Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue:

Who is Afraid of Black, Red and Gold?

Photo: Franz Leyser
KOSCHIES / SchwarzRotGold
Photography, triptych | Giclée prints on artist´s canvas
240 x 150 cm | 2019-2023

Like most traditional symbols in Western societies, the colours of the German national flag historically refer to contexts with male connotations – in this case, uniform colours from the Napoleonic wars. Given that the majority of the German population consists of women, the Potsdam-based artist duo KOSCHIES question this purely masculine connotation with their work SchwarzRotGold. The intention is that the German national colours should also be read as feminine and diverse.

But the work SchwarzRotGold is not just a counter-project to the dominance of the conventional colour interpretations. With the technique of 360° portraits developed by KOSCHIES, it is also a formal alternative to the conventional dominance of central perspective. A temporal succession becomes a spatial juxtaposition.

OSTRALE Biennale O25
15th International Exhibition of Contemporary Arts
Dresden
7 June – 5 October 2025

Excerpt from tagesschau.de dated 13 October 2025 (translated):

Ostrale Biennale in Dresden celebrates record attendance

Approximately 32,000 people visited this year’s Ostrale Biennale in Dresden – more than at any of the 14 previous editions. With lots of colour, the team wanted to counteract the dreary world and show diversity under the motto ‘Never Grey’. The spectrum ranged from painting and sculpture, photography, video and sound installations to drawings. (…)

A special place in Dresden

With the works and their exhibition venue, Ostrale has built a bridge from the past to the present. The former canteen of the GDR high-tech combine Robotron is an interesting building of the so-called East Modernism, which was painted in different colours for the show with an intense colour concept. For the duration of the exhibition, visitors were given special permission to roam the building, which is in need of renovation. Architectural details such as the sound-absorbing wall covering made of futuristic moulded bricks, old heating systems and wood panelling sparkled discreetly between the ensemble of exhibition buildings and works of art. (…)

More then 100 artists from 32 nations exhibited their works at the 15th edition of the Ostrale Biennale.