Biography:

Gabriele Stötzer was born in Emleben, East Germany, in 1953. In the mid-1970s, she studied at a teacher training college in Erfurt but was expelled for political reasons. Her opposition activity earned her a one-year prison sentence. After her release, she became involved in art, running the Gallery im Flur exhibition place until it was closed in 1981 and creating her own works in photography, film, painting writing and performance, as well as textiles, ceramics, created objects and art books. She became one of the most rebellious and radical female artists in East Germany.

In 1984, Stötzer helped form one of the few groups of women artists in the GDR, Exterra XX, which was active until 1989 and developed films and fashion shows. She was also part of the East German experimental Super-8 scene of the 1980s. A distinguishing characteristic of her camerawork was visual proximity to her subjects. She often included her own naked body in her work, breaking taboos and hierarchies to create alternatives to the officially sanctioned and state-permitted gender roles.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Stötzer co-initiated the first occupation of the Stasi headquarters in Erfurt in order to prevent its files from being destroyed. After the political transformation, she continued her artistic work, participated in exhibitions and published several books.

Stötzer’s work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions worldwide. Her films were presented as part of the 2011 Trashing Performance program at the Tate Modern, London, and at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival. Her work is also part of the touring exhibition Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s–1980s, that premiered at the Walker Art Center in 2023, and the 2024 art show Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation at the Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum in Cambridge, MA.

She lives and works in Erfurt, teaching university seminars in performance and delivering lectures on Feminist Art and Being a Contemporary Witness. In 2013, she was awarded the Federal Republic of Germany’s Order of Merit for her social and political activities.