Karla Sachse

This page is part of a collaborative work-in-progress for the forthcoming Womanifesto Way digital anthology and will change as the project is reviewed prior to publication.

Karla Sachse, born in 1950 in Zschopau, East Germany, lives and works in Berlin and Herzfelde. She holds a doctorate in art education. Since 1982, her artistic practice includes mail art and visual poetry, room installations, street actions, and memorial signs in public spaces. She has realized numerous national and international exhibitions, some as a curator, and has contributed to numerous publications. Recent exhibition projects in 2023 include What remains to be said, an installation for surrendered, an exhibition about weekly nurseries for babies in GDR at Kunsthalle Rostock, Germany; Broken Pieces, a visual reflection about 13 Jewish cemeteries in the West Polish district Lebus at Museum Meseritz, Poland; Invitation to Table, an installation with white dishes and other objects to contemplate the concept of "WHITE," as her contribution to the exhibition Carte Blanche at Gallery KunstPlatz, Lychen, Germany; and Rubbing Surfaces, frottages created in different parts of the world, first gathered at gallery Raskolnikow, Dresden, Germany in 2022. Her work, a "female vessel" was also present at Dokumenta 15 as part of Womanifesto 2001. 

Sachse encountered Womanifesto in 1999 when her work was included in the Womanifesto II exhibition by Varsha Nair. Sachse greatly cherished the friendship between the female artists and the collaborative approach to the art projects. She has felt perfectly at home in the group of artists she met in the Womanifesto 2001 workshop. This event marked the starting point for the Baskets of Experience work series, in which stories of those who agreed to cooperate were always included, visibly intertwined yet keeping their secrets. This series may serve as a symbol for the core of Womanifesto.