Courage: Sisters in Spirit

Featuring works by Yevgenia Belorusets, Christa Jeitner, Magdalena Jetelová, Lesia Pcholka, Ludmila Rusova, Luise Schröder, Gundula Schulze Eldowy, Natalia Vatsadze, Eva Vent

Curated by Katharina von Hagenow, Lena Prents and Susanne Weiß

Opening: Thursday, September 3, 2026, 6:00 pm
Exhibition: September 4 – January 3, 2027

The municipal Prater Galerie has existed on Kastanienallee in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg for many decades, a few brief interruptions notwithstanding. Founded in 1967, the gallery was endowed by the Prenzlauer Berg district and was long run by artists. The space connected to Berlin’s Prater beer garden was an important exhibition venue for contemporary art in East Berlin. The employees of the Centre for Art Exhibitions of the GDR (Zentrum für Kunstausstellungen der DDR or ZfK) and the artists operating the Galerie am Prater maintained a lively exchange. This was a place for seeing and discussing contemporary art, and works on view at the gallery were often selected and acquired for ZfK exhibitions. It comes as no surprise that the ZfK’s collection includes numerous works by artists who also held solo shows at the Galerie am Prater. Women’s voices were noticeably underrepresented – an asymmetry typical of the time.

The exhibition Courage reverses this dynamic by showing artworks exclusively by women. In particular, these women artists critiqued the status quo and openly practiced resistance – and continue to do so – both in their private lives and in their art.

The exhibition Courage is part of the ifa’s exhibition series Publik Machen. Across six chapters, the exhibition explores the work of the Center for Art Exhibitions of the GDR (ZfK), whose graphic arts collection was transferred to the ifa in 1991. The project is a collaboration with the Kunsthaus Dresden and the ifa Gallery Berlin, Biesdorf Palace, KVOST, the Prater Gallery, and the Galerie im Turm.

The exhibition is supported by the Fund for Exhibition Grants for Visual Artists of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.

The six-part exhibition series Making Public in 2026 is presented by the ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen in cooperation with the Wüstenrot Foundation.

Prater Galerie