India and Nepal - long-distance travel and a workshop in Mecklenburg

After training as a typesetter, Winfried Wolk (born 1941) studied graphic design and painting at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, with Werner Tübke, Hans Mayer-Foreyt, Bernhard Heisig and Wolfgang Mattheuer. During his studies he travelled to Georgia as part of a student exchange programme with the art academy in Tbilisi. After graduating in 1969, Wolk began working freelance and moved to Mecklenburg. In 1984 Wolk was able to undertake a study trip to Cuba.

In 1986 Wolk travelled to India and Nepal together with the writer Richard Christ (1931-2013). In this context he led the workshop Etching Techniques in Etching at Hindi University, Varanasi and exhibited 16 etchings at the Royal Nepal Academy, Kathmandu.

A second study tour to Nepal and India followed in 1987, sponsored by Peter Somburg, Head of the Department of Asia, Africa, Latin America in the Ministry of Culture. On this trip, Wolk was given the opportunity to exhibit 50 works inspired by the first trip in rooms at the Royal Nepal Academy, Kathmandu, and to give another workshop on etching techniques in etching.

In 1988, Winfried Wolk organised and conducted a bilateral workshop with artists from India and the GDR in the Mecklenburg village of Dümmer. The workshop participants were: Jatin Das (b. 1941) https://www.jatindas.com/, Mario de Miranda (1926-2011) and K.V. Haridasan (1937-2014), Rainer Herold (b. 1940), Andreas Krüger (b. 1960), Manfred Paul (b. 1942), Hans Wolfgang Siegenbruk (b. 1936). From 27 August to 23 September 1988 the artists lived and worked together in a holiday home in Dümmer. In 1989 Winfried Wolk travelled to India for the third time to continue the bilateral workshop with artists from India and the GDR in Lucknow.

Winfried Wolk was politically active in the CDU and the Association of Visual Artists. In 1988, he resigned from all functions in the Association of Visual Artists in protest against the interference of the SED cultural politicians in Schwerin in the personnel decisions of the artists' association. He applied for a visa to leave the GDR for a longer period. In the early years of his freelance work, Wolk was engaged by the State Security Service as an unofficial collaborator (IM). The final report of the IM file shows his resistance to this appropriation by the state apparatus: BSTU 000117, Annex 4; 5.10.1989 (final report IM file):

"The unofficial cooperation was complicated and mainly had the character of discussions. [...] So far, the cooperation has not yielded any operationally relevant information. Only little influence could be exerted on his political stance." Wolk was also repeatedly investigated in the Operative Personenkontrolle (OPK) Grafiker.

In 1989, during an exhibition of his work in Aachen, Wolk was asked by ZDF to talk about the situation in the GDR. This interview, in which Wolk expressed his fears of a bloody crackdown on the Beijing-style protests, went around the world and an Indian colleague also expressed his appreciation.

The interview with Winfried Wolk was conducted in Gädebehn on 23 June 2022.

Winfried Wolk has written a book about his trip to India and Nepal:

Winfried Wolk: Vom ungewissen Reisen ins Ungewisse - Reisebilder aus Indien und Nepal. Kerber Verlag Bielefeld 2012.