
Sign up here to subscribe to The Columbist newsletter.
We asked a selection of these protagonists to capture their perspective by creating a postcard: Nigerian artist Rachel Seidu exhibiting at Between Bridges; Polish artist Małgorzata Dawidek who is showcasing her work at POSITIONS with Van Rij Gallery; German artist Stef Heidhues from EIGEN+ART; Chinese artist Wenxin Zheng from Anahita Sadighi Galerie, as part of Soft Power Festival; Ivan Gette, exhibiting at both AK Galerie and POSITIONS; and the iconic Guerrilla Girls at n.b.k.
Take a moment, and enjoy this last bit of summer through these intimate and powerful lenses.

To all Berliners:
Dear friends, visit your favorite museums, count the women artists vs. nudes & let us know your tally!
xoxo
Guerrilla Girls
To Moone:
I was excited at the prospect of exhibiting in Berlin. I’d heard so much about the city, the art scene, the incredible artists, the parties, the graffiti. and I looked forward to experiencing all of it for myself.
I was curious about what it would feel like to arrive as an artist, to see how my work would exist within this context, and perhaps to see the city through my own eyes.
Rachel
To YouYou:
Memory is RGB; life is CMYK.
Each addition and subtraction has its reason within the game we are playing.
But when we stop asking for a reason behind every reason, we can look back and see the whole picture.
What seemed like separate choices, errors, and accidents now belong together.
Beauty is not what justifies the picture.
It is what we see when we no longer ask it to justify itself.
Wenxin








Berlin, 6 September 2026
Dear Lilium Candidum,
I am writing to you from inside the image, in which, intertwined into one body, we are trying to cross its frame.
For centuries, attempts have been made to make you a symbol of innocence, death and rebirth. Yet you are a material being – fleshy, moist, heavy with your own substance. And vulnerable, exposed to wounds, light, temperature and wind. I am learning from you how to respond to the vulnerability that is a condition of all existence.
There is a belief that the human body is a closed, self-sufficient entity. It has skin, boundaries and a name. And yet it breathes something that does not belong to it. It feeds on wonder and matter that exists outside of it. Each breath is its momentary opening.
Nature speaks to me through the fragility and force of its elements – earth, water, air and fire – through space, scent and vibration. It sets my imagination in motion, beginning where my certainty ends. And imagination is, after all, a tool of empathy. By denying me access to your world, it allows me to acknowledge that such a world exists.
Vulnerability is a fundamental dilemma of human subjectivity. We obsessively police our own boundaries and separate ourselves from the other and the weak. Acknowledging our own vulnerability means recognising the needs of other bodies, other forms of life, and the fact that we need each other. That we hold each other alive.
And so, when I think of you, Lilium Candidum, I also think of my own body. Strong and vulnerable. A body that carries within itself past landscapes, the places it has inhabited, the plants it has touched, the matter it has absorbed, and the stories it has survived. I think of the Earth that changes me and that I change.
Thus, crossing the frames of illusion and the barriers of reflections, I am not looking for a way out of the image itself, but for a way back to the outside. To you, Lilium Candidum.
I believe we shall meet soon.
Warmly from Berlin,
M.

To my twin sister:
I see you.
Stef
To the one I share moments with,
Perhaps what we collect is not only art, but the moments it creates between us.
A shared gaze, a conversation, a feeling. Precious precisely because they pass.
Tutto passa. Everything passes.
So let’s make these moments matter. Let’s collect them, return to them, and meet again. In front of another work, around another table, in a moment we have yet to discover.
Because art has a way of bringing us together and giving us reasons to return.
Until the next moment we make ours.
You know where to find me.
Ivan



Sign up here to subscribe to The Columbist newsletter.
Related Articles:

Sign up here to subscribe to The Columbist newsletter.
We asked a selection of these protagonists to capture their perspective by creating a postcard: Nigerian artist Rachel Seidu exhibiting at Between Bridges; Polish artist Małgorzata Dawidek who is showcasing her work at POSITIONS with Van Rij Gallery; German artist Stef Heidhues from EIGEN+ART; Chinese artist Wenxin Zheng from Anahita Sadighi Galerie, as part of Soft Power Festival; Ivan Gette, exhibiting at both AK Galerie and POSITIONS; and the iconic Guerrilla Girls at n.b.k.
Take a moment, and enjoy this last bit of summer through these intimate and powerful lenses.
To all Berliners:
Dear friends, visit your favorite museums, count the women artists vs. nudes & let us know your tally!
xoxo
Guerrilla Girls
To Moone:
I was excited at the prospect of exhibiting in Berlin. I’d heard so much about the city, the art scene, the incredible artists, the parties, the graffiti. and I looked forward to experiencing all of it for myself.
I was curious about what it would feel like to arrive as an artist, to see how my work would exist within this context, and perhaps to see the city through my own eyes.
Rachel
To YouYou:
Memory is RGB; life is CMYK.
Each addition and subtraction has its reason within the game we are playing.
But when we stop asking for a reason behind every reason, we can look back and see the whole picture.
What seemed like separate choices, errors, and accidents now belong together.
Beauty is not what justifies the picture.
It is what we see when we no longer ask it to justify itself.
Wenxin







Berlin, 6 September 2026
Dear Lilium Candidum,
I am writing to you from inside the image, in which, intertwined into one body, we are trying to cross its frame.
For centuries, attempts have been made to make you a symbol of innocence, death and rebirth. Yet you are a material being – fleshy, moist, heavy with your own substance. And vulnerable, exposed to wounds, light, temperature and wind. I am learning from you how to respond to the vulnerability that is a condition of all existence.
There is a belief that the human body is a closed, self-sufficient entity. It has skin, boundaries and a name. And yet it breathes something that does not belong to it. It feeds on wonder and matter that exists outside of it. Each breath is its momentary opening.
Nature speaks to me through the fragility and force of its elements – earth, water, air and fire – through space, scent and vibration. It sets my imagination in motion, beginning where my certainty ends. And imagination is, after all, a tool of empathy. By denying me access to your world, it allows me to acknowledge that such a world exists.
Vulnerability is a fundamental dilemma of human subjectivity. We obsessively police our own boundaries and separate ourselves from the other and the weak. Acknowledging our own vulnerability means recognising the needs of other bodies, other forms of life, and the fact that we need each other. That we hold each other alive.
And so, when I think of you, Lilium Candidum, I also think of my own body. Strong and vulnerable. A body that carries within itself past landscapes, the places it has inhabited, the plants it has touched, the matter it has absorbed, and the stories it has survived. I think of the Earth that changes me and that I change.
Thus, crossing the frames of illusion and the barriers of reflections, I am not looking for a way out of the image itself, but for a way back to the outside. To you, Lilium Candidum.
I believe we shall meet soon.
Warmly from Berlin,
M.


To my twin sister:
I see you.
Stef
To the one I share moments with,
Perhaps what we collect is not only art, but the moments it creates between us.
A shared gaze, a conversation, a feeling. Precious precisely because they pass.
Tutto passa. Everything passes.
So let’s make these moments matter. Let’s collect them, return to them, and meet again. In front of another work, around another table, in a moment we have yet to discover.
Because art has a way of bringing us together and giving us reasons to return.
Until the next moment we make ours.
You know where to find me.
Ivan




Sign up here to subscribe to The Columbist newsletter.
Related Articles:
You need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from Turnstile to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou are currently viewing a placeholder content from Facebook. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou are currently viewing a placeholder content from Instagram. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from hCaptcha to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou are currently viewing a placeholder content from Turnstile. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou are currently viewing a placeholder content from X. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information