I’ve Seen the Wall: Louis Armstrong on tour in the GDR in 1965

On the Ambivalent Simultaneity of Things – Freedom and Oppression, Racism and Recognition

In the midst of the Cold War, legendary African American jazz musician Louis Armstrong was the first US artist to tour through the GDR. Taking this historic event in 1965 as a starting point, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam examines the ambivalence of this official invitation against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the Vietnam War, and the Iron Curtain in Europe. While Armstrong avoided expressing forthright political opinions during his tour, he played (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue, a composition he had not played in a decade, at every performance.

Paintings, photographs, archival material, and installations by Terry Adkins, Louis Armstrong, Pina Bausch, Romare Bearden, Peter Brötzmann, Darol Olu Kae, Volkhard Kühl, Norman Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Jason Moran, Gordon Parks, Dan Perjovschi, Adrian Piper, Evelyn Richter, Lorna Simpson, Willi Sitte, Wadada Leo Smith, Rosemarie Trockel, Andy Warhol, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, and others provide multiple perspectives on the complexity of politics, jazz music, and racism.