Anastasia Khoroshilova: Die Milchbauern / Der Stadltransfer

At the beginning of the project, the question was what developments in agriculture applied and still apply to farmers in both the old and new federal states. A former hay barn with unusual architecture, built in Bernbeuren, Bavaria, proved to be the key to the project ‘Die Milchbauern/Der Stadeltransfer’ (The Dairy Farmers/The Barn Transfer). Built by the Huber farming couple in the 1980s, it was no longer needed because the Hubers had to give up their dairy farming business in the early 2000s as it was no longer profitable. The same was true for the Ziegs, a couple in Jahnsdorf, Saxony, who had become involved in dairy farming after reunification and were forced to switch from dairy to meat production. Known far beyond the borders of the Ore Mountains for their farm festivals and direct sales in their ‘farm shop’, the Ziegs initiated a group of Jahnsdorf residents who, in 2023, voluntarily and single-handedly dismantled the barn in Bernbeuren with the support of some Bernbeuren residents and rebuilt it in Jahnsdorf. Here it will become a village and cultural-social meeting place as well as a temporary art venue. The spatial shift from Bavaria to Saxony resulted in a social sculpture involving craftspeople, volunteers and the artist Anastasia Khoroshilova.

Russian photographic artist Anastasia Khoroshilova is an outstanding observer of people in crisis and transformation processes. In numerous internationally exhibited exhibitions, she has dealt with topics such as the lives of Lithuanian war veterans, Russian farmers, islanders and residents of the Baltic Sea coast. Her exhibitions have been shown in Lithuania, Latvia, the Baltic States, Russia and, of course, Germany.

The artist travelled to Jahnsdorf and Bernbeuren several times, where she portrayed the Ziegs and Huber couples, as well as tools, furnishings and the Ziegs family's herd of cattle on the Ore Mountain pastures. In her work, Khoroshilova expands on the idea of documentation and captures moods and associations connected with concepts such as tradition, home, loss and sustainability.