11.04. 19:00 Vernissage and performance
In her artistic work, visual artist Arina Essipowitsch explores the theme of identity.

Multi-layered identities and fragmented or splintered characters are central concepts in her investigations. These questions have their origins in the photographer's biography: having grown up in different countries and been shaped by different cultural experiences, the search for and malleability of identity forms the focus of her artistic work. Her multilingualism is also reflected in the artistic means of image narrative, as is the use of various analogue medium-format cameras (Rolleiflex, Hasselblad, Lubitel 166, etc.), which also influence and shape the photographs due to their own stories and peculiarities. Experimental artist books and site-specific photographic installations are created from the ongoing image archive, in which the medium of photography itself is scrutinised: A photograph does not present itself as a one-sided, flat image carrier, but becomes an object and ultimately an experience and performance through intervention, cutting and folding.

The Palimpseste installation is a large-format, double-sided image that uses cutting and folding techniques to create a 72-part, interactive object. During the process of (un)folding, the object changes its size and numerous image combinations are created. Starting from a one-dimensional surface, the story of the picture, which already contains the theme of the question, is transferred back into the three-dimensional space and reproduced anew. How a story is told, which perspective the narrator adopts and how memories are consciously or unconsciously distorted makes a decisive contribution to how realities and identities are formed and perceived. By moving the parts of the image, the viewer of the installation becomes an actor, actively reflecting on the image motif, image detail, format and size and thus becoming part of the original, aesthetic photographic experience and the process of searching for, forming and finding identity.