Memories of different travels. A conversation with Johannes Heisig

Johannes Heisig studied painting and graphic art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig (HGB) from 1973 to 1977. He was then a master student of Gerhard Kettner at the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK), where he also taught starting in 1980 and became professor of painting and graphic art in 1988. This enabled Heisig to visit West Berlin on a permanent visa from the late 1980s. Yet there had also been several opportunities for the artist to travel before.

While still studying art, Johannes Heisig undertook a study trip to the Soviet Union. Shortly afterwards, in 1978, he was allowed to visit a Karl Hofer exhibition in West Berlin. In an interview with Art in Networks, the artist recalls these formative first experiences, talks about bureaucratic procedures and difficulties and the extent to which his travels influenced his artistic work, his personal development and his view of the world.

After graduating, a scholarship in 1979/1980 gave him the opportunity to spend ten months in Zurich. This time, he says, had a strong influence on him. He was one of only a few painters at the private school of design f+f. As with traveling, he used his time at school less for the direct artistic translation of his experiences than for the collection of life experience - which implicitly shaped his work and was further developed into themes in later works, such as Bob Dylan's poetry.

Nowadays, the painting „Ein Irrtum (für Eugen in Pretoria)“ bears witness to the time in Zurich. It was created retrospectively in 1987 from the encounter and lasting friendship with a student from South Africa and reflects their relationship, especially in the light of the discussion of political events.

Johannes Heisig also used his stay in Switzerland to travel, which the GDR authorities had forbidden him to do. He managed to get a visa outside of his passport and hitchhiked to Paris, where he watched films in the cinema and visited exhibitions. The short trip was very much connected with the fear of being exposed and consequently hindering future applicants from the GDR the chance of a scholarship. Being the son of the artist Bernhard Heisig, he had probably been given this leap of faith - according to the artist in the interview.

As a member of the Association of Visual Artists (VBK der DDR), Johannes Heisig was also delegated for cultural-political purposes. In 1985, there was a rapprochement between the art associations of China and the GDR, whose relations had been greatly reduced as a result of China's Cultural Revolution and the associated distancing of the Soviet Union and its satellite states. In addition to its cultural-political obligations, the delegation, which included the artist Peter Makolies, also undertook excursions to prestigious cultural monuments and museums or visited artists.

One year later, Johannes Heisig traveled less officially to places in India, occasionally abseiling from the delegation there. Occasion for the trip was the GDR's participation in the VI Triennale of India New Delhi, where works by the artist were also shown. Of the three other artists represented there, Hubertus Giebe also traveled along.

From 1989 to 1991, Johannes Heisig was principal of the Dresden University of Fine Arts. In the late summer of 1989, he undertook a trip to Italy together with his artist friend Trak Wendisch. Shortly after their arrival, they found out about the turbulent events taking place in Dresden simultaneously, resulting in the trip being ended prematurely. In the interview, the artist recalls the events in Dresden and the daily life at the university shortly before and after the opening of the border in autumn 1989.