- Venue
- ICIA Art Space 2, University of Bath
- Starts
- Wednesday, April 29, 2009
- Ends
- Friday, June 5, 2009
- Address
- University of Bath Claverton Down Bath BA2 7AY
- Location
- South West England
Artist Pam Skelton and researcher Achim Heinrich uncovered a dossier on the once secret 'conspiracy dwellings' in Erfurt, a city in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). These safe houses, both civic and domestic, were used for clandestine meetings between German Secret Police (the Stasi) and their informers. Using video, photography and mapping, Skelton plots out patterns of surveillance to retrace the spy network. She constructs an unsettling portrait of a city with 483 spy cells for monitoring citizens in the last decade of the GDR. In this environment of fear, observation and control, informers reported back on friends, family and colleagues. Skelton interweaves a story of unresolved conflicts and living wounds. Today, the conspiracy dwellings remain unwanted relics within an ordinary urban landscape. That these buildings seem so everyday is what makes this work so chilling. Skelton has exhibited in Germany, France, Northern Ireland, Canada, Russia, Finland, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia. She is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.
