Artists

Charmaine Poh

Press release

MUDEC – Museo delle Culture, in partnership with Deutsche Bank and in collaboration with 24 ORE Cultura – Gruppo Il Sole 24 Ore, presents Make a travel deep of your inside, and don’t forget me to take, the first solo exhibition in Italy by the Singaporean Chinese artist Charmaine Poh, winner in 2025 of the prestigious international “Artist of the Year” award, which the bank dedicates to the research and support of contemporary art. The exhibition is curated by Britta Färber, Global Head of Art & Culture at Deutsche Bank. Through a multidisciplinary practice that weaves together video, installation, photography, text, and performance, Poh explores the intersections of personal memory, social dynamics, and emerging digital technologies, examining the complexities of our present day. At the core of her practice is an investigation into identity and body representation, tracing how our intimate lives are inextricably intertwined with power structures, historical narratives, and contemporary forms of public visibility – both physical and virtual. The title of the exhibition is inspired by a phrase that emerged from an exchange of letters in English between the artist and a friend. A grammatically imperfect, poetic, and elusive expression, which becomes the key to exploring the space of the untranslatable: what exists halfway between different languages, cultures, and experiences. These overlapping themes converge in an exhibition conceived as an immersive and layered environment, where the personal dimension engages in a constant dialogue with collective tensions. At the heart of the exhibition is The Moon is Wet (2025), a large-scale, three-channel video installation commissioned for this project. The work intertwines the myths of the sea goddess Mazu with the historical and contemporary experiences of migrant domestic workers in Singapore, offering a powerful narrative of female solidarity and care. Alongside it, the light installation Heavy is the root of light (2025) suspends visitors in a space where light and poetry become material presence. Meanwhile, What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world – previously presented at the 2024 Venice Biennale – gives voice to the desires and vulnerabilities of non-normative families. The exhibition also confronts the delicate relationship between physical presence and digital existence. In the project Good Morning Young Body (2021–23), Poh revisits her past as a young television actress, through the use of archival technologies and deepfakes to invite reflection on media exposure and the dynamics of virtual violence against the female body. Make a travel deep of your inside, and don’t forget me to take unfolds as a unique visual and emotional landscape at MUDEC: a profound journey that, originating from individual experience, expands into broader reflections on belonging, care, and contemporary forms of resistance and solidarity.