Annette Schröter
Escape from Colditz
- Papercuts, Collage and Installation
25 October 2025 – 9 January 2026
Robert Cripps Gallery, Cambridge
Departure Lounge is delighted announce a new exhibition with Leipzig-based artist Annette Schröter (Meissen, Germany, 1956), and a return to public exhibitions after the closure of our gallery in Luton in late 2022,
Revisiting and sharing its name with one of Departure Lounge’s first exhibitions in 2011, Escape from Colditz is inspired in part by Annette Schröter’s origins near the infamous World War II prison camp Colditz Castle and by the tales of inventive, wartime derring-do it immortalised. The exhibition is a contemplation on the theme of escape or escapism and is presented in a unique series of papercuts, collage and Installation.
Schröter was trained in the German Democratic Republic (the GDR, or East Germany), and her work is marked by the quiet resistance to ideology that was part of everyday life. The exhibition critiques the officially sanctioned, idealised portrayals of rural life that were central to socialist mythology, at the same time exploring more personal forms of escapism including artistic practice, gardening, weekend retreats, and traditional handicrafts which offered solace from propaganda, the harsh realities of environmental depletion, industrial exploitation, and East Germany’s infamous secret police.
Arranged in what she describes as ‘family groups,’ her papercuts and collages include depictions of home-made allotment gates, scarecrows and the glories of summer gardens. The papercuts are complimented by a series of assemblages and small installations that celebrate GDR folk art, hapopular culture and kitsch and which are used as visual prompts for her practice.
Exhibition location: Robert Cripps Gallery, Magdalene College, Magdalene St, Cambridge, CB3 0AG (Monday-Friday 2.00-4.00pm, Saturday 12.00-4.00pm).
For further information on the exhibition, opening times and visitor information, please visit the Robert Cripps Gallery website:
The exhibition is generously supported by Magdalene College, Cambridge and by Christine and Phillip Carne.
