Exhibition

On the occasion of the fourth edition of the Atelier Talk, the exhibition brings together works by Karsten Thormaehlen and Reiner Maria Matysik, exploring the theme of Longevity from two radically different yet complementary artistic perspectives.

For more than twenty years, Thormaehlen has traveled to the world’s so-called Blue Zones, photographing centenarians whose faces reflect time not as decline, but as experience and presence. His portraits stand in quiet contrast to contemporary ideals of eternal youth, revealing aging as a visible, dignified, and deeply human process.

Reiner Maria Matysik works at the intersection of art and biotechnology, cultivating “living sculptures” from his own body cells. His practice raises fundamental questions about the limits of life: if cells can be endlessly grown, preserved, and recombined, how does this transform our understanding of the body, individuality, and mortality?

Presented over one week across two consecutive weekends, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on longevity not as a promise of endless life, but as a complex negotiation between biology, technology, and human finitude. 

Image © Karsten Thormaehlen, Tonino, Sardinia, 2013 Fotoabzug hinter Acrylglas 110 x 165 cm