BERLIN.- Two exhibitions on the subjects of the Underground and Improvisation focusing on alternative music and art movements in the East and the West are on display from 15th March to 6th May 2018 in the Academy at Hanseatenweg. Both take as their starting point the year of the student revolts and the Prague Spring and end with the post-1989 period in Berlin and Eastern Europe. The extensive accompanying programme consists of a series of concerts, film screenings, panel discussions, and an interdisciplinary symposium.

The exhibition Notes from the Underground – Alternative Art and Music in Eastern Europe 1968 – 1994 is dedicated to a generation of artists living in the Eastern Bloc and former Yugoslavia who – distancing themselves from official culture - acted at the interface of the visual arts, video art, and rock, punk, and new wave music. Censorship and scarcity led to imaginative and often ironic modes of production. A selection of unseen and rarely exhibited historical documents is being shown, including musical instruments created by artists themselves, Super 8 films, Samizdat journals, and documentary recordings of performances.

The exhibition Free Music Production / FMP: The Living Music presents the history of Free Music Production (1968 – 2010), a Berlin-based platform initiated by artists for the production, presentation, and documentation of “free music”. Legendary FMP concerts and events took place at the Akademie der Künste; they made history internationally as one of the most important historico-cultural achievements of West Berlin. With this exhibition and a concert programme, the diverse history of one of the first and foremost international music labels run by musicians is brought to the fore and into the realm of the contemporary.

The music programme for both exhibitions was curated by Louis Rastig, Sergej Newski and Markus Müller.

The discursive programme accompanying the exhibition is presented in cooperation with the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb [Federal Agency for Civic Education].

“Notes from the Underground – Alternative Art and Music in Eastern Europe 1968 – 1994” is a programme of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, in cooperation with the Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, curated by David Crowley and Daniel Muzyczuk in collaboration with Angela Lammert.

“Free Music Production / FMP: The Living Music” is an exhibition of the Haus der Kunst, Munich, in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, curated by Markus Müller. Supported by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes [German Federal Cultural Foundation] and the Goethe-Institut.