COURAGE

connecting collections

Privately organized apartment, studio or courtyard readings offered many authors belonging to the independent literary scene in the GDR the only opportunity to appear and present their texts publicly or in larger groups, as well as to receive feedback from peers. Frequently, the invitations to such events were highly detailed and artistically decorated. Several dozen such invitations, including those to readings of Peter Brasch or Christa Moog are part of the Jan-Faktor-Archive. The invitation shown here is to a reading of Jan Faktor and Werner Theuer in the poetry studio of Wilfriede and Eckehard Maaß, one of the first and most important transregional ‘reading rooms’ of the alternative milieu of East Berlin.

Songs from Taizé were originated in 1982 in the Capuchin Church in Bratislava and spread on separate xerox prints. Songs were secretly recorded on tapes such as Zdravas Mária (Hail Mary) in 1987 and Verím, že je to možné (I believe it is possible) in 1988. Songs from Taizé were officially released in 1990 by Carmina Sacra. Katarína Horváthová, Pavol Kaločaj, Pavol Bulla participated in the realization of the songbook from the 1980s.

The bookwork-catalogue of the international “artistamp” exhibition held in 1982 in the Fészek Club (a book made of 27 original stamp sheets) with stamp images of 550 artists and essays in Hungarian and English (by Peter Frank, E. F. Higgins III, László Beke , J. & G. Galántai, Gábor Tóth , Rudolf Ungváry, and Anna Wessely) on artistamp, with a relevant bibliography.