For Gabriele Stötzer, as part of the artistic underground in the GDR, seeking refuge in the public eye was always a subversive practice. Being in the public eye meant protection from isolation and state repression: through witnessing, friendship and solidarity.

Stötzer’s experimental photographs, Super 8 films, performances and actions in public spaces were often created collaboratively and in self-organised spaces. At the same time, they are an expression of radical subjectivity and tell of vulnerability and desire.

In this book, new drawings are superimposed over the artist’s photographic archive and traverse a conversation that revolves around the relationship between the underground and the public, her beginnings as an artist and the continuation of her work.

Confronted with growing authoritarian forces, Stötzer’s artistic strategies demonstrate individual and collective forms of action that can be a model for us right now.