Christa Panzner

“Commemorating the end of World War II, that took place 70 years ago, the issues of tyranny, war and its consequences are again highly topical, especially with regard to the latest developments in the geopolitical processes.

In this context, my work produced for Displaced is a visual response, a look at human deprivation, in whatever form it manifests itself.
Specifically, this refers to my graphic cycle “A German Way of the Cross” – The death marches of concentration camp prisoners from Sachsenhausen.
Each work is accompanied by a text, eyewitness accounts and court records, taken from the brochure “Sachsenhausen – The death marches of inmates of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp”, published by the memorial of Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg (1985).
The arrangement of the images and texts, as well as the newly created large works on paper, hanging in the Mendelsohn Hall in Luckenwalde, creates a cross-shaped ECCE HOMO form.”

Image texts:

(Image 1) “… the next morning … a car with an SS-officer, a driver and a young woman arrives at the farm. They discover the prisoners in a barn and send four German prisoners away. They force the remaining 28 prisoners with machine guns to leave the barn and chase them out on a field. The SS-officers follow them…”

(Image 2) “… the forest sheltered us. All around were SS armed with submachine guns as a chain of guards. Many of our fellow prisoners were not capable to walk or to stand, emaciated they dropped to the cold and wet floor. The village Below, only a few minutes from the forest, can tell stories how prisoners were shot for a mouthful of water…”

From 1967 to 1970 Christa Panzner studied at the Fachschule für Werbung und Gestaltung (vocational school for public relations and design) Potsdam/Berlin and from 1972 to 1977 she studied painting and graphic art at the Kunsthochschule Berlin.
In 1991 she became a founding member of the Kunstschule Potsdam (artschool), where she taught painting until 2013. She initiated and headed regional and international projects.
Since 1992 she lives and works as a freelance painter in Oehna near Jüterbog, she is a member of BVBK/BBK and of vernissage-atelier.
Since 1977 she had various national and international exhibitions and participations in exhibitions. Her works are part of public and private collections in Germany, Denmark, France, Namibia, Austria, Russia, Switzerland and the USA.
She has participated in important competitions and projects, such as BUGA Potsdam in the team of Guido Hager (Zürich), „Art, Science, Industry“ at Kunsthaus Potsdam, „Restraining Order – The Art Of Selfcontrol“ of the Einstein-Forum Potsdam in cooperation with Dan Ariely of Duke University, North Carolina, USA.
Her particular field of work is painting and free graphic art.

www.cppanzner.de