Karla Sachse - von Zeichen (of signs)

In the confined East Berlin of the 1970s and 1980s, cards were created that cultivated contacts in the international network of mail art by post. At the same time, he began an intensive study of the systems of written signs all over the world, especially in their pictorial quality. The annotated newspaper notes remain in the drawer.

During the period of upheaval and upheaval (1990s), the work focuses on the process of unification of the two German states. In the process, “material” and ‘language’ now increasingly intertwine with “space”. However, individual terms also reveal their diverse levels of meaning in word images and fields.

In addition, Denk-Zeichen manifests itself in several permanent or performative works in public space. At the same time, projects lure visitors into the newfound vastness of the world. There are invitations from mail art partners and residencies on other continents. There, works are created that are fed by the relationship to the respective location and explore and use various “translations”.

The international context is still present in Karla Sachse's way of working today. Overcoming distance and gaining closeness play a role, which also gives rise to collaborative offers interspersed with quiet humor. But the core of all his work is aimed at the poetic condensation of pictorial space.

In the rooms of Galerie Pankow, the works on paper are arranged in groups, each of which revolves around a theme:

Room one shows CONNECTIONS between people and into the world, which are fed by post and the mail art network or have arisen from the imagination.

The works in room two benefit from VERDICTIONS, some of which want to be seen and read as poems. All of them objectify poiesis in various materials.

Room three is dedicated to REMEMBRANCE, which asks about the past and does not want to let the present get lost in daily streams of information, especially not when they are painful.

Room four is dedicated to TURNS and TURNINGS before, during and after the time of the departure from an encrusted system and upheavals in a world of commercial sign language.

Karla Sachse was born in Zschopau, Saxony. She studied art education at the Humboldt University in Berlin and completed her doctorate there, but then worked as a freelance artist. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she initiated and led the art workshops at the Kurt Schwitters School and taught there as an art teacher. At the same time, she pursued her own artistic development, which intensified after she left teaching. Karla Sachse lives and works in Berlin and in the Uckermark.

• Exhibition period: 09.07. to 24.08.2025
  

Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday
12:00 - 20:00
Saturday and Sunday
14:00 - 20:00

Events

• Thursday, 24.07.2025, 19:00
  
• Artist Talk
  

• Thursday, 07.08.2025, 19:00
  
• Poems for the eyes? Visual poetry in the past and present
  
• Lecture by Karla Sachse
  

Location: Galerie Pankow
Breite Straße 8
13187 Berlin

(Events in German Language)