Upcoming
Like a fossil, the Marx-Engels Forum, an ambitious East German monument project, occupies a central historical spot and desirable real estate in the middle of Berlin’s new center. In this experimental documentary, Jürgen Böttcher takes a critical look at how the meaning of monuments changes.
During the second half of the twentieth century, one could stumble upon a Marx bust almost anywhere in the world. By the turn of the millennium, when the vast majority of communist nations had given way to capitalism, thousands of these monuments were destroyed, vandalized, or sold. So what remains of Karl Marx in popular representation today? Which monuments are still around, even if completely reinterpreted? How is Marx depicted in today’s films, comics, street art, social media, and even consumer products? And how do these discussions relate to current debates regarding monuments in the United States?
Join scholars Sina Rahmani and Choi Chatterjee, artist Farrah Karapetian, and Wende Museum Chief Curator and Director of Programming Joes Segal for an illuminating discussion of the never-ending story of Karl Marx in the public eye.
"Every Man Has His Breaking Point": Reagan, Brainwashing, and the Movies (2017) tells the story of Hollywood’s attempt to capture the realities of North Korean indoctrination techniques in the almost-forgotten movie Prisoner of War (1954), featuring future President Ronald Reagan.
In a dynamic discussion, Dagmar Hovestädt, spokesperson for the Stasi Records archive, and historian John Connelly (UC Berkeley) will explore the legacy of the Berlin Wall and the changing role of institutions in addressing and shaping the memory of the “Wende.”
Music at the Wende: DELIRIUM MUSICUM Presents "Humor through Turmoil."
Music at the Wende: HEAR NOW presents "Civil Disobedience." RSVPs open January 2, 2019, at 10 a.m.
Music at the Wende: MAYME A. CLAYTON LIBRARY AND MUSEUM Presets Kamau Daáood and A Band of Griots: "Through Walls of Thought and Feeling." RSVPs open February 2, 2019, at 10 a.m.
Music at the Wende: PIANO SPHERES presents Vicki Ray: "21 Bricks." RSVPs open March 5, 2019, at 10 a.m.
Music at the Wende: SASSAS (Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound). RSVPs open April 6, 2019, at 10 a.m.
In collaboration with AIGA San Diego, the Wende Museum will display Soviet paintings from the Tom and Jeri Ferris Russian Collection.
Sun Mu, trained by the North Korean army as a propaganda artist, managed to escape in 1998 via China, Laos, and Thailand to South Korea. He uses the officially sanctioned painting style of socialist realism, inspired by propaganda posters from the Chinese Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong, to create images filled with criticism and irony in the style of American Pop Art and Soviet Sots Art. This is the first exhibition of his work in the United States.
Look up! Looming above Los Angeles are haunting relics of panic and fear. Once distinctly prominent and alarming fixtures in the city, civil-defense air-raid sirens still pepper the vast landscape. Installation began during World War II, but the sirens became prolific symbols of the subsequent Cold War. By photographing environmental portraits of the sirens, Nicole Weingart has created a comprehensive photographic series of Los Angeles air-raid sirens. This exhibition presents a sample of the diversity of the series.
Organized in collaboration with British-Slovenian media historian Sabina Mihelj and British cultural historian Susan Reid, this exhibition focuses on the impact of Cold War-era television programming in Eastern and Western Europe on private lives.
The exhibition Tito in Africa – Picturing Solidarity, previously displayed at the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, documents the strong relationship between the Yugoslav state leader Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980) and African heads of state.