As the generation of East German Millennials, those born into or raised during the upheaval of the post-reunification era, comes of age, a growing engagement with the collective (post-)GDR past is taking shape.

But what does it mean to be born into such a fragile system as the child of a white mother and a Black father? A system marked by unemployment, uncertainty, and a rise in right-wing extremism? Verdiana Albano explores these layered questions through the lens of her own biography. Drawing on her parents’ Stasi files as well as both personal and institutional visual archives, she investigates her own fragmented and secret-laden Afro-European history.

In her pursuit of a multi-ethnic identity, Albano navigates the space between staging and documentation, tracing issues such as postcolonialism through an intersectional perspective and her position as an Artist of Colour in a society undergoing transformation.

Franziska Kunze

Ausstellungsort: Künstlerverein Walkmühle

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Verdiana Albano, 1993 geboren in Meerane. Bis 2021 studierte sie an der Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach und lebte 2019 ein Semester am Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts in Chongqing, China. Albanos Arbeiten behandeln sozio-ökonomische Narrative und persönliche Zusammenhänge zwischen Dokumentation und Inszenierung. Sie erhielt den HfG Fotoförderpreis der Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, das SK Neustart Kultur-Stipendium und war Allianz Foundation Fellow. Heute lebt und arbeitet sie in Berlin und Frankfurt am Main.