In the GDR Opposition Archive in Berlin, Anna Zett traces known and unknown fears of her childhood. The artist interweaves samizdat and archival footage with a stirring collage of underground music from the late GDR (composed by Matti Gajek). Video recordings by activists from the Environmental Library, the New Forum and the punk scene in East Berlin, fragments of the televised revolution, and highly condensed voices from a poetry cassette recorded in 1986 combine to create an associative and intimate narrative. In ceaseless escalation, the archive thriller leads to the second occupation of the Berlin Stasi headquarters with hunger strike in September 1990 – a political event that is barely known today despite its far-reaching consequences. There is fear. There is anger. There are people who, despite profound experiences of violence, insist on emotional connection and political self-determination.
Biography
Anna Zett is a Berlin-based artist and writer. Rooted in poetry, collage and improvisation, their transmedia practice seeks to host, witness and experience new connections at sites of loss and damage. This work results in films, books, radio plays, installations and live-formats, most recently f.ex. the participatory research‚ Postsocialist Group Improvisation‘. Since their first film release in 2014, Zetts work has been shown in international contexts of contemporary art, film, performance and discourse, such as Berlinale Forum Expanded, Serpentine Gallery London, Whitney Museum New York, Berlinische Galerie, Or Gallery Vancouver, HKW Berlin. Zetts publications include two experimental radio plays for the German public broadcast and the literary text collection ‚Artificial Gut Feeling‘ (Divided Publishing, 2019). Since 2024 Anna Zett co-teaches the class for Performative Arts at HGB Leipzig.
