Maurizio Camagna, Berlin – Greifswalderstraße, Ernst-Thälmann-Denkmal, 2016, Germany. From “Changing Spaces.”
Photo taken by author (does not depict entire work).

Since 2002, Culver City has been home to the Wende Museum, a research and education institute that preserves Cold War history through its collection of art, artifacts, home movies, everyday objects and all things in-between and unexpected.

The varied landscape of Cold War era Europe, though very much defined by its borders dividing territories, surpassed those physical confines and seeped into the everyday lives of citizens throughout Europe and beyond, living in the middle of the 20th Century. Last November, the Wende opened its doors at an armory in Culver City that was built in 1949 and used by the U.S. National Guard before it was zoned and acquired by the museum. Moving into a Cold War Era building situated in a public park surrounded by residential buildings displays an acute self-awareness and feels much more like home for the museum. With its inaugural exhibit, Cold War Spaces, the museum invites visitors to explore the cultural and physical landscapes of mid-century Europe through a beautifully curated array of pieces in its new exhibition space.

Prior to this year, The Wende was tucked away at the back of an office park off Slauson Avenue. Though it wasn’t the easiest place to find, a steady stream of visitors from all over the world travelled to the site for tours of the unique exhibits and collections, often personal to some and certainly wondrous to many. Between the two exhibits, one upstairs nestled among offices and another at the first-floor entrance lobby, was a labyrinth of metal shelves where collections were stored in archival boxes or—as with metal busts, furniture, and film canisters--out in the open. Among the shelves were processing tables where archivists and interns cataloged, scanned, photographed, and digitized materials. One  large table held recent acquisitions and items of note—including a Stasi briefcase used for spying and surveillance. Access to the exhibition room required a trip upstairs to a two-room space darkened by the deep red walls that suited such exhibits as Dinner Party Politics and Questionable History quite well.

Installation shot of “Cold War Spaces” at The Wende Museum. Photo by Michael Underwood. Image courtesy of the museum.

The Wende’s new exhibition space proves to be a stark contrast from the Buckingham Parkway site. Several months of renovation at the Armory resulted in a bright open space that brilliantly juxtaposes with the stark and secretive impression generally associated with the Cold War. The building’s vaulted ceiling and startling natural light cast a beautiful diffuse glow upon everything in sight, and the featured exhibit was no exception. Cold War Spaces, which opened on November 18, 2017, invites visitors to explore the spatial characteristics of Cold War-Era Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union” and reflect upon “the paradoxes of political and cultural division.” One can begin their tour of the exhibit from either entry point, as there are didactic panels on each side along with a map. The layout guides visitors through the exhibit without much interruption. Partial walls separate “spaces” and because they don’t reach the high ceiling of the hangar-like building, it allows visitors to weave through each space without much thought or forced guidance.

Tractor Girl by Béla Czene

I veered right at the entrance and began with “Border Space,” which featured colorful notes on facial recognition systems used by east German border guards complemented by an array of photographs they would study to determine minute similarities and differences in facial structure. Under a glass display were broken pieces of the Berlin Wall, a contrast from how the brightly painted Thierry Noir segment greeted visitors at the former location. One of my favorite paintings in the collection, "Tractor Girl," by Béla Czene depicts a young woman looking wistfully into the distance. It’s featured in “Work Space,” among other images of workers showing no outward expression of discontent. The following section, “Changing Space,” includes images from Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Germany on the threshold of independence from Soviet influence. An image by Maurizio Camagna, of an Ernst Thälmann monument by Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbel still standing in modern-day Berlin, transitions seamlessly into one of Kerbel’s models of the monument in the “Public Space” section.

Along the aisle between the left and right side were artifacts and images depicting the spaces “designed for collective experiences” in a “political environment where socialist symbols and party slogans were continually reinforced.” Public spaces were also largely unmediated, “uncontrolled and uncontrollable,” perfect for subversive thought and action. Two captivating images by Harald Hauswald, "In the Metro" and "Weissensee," offer a moment of intimacy one would think impossible when surrounded by the open space at the center of the room. The images are on a panel between “Secret Space” and “Private Space” in a playful contrast.

Surveillance equipment from East Germany and the Soviet Union. Background: photographs of Chernobyl Nuclear Powerplant in Ukraine (left) and its aftermath in the beighboring town of Pripyat (right), by Gerd Ludwig. From “Secret Spaces.” Photo taken by author.

Secret spaces in Cold War Europe consisted of surveillance, underground government projects, and the inner self. Clips from Andrei Tarkovsky’s "Stalker" play alongside Gerd Ludwig’s poignant images of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, foregrounded by a display of East German and Soviet surveillance equipment. The Tarkovsky clip, chosen for its meditation on “unmapped territories and the mental search for enlightenment and inspiration” serves as a prelude to the next section on private life. The highlight of this section were family photographs from East Germany and Soviet Union alongside digitized footage from 8mm film depicting the Hoffman family home movies, spanning twenty years. Art from Tina Bura, Angela Hampel, Claus Bach, and other East German artists provided a variation on private life, from mainstream to countercultural.

Perhaps the most accessible of all the sections were “Outer Space” and “Utopian Space” since one most readily associates the Cold War with propaganda and space exploration. A model of Sputnik hangs from the ceiling not far from a bust of Yuri Gagarin, among posters and smaller artifacts commemorating the space race. Alongside it, projected onto the largest wall of the exhibit, are images and posters of “Utopian Space” that depicted the “pure and immaculate space of socialism” readily contrasted with the “dystopian space of the capitalist world with its imperialism, base materialism, and structural racism.” As a perfect beginning or ending point, the wall panel asks, “was the end of the socialist dream in 1989-91 the end of utopia, or do we always need imagined realities to counter the (ab)normality of everyday life?”

What might be the main attraction for archivists, curators, and object enthusiasts alike are the glass walls that protect as well as display items from the collection that are not part of a formal exhibit. Along each corridor one can find thousands of books once housed disparately in the former building now displayed across from popular items such as mid-century furniture, costumes and uniforms, and, of course, several busts of Lenin from various countries of origin. In the right-hand corridor are also processing labs for film and photography, where tour groups can see archivists at work. In this new space, The Wende offers a glimpse into the Cold War Era while proudly showcasing the amount of work it takes to preserve and collect such unique and materially diverse artifacts.

Didactic + notes on facial recognition systems used by east German border guards. Photo taken by author.

Installation shot of “Cold War Spaces” at The Wende Museum. Photo by Michael Underwood. Image courtesy of the museum.

The Wende Museum is located at 10808 Culver Blvd in Culver City, California. They are open on Fridays from 10am to 9pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 5pm. Admission to all of their exhibitions and public programs is free and open to the public. Socialist Flower Power: Soviet Hippie Culture and Promote, Tolerate, Ban: Art and Culture in Cold War Hungary are on view until August 26, 2018.