Kaleidoscope·of·Time¶
Stories·from·the·Diaspora#
“Kaleidoscope of Time – Stories from the Diaspora” is more than an exhibition. It is a growing archive of female presence — a space that reveals migration not as the end of a story, but as the beginning of many new ones. An invitation to listen, to understand, and to imagine the future together. Photography is deliberately absent from the exhibition context. This absence is a conceptual decision: the portraits of the women are situated within the urban landscape; their visibility shifts into public space.
Phase·1¶
The·Treasure·box¶
Where·It·All·Began#
From September to November 2025, an open showroom took shape in a centrally located storefront in Kassel: the Treasure Chest. In collaboration with journalist and podcaster Amira El Ahl, conversations, photographs, and audio recordings were created with women with migration histories.
The space was intentionally designed as a place of appreciation. A former exclusive retail space was transformed into a warm, open environment—somewhere between a photo studio, a conversation room, and a living room: with tables inviting people to linger, clothing, desks for interviews, and tea. A space where time remained—for encounters, for storytelling, and for honoring the cultures from which the women come.
Many women entered the Treasure Chest with hesitation at first—not because of a lack of stories, but shaped by the experience of rarely being asked. A central part of the project was therefore to actively invite, to offer welcome, and to build trust. For some women, it was the first time they were able to show themselves—with their voices, their gaze, and their stories—and to experience themselves as valued, seen, and strong.
All contributions were voluntary, created on equal footing and without pressure of expectation. In this way, the Treasure Chest became a protected space in which something began to unfold beyond this location: voices finding form, relationships taking root, and a strength continuing into the wider society.
Phase·2¶
The·Exhibition·at·the·Kasseler Kunstverein¶
A·Space·That·Dissolves·Thresholds#
In the second phase of Kaleidoscope of Time, the project moves into the Kassel Kunstverein at the Fridericianum. This step is a deliberate gesture of opening: the perspectives of women become visible in a place that stands for the public sphere—and yet, for many, has long not felt like a space of their own.
The Fridericianum, opened in 1779 during the Enlightenment, carries the idea of participation within its history. And yet many of the women involved shared that they had never entered this building before. They knew it as a white façade, as something distant. Kaleidoscope of Time transforms this distance into proximity. Doors are not only opened—they become tangible. The Art Association becomes a place of arrival.
The exhibition is shaped by the women themselves. Their voices, languages, bodies, memories, and cultures fill the space. Each brings her own story—and together something larger emerges: a shared present, sustained by the experience that every voice matters.
The Art Association becomes a luminous, pulsating treasury of living presence.
A space in which women can show themselves and say:
This is who I am within the we.
Time·of·Women¶
2025 · Double Projection, HD · 39 min
This 39-minute film was created specifically for the exhibition. It portrays women I met, accompanied, and filmed in Kassel. Each one is a protagonist in her own right, and their movements and gazes weave themselves into a shared rhythm. Like a kaleidoscope, new connections and possibilities emerge. In a world that so often feels like a magnifying glass, the film reveals how essential participation is: the future begins where people become visible and are given space. The strength of this work lies in its experience; it allows us to feel how much becomes possible when voices are seen—and how brightly the future can shine.
Atlas·of·Garments¶
Paths·of·Identity#
The oversized garments become a canvas for excerpts from the women’s stories: first in their mother tongues, followed by German translations. From within, soft fragments of interviews recorded by Amira El Ahl can be heard—audible only at close range, like voices in a quiet forest. In this way, the garments connect with the Correspondence Room, where the stories reappear as written text.
Correspondence·Room¶
Reading·Telling·Resting#
The intimacy and vulnerability of these voices call for attentiveness. Reading here becomes an act of respect. What would migration be without a flashlight—without a light that makes paths visible without dazzling, without a narrow beam that offers orientation while much remains in the dark?
The Correspondence Room is intentionally kept dark. The biographies of the women recorded by Amira El Ahl in the Treasure Chest are not immediately accessible. They resist quick access, cursory reading, and possession. Only through the light of a flashlight do the words begin to emerge—slowly, fragmentarily, at one’s own pace.
Visitors take the flashlights into their own hands and decide where to direct the light, how close to come, and how long to linger. Visibility does not arise on its own here; it is created through a conscious act. Light becomes a responsibility. Reading becomes a relationship: the texts ask for proximity, time, and attention.
HINTERLAND¶
2025 · Double Projection · 17 min
Hinterland was conceived for the ANU – Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. The filmic and poetic work explores how history continues to resonate within a present marked by rising antisemitism and renewed social fragmentation. Its point of departure is the fairy-tale world of the Brothers Grimm, whose stories originated in Kassel. Their symbols, trials, and transformations open the past as a space of resonance.
Developed in response to an invitation to engage with a pioneer of photography, the work takes Gerty Deutsch as its reference point. Drawing on her oeuvre, a distinct visual language emerges—composed of filmed scenes, musical compositions, and original songs.
Hinterland was recently awarded the Golden Hercules.
Public·Space·as·Responsibility¶
Inside·and·Outside#
What begins in a protected interior space moves outward into the city. The decision to refrain from photography indoors continues outside: the portraits gradually appear in public space—at bus stops, on street corners, in front of shops, on advertising surfaces, among lights, posters, and the movement of everyday life.
Where goods, promises, and speed usually dominate, these women become visible. Faces. Gazes that sell nothing, but offer relation. The city becomes an exhibition space—and a space of resonance.
The posters are not decoration. They are presence. They stand in the way, accompany paths, interrupt routines. They carry the women’s stories to where life happens: in passing, in waiting, in pausing.
In this way, the space of the project expands.
The interior resonates outward.
The public becomes personal. Human. Dignified.
