This week, a picture a day’s guest is Bärbel Praun with her series goldgelb. Bärbel was born in Landshut, Germany; studied Photography and Media at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany. She was Artist in Residence in Clervaux, Cité de l’image, Luxembourg, at Schloss Laudon, Vienna in 2012 and in Jakobstad, Finland in 2013. Various group exhibitions, e.g. gruss und kuss die berge sind schön, Stadtmuseum Münster; some friends, Warte für Kunst, Kassel 2011; in the woods, Austrian Federal Minitstry of Education, Arts and Culture, Vienna 2012. Different solo shows, currently in Clervaux, Luxembourg and Bruges, Belgium. She lives and works in Munich, Germany and Saas Fee, Switzerland.

During a one month stay in Finland in autumn 2013 I found myself emotionally confronted with my past. Even though the small city at the westcoast of Finland was such a different place than the town I grew up in, it reminded me of my hometown, childhood and family. So this work is telling little stories about presence and absence, surfaces and materials, light and liquidity, fleetingness and moments that could last forever. You could find transparent objects and covered or wrapped ones, some are gone already, some just appeared back again, some seem like transitions or -on contrary- borders. So are memories, you can’t grasp them properly, never can be sure there were voids, gaps or traps. For me it was an indefinite experience, always being in a moment of comfort on the one hand and scariness on the other.