Exterra XX / Künstlerinnengruppe Erfurt: Exterra in the Air XX. Im Rahmen von 75 Jahre Berliner Festspiele

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Erfurt Women Artists’ Group turned the city’s rooftops into venues for their performances and documented them in Super 8 films. As part of the exhibitionGabriele Stötzer: Be There and Don’t Stay Silent, Exterra XX—formerly the Erfurt Women Artists’ Group—isnowcontinuingthis practice in Berlin with a new performance on the roof of the Gropius Bau. It can be viewed from Niederkirchnerstraße, in the immediate vicinity of the remains of the Berlin Wall, with free admission.

“We were furies, vulgar women, women who didn’t fit into any clichés—not even those of dropouts, alternatives, punks, hippies, churchgoers, or female artists,” recalls group member Monika Andres, reflecting on the early days of the Erfurt Women Artists’ Group. 

Gabriele Stötzer—who had been active in the artistic underground in the GDR since the 1970s—initiated the group’s founding. Together, they created art and criticized the political system through provocative actions. With a changing lineup, between 1984 and 1994 they produced not only performances, manifestos, experimental music, photography, action painting, fashion, and graphic art, but also Super 8 films in which the group repeatedly took to the rooftops of Erfurt. Their new performance on the roof of the Gropius Bau will be accompanied by the Weimar Ensemble for Intuitive Music and will take place during the Long Night of Museums 2026 as part of the75th anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele.

More information at gropiusbau.de

Source: Gropius Bau