MEMORIA MIGRATORIA The memory of the migrated. This thematic complex is about cultural belonging and the question of the national formation of identity formation. In interviews and studies in private and public archives I tried to answer the questions of what is left behind and how do you handle pain and loss, how does a forced separation from your home/home-country feel like. Rather than an illustration of history, I see my work in this context as a psychological and social imaginary re-journey of those who had to leave their homes. I try to understand and to imagine the complex feelings migration entails, from the first moments of loss, grief, fear and angst, to courage, energy, survival will to alienation and finally cultural assimilation and integration. GET REAL What does the internet do to our bodies? Is the body still of importance in the digital age of un-corporality? Do we still have a body-subjectivity in a time when the human body is less an less important and more and more a vehicle? Do we shape and re-shape our identites according to body-images shown to us? Do we still communicate with our bodies in the digital age? What kind of mirror is the internet for ourselves? Theses are some of the question that are at the origin of this theme complex. In this chapter I am presenting you a selection of works that are based on images taken from the big data base of the internet. Some images are snapshots circulating on social media, others are private shots. I re-work the images I find in paint or watercolor and try to analyse the moment. I try to add another layer to the otherwise sometimes rather embarassing snap shot. MEMORIA LUCIDA ‘Memoria Lucida” is an ongoing project about images as part of a cultural memory. While “Bodies” is about nature, this topic is about culture. My paintings and drawings deal with a collective memory and show collective action, cultural rites and habits. The formation of a group identity and the conflict between a community identity and individualism is one of the themes I am interested in portraying. I investigate group sports in school and as part of politics, rituals and traditions of marriage and of marking the entry into adulthood. My works are about these cultural imprints on our bodies, minds and social behaviours. In this chapter you find the series Group Sports - No time to Pretend, Holidays at the Pacific Coast, Disneyland. SEEING AND NOT SEEING This chapter is essentially a collection of works about painting as a form of seeing. It is about seeing and not seeing in the way painting hides or deliberately shows something. Exposes something to the eye of the observer. In these works I often try to obstruct or play with the viewer’s gaze. The person portrayed has her eyes closed, as a contrast to her posing in front of our eyes, displaying all, her innermost feelings and her identity stays hidden. In this chapter you find the series “ Not a portrait” and “Colorblind” and “Deja-Vu”.
