The Painter Came from a Foreign Land

Streaming video - 1988

In 1986, after suffering many obstacles and interference in his work, Lutz Dammbeck moved to Hamburg, West Germany. Two years later, in an attempt to start anew, he explores his decision and tries to sort out his past as an artist. In the process, he interviews artists Cornelia Schleime, Hans-Hendrik Grimmling and Hans Scheib, who had been core members of the alternative art scene in East Germany. They had all worked together in the 8mm-scene and organized or planned multimedia and crossover exhibitions, including the First Leipzig Autumn Salon in 1984 and Tangents I in 1976-77. Each of them had left for West Germany in the mid-1980s. What has become of their former artistic strategies and positions? How do they deal with their past? What i...s the force behind their art now? And how do they cope with the western art market? more