PHOTO:
© Thomas Billhardt / Panzer für die Jüngsten / III. Wehrspartakiade der GST / Halle, 1978 / courtesy: CAMERA WORK und KVOST, Berlin
KVOST SchauFenster : Thomas Billhardt . Spartakiade . Fotofestival „Kommunikation und Haltung“
In the organizer's words:
The KVOST SchauFenster is illuminated daily from 2 - 10 pm.
KVOST SchauFenster as part of the photo festival Communication and Attitude
The Museum Haus des Papiers is organizing the international photo festival Kommunikation und Haltung, which is taking place at 16 locations in Berlin, Chemnitz and Basel. The KVOST SchauFenster is part of the festival and shows works by the renowned photojournalist Thomas Billhardt.Billhardt (1937-2025) is considered one of the most important chroniclers of the eventful history of the GDR.
The "Spartakiade" series documents the large-scale sporting events in Halle in 1978, where thousands of children and young people demonstrated their athletic prowess in choreographed competitions and at the same time became part of a political spectacle.
The Spartakiade was more than just a sports festival: it was part of a system that combined physicality and discipline with state ideology. In an era in which collective identity was placed above the individual, the GDR used sport as a means of shaping "socialist personalities". Here, sporting achievement served not only physical training, but also the symbolic defensibility of an entire state.
Thomas Billhardt's photographs document this ambivalence between pride and compulsion, community and control, ease and staging. His pictures show young people at the moment of commitment, expectation and exhaustion. Beyond the documentary, they also provide a view of today's developments.
Even in functioning democracies, questions of resilience, social protection and political education are increasingly coming into focus. Discussions about the introduction of self-defence courses, emergency drills or military-style programs in schools raise the fundamental question of how a democratic state should react to external and internal threats.
The presentation in the KVOST SchauFenster combines a historical view of authoritarian practices with today's search for forms of democratic self-assertion.
Location
KVOST - Kunstverein Ost
Leipziger Str. 47
10117 Berlin
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