BERLIN.- In the exhibition “Verblieben. Erinnert. Gesehen. Verstummt. Eine Recherche” (Remaining. Remembered. Seen. Silenced. An Investigation), artist Maria Sewcz engages with the legacy of her families of origin. With this exhibition, she embarks on a personal journey searching for traces of the past. The few pictures, docu- ments, and found objects that have survived the passage of time in a random and fragmented fashion serve as a point of departure.
The exhibition presents photographs of places of residence, landscapes, and of valuable objects from her ancestors which the artist examines in light of her own memories. From these fragments, the photographer tries to make remnants visible; she attempts to remember, to see, and to take pause vis-à-vis stories that gradual- ly fall silent. Her work revolves around materiality and aura, description and fiction, retrospection and self-questioning, and it does so against the backdrop of an embracive context, of history.
Maria Sewcz deliberately avoids linear narratives. Instead, she presents concep- tions that work with the gaps in what has been handed down and call for free interpretation. Her photographs are visual notes of a concealed yet conscious life story. Just as she herself found only a fragmented narrative, the exhibition is fragmentary as well. The gallery spaces allow for connections between past and present, between unknown places and familiar ones—connections that can be assembled and reassembled again and again. This open structure spur viewers to detect their own narratives within the scenes of everyday life on display.
Maria Sewcz (*1960 in Schwerin) studied photography at the Academy of Visual Arts (HGB) in Leipzig. She received widespread acclaim for her portfolio “inter esse” (Berlin 1985–87). The artist has received numerous awards and grants, inclu- ding the Villa Massimo scholarship of the German Academy in Rome, the Istanbul scholarship from the Senate Department for Culture in Berlin, and the scholarship from Stiftung Kunstfonds in Bonn. Her work is represented in important collections such as the photography collection at the LACMA, Los Angeles, the DZ BANK collection in Frankfurt am Main, and the photographic collection at Berlinische Galerie.
Maria Sewcz has had numerous exhibitions of her work, including the show “JETZT; BERLIN” (NOW; BERLIN; 2016) and “Über Städte” (On Cities; 2020) at Haus am Kleistpark in Berlin. Most recently, her work was shown at the exhibitions “Ocular Witness: Schweinebewusstsein” at Sprengel Museum Hannover (2023) and “Berlin, Berlin” at the Helmut Newton Foundation Berlin (2024).
