OSTGEBIETE / ZIEMIE ZACHODNIE. Eine deutsch-polnische Spurensuche

In the organizer's words:

To mark the 35th anniversary of the German-Polish Treaty of Neighborhood, the special exhibition "Ostgebiete / Ziemie Zachodnie" brings together renowned photographers from both countries in a visual dialogue about memory, identity and transformation.

The focus is on German-Polish perspectives on a shared space of remembrance in Poland. For many Germans, the former eastern territories of the German Reich are associated with flight and expulsion, with the memory of the loss of their homeland and the survival of these profound experiences in countless family stories. They are part of a collective memory that continues to shape identities in this country to this day. From a Polish perspective, the Ziemie Zachodnie - the western territories after 1945 - mean something different: newcomers had often been expelled from the east themselves and carried the experience of German occupation within them. It was about arriving in a foreign country, a difficult new beginning and a region shaped by Germans that only slowly became home. The perspectives are fundamentally different and yet inextricably intertwined. The artistic works of ten photographers from both countries show how traces of a process that is still visible and tangible today, characterized by appropriation and farewell, have been inscribed in landscapes, architecture and family narratives on both sides of the Oder.

On display are works by: Karolina Gembara, Annette Hauschild, Thomas Meyer, Katarzyna Mirczak, Filip Piotrowicz, Natalia Poniatowska, Linn Schröder, Ina Schoenenburg, Wojtek Sienkiewicz, Heinrich Völkel

Duration: 29.05.2026 until 17.01.2027

Artistic curator: Karolina Gembara

Project management: Barbara Kurowska, Arvid Peschel

Design: Naroska Design

In cooperation with OSTKREUZ - Agency of Photographers