In the summer of 1988, Tina Bara visited the Buna Works in Schkopau with a group of artists. “Plaste und Elaste” (Plastics and Elastics) was the slogan for the factory’s plastic products. Bara was initially commissioned to photograph her fellow artists, who had been invited by the Association of Visual Artists (VBK) to take part in a plein air at the factory. The encounter with the workers was intended to influence their artistic practice. Instead, Bara focused on documenting the environmental pollution and the harsh working conditions. In 2025, Bara assembled a photo film from these documents, which can now be seen in the exhibition Robotron. Code and Utopia.
In this conversation with Sabine Weier, co-curator of the exhibition, Tina Bara presents her work.
Tina Bara studied history and art history at Humboldt University in Berlin and photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. In the GDR, she worked as a freelance photographer and was active in the opposition peace movement, including ‘Women for Peace’. In July 1989, she moved to West Berlin. Since 1993, she has been a professor of artistic photography at the HGB. Since 2000, Bara has regularly participated in exhibitions, published books and conducted art and teaching projects in Germany and abroad.