Past
Los Angeles-based contemporary artist Sichong Xie’s guardhouse installation, Memory Structure, Scaffold Series, features objects and arrangements emblematic of memory and temporality: bamboo scaffolding, embroidery on industrial mesh, and a set of laser-engraved drawings that will fade from continual exposure to light, through which the artist reimagines architectural drawings created by her grandfather in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Top Secret! is a 1984 action comedy film that parodies various film styles such as musicals starring Elvis Presley, spy films of the Cold War era, and World War II films. This screening is presented as part of the summer screening series, Seeing Red: Cold War Blockbusters of the 1980s.
Since January of 2020, artist Regina Mamou has spent her time as part of the Wende's residency program investigating the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Middle East and North Africa, partnering with the museum's collections department to identify important artwork and archival materials that demonstrate transnational perspectives. While her residency is ongoing, the installation Common Fantasy/Gemeinsame Fantasie is presented in a separate context with artist Lara Salmon as part of the collective Research for the Bermuda Triangle. On view now in the Wende Museum’s original East German Guardhouse, located in the sculpture garden.
Welcome the weekend and the return of Culver City Happy Hour to the Wende with drinks in the garden, plus live music by the West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio (Ellen Burr, Andrea Centazzo, and Jeff Schwartz).
Join us in the garden on Sunday, August 29, to create your own custom pinback button in the style of Soviet znachki.
Znachki are pins that were mass-produced in the Soviet Union to commemorate a variety of subjects such as military anniversaries, state leaders, historical communist figures, cities, youth organizations, and sporting clubs.
Set during the latter part of the Cold War era, The Hunt for Red October centers on a rogue Soviet naval captain who wishes to defect to the United States with his officers and the Soviet Navy's newest and most advanced nuclear missile submarine. The film will be introduced by Jan de Bont, who worked as the cinematographer on The Hunt for Red October and was a director and cinematographer of numerous films including Speed, Twister, and Die Hard. This screening is presented as part of the summer screening series, Seeing Red: Cold War Blockbusters of the 1980s.
The 1983 science fiction techno-thriller, WarGames stars Matthew Broderick as a high schooler who unwittingly hacks into a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict and execute nuclear war against the Soviet Union. This film is presented as part of the summer screening series, Seeing Red: Cold War Blockbusters of the 1980s.
Join Research for the Bermuda Triangle for an in-person demonstration of their artistic tincture process on Saturday, August 14 in the Wende garden. The duo-collaborative will provide a brief demonstration at noon on how they extract scent from East German artifacts to create "Common Fantasy: a fragrance of the GDR."
Depicting a United States that has been invaded by the Soviet Union and its Cuban and Nicaraguan allies, Red Dawn transports the viewer to an alternate 1980s America. The film will be introduced by Willard Huyck, a member of the Wende Museum’s Board of Directors, and screenwriter, director, and producer of numerous films such as American Graffiti and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This screening is presented as part of the summer screening series, Seeing Red: Cold War Blockbusters of the 1980s.
Join us—in person(!)—this Sunday for Family Day at the Wende Museum. Young visitors are invited to express themselves creatively through our latest artmaking activity: Collaging Past to Present. Taking inspiration from the recontextualization of historical objects and imagery by contemporary artists in the Transformations exhibition, participants will be asked to tell their own personal stories through mixed media collage. This all-ages activity will be offered outdoors in the Wende Garden.
Meet key players in the Soviet rock ‘n’ roll and punk scenes as they join us online for a panel discussion, moderated by Ned Raggett, music journalist whose writing credits include Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NPR Music, Daily Bandcamp and the Quietus. Participants are musicians Yuri Kasparyan (Kino), Vitia Sologub (Strannye Igry), Afrika Bugaev (Pop Mekanica), Garik Sukachev (Brigada S), and Joanna Stingray, a recent Cold War Spaces guest, in conversation with former Leningrad rock journalist Alex Kan.
The 33rd Cold War Spaces lunchtime talk with Timur Bekbosunov, film producer, opera singer, and performance artist, and Joes Segal, the Wende Museum's Chief Curator and Director of Programming.
Local nonprofit leaders came together virtually on February 25, 2021, for the second Culver City Nonprofit Convening and the presentation of the second annual Nonprofit Transformation Prize to Shoes For the Homeless. Representatives of more than 230 nonprofit organizations based in Culver City were invited to convene via Zoom for panel discussions on topics such as the future of philanthropy and anti-racism work in the nonprofit sector.
The 32nd Cold War Spaces lunchtime talk with Allison Blakely, Professor Emeritus of European and Comparative History at Boston University, and Joes Segal, the Wende Museum’s Chief Curator and Director of Programming.
The 31st Cold War Spaces lunchtime talk with Christina Schwenkel, a sociocultural anthropologist who works in the fields of Cold War cultural studies, critical urban theory, decolonization, affect theory, and new materialism. She is a Professor of Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies at University of California, Riverside, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies.