounge

Escape from Colditz is the Second exhibition organised in Luton by 
Departure Lounge. Led by creative director Matthew Shaul and commercial 
director Trevor Horsewood and currently working in temporary spaces like 
empty shops to become a permanent, high quality and high visibility 
provision for contemporary photographic art exhibitions, residencies, 
events and artseducation to Luton.  For further information please 
contact [log in to unmask]


Finding Us

Luton can be reached by direct Thameslink train from St Pancras, St 
Albans, Bedford (and all intermediate stations) Direct trains leave St 
Pancras every 5-10 minutes (between 22 – 45 minutes journey time) The 
Gallery is 3 minutes walk from Luton station.

Departure Lounge gratefully acknowledges the support of Arts Council 
England, Luton Borough Council, Luton Culture, The Murry Barford Trust, 
The University of Bedfordshire and the German Embassy, London

-- 
Departure Lounge | Contemporary Arts and Media
www.departure-lounge.org.uk | [log in to unmask]
--
Annette & Erasmus Schröter: Escape from Colditz | 22 January - 05 March, 
2011
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-- 
Dr Anna Saunders
Lecturer in German (Head of German)
School of Modern Languages
Bangor University
Bangor
Gwynedd
LL57 2DG
Tel. 01248 382135

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