SteinBruchZeit - Exhibition to mark the anniversary

To mark the half-century anniversary, the StadtMuseum Pirna is showing works that were created during the symposia in Reinhardtsdorf. The artists Eva Backofen, Günter Blendinger, Marguerite Blume-Cárdenas, Inka Gierden, Karin Gralki, Ursula Güttsches, Sigrid Herdam, Ulrich Jörke, Liz Kratochwil, Karl Möpert, Emerita Pansowová, Robert Schmidt-Matt, Karin Tiefensee, Annette Tucholke-Bonnet and Berndt Wilde present sculptures made of sandstone and works on paper.

In 1974, the sculptor Karl Möpert initiated the first Berlin Sculpture Symposium in the Reinhardtsdorf quarry, which has now been held annually for 50 years. The patron at the time was the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR, based in Berlin. Seven to ten sculptors from Berlin and the districts of the GDR took part in each symposium. Guests were also invited from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Finland and Austria. The Cultural Fund of the GDR supported the symposium with scholarships, costs for accommodation, stone material, tools and transport. VEB Elbenaturstein Dresden became a partner. The participants each had 1/3 square metre of stone at their disposal. Everyone was free to work without being given a theme. The finished sculptures remained the property of the artists. Some of them are now in museums.

From 1991, the symposium was organised for four weeks in June with its own funding and the support of Sächsische Sandsteinwerke GmbH. When the sculptor Karl Möpert retired in 2010 for health reasons, the sculptor Marguerite Blume-Cárdenas, who has been actively involved in the symposium since its inception, took over the organisation until today. During the remaining summer months, the Neue Sächsische Kunstverein, students from the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art and Burg Giebichenstein Halle were also able to use the working conditions created in the quarry for their symposia and study visits. Sculptors from Berlin and Dresden organised international youth and intergenerational civic projects together with the Caritasverband für Dresden e.V. and the municipality of Reinhardtsdorf.

Today, a sculpture trail connects stone sculptures in the landscape in and around Reinhardtsdorf, which were created during the international sculpture symposia and other projects in the quarry.