Artists

Elisabeth von Samsonow

Press release

The Heidi Horten Collection is dedicating a major solo exhibition to the artist-theorist Elisabeth von Samsonow, highlighting a practice that unfolds far beyond the boundaries of any single discipline. For the first time, the multifaceted work of Elisabeth von Samsonow (*1956, Germany; based in Austria since 1995) is being presented on this scale, revealing both its artistic breadth and intellectual depth.

Conceived as a powerful and richly narrative survey, the exhibition takes the form of a dynamic parcours that brings together early works and recent bodies of work alike. Sculptures, paintings, drawings, films, and a site-specific installation offer insight into a remarkable practice distinguished by performative thinking, formal diversity, and a deeply interdisciplinary approach.

At the heart of Samsonow’s artistic practice lies an intense engagement with the earth as a bearer of history, life, energy, and collective memory. Her works draw on motifs from cultural history and translate them into a contemporary visual language. Movement—both physical and psychological—is a central element: with poetic playfulness, Samsonow’s work crosses the boundaries imposed by rational systems of order, opening spaces between art, philosophy, anthropology, and political thought.

Sculptural installations and cycles of paintings that revolve narratively around the Gaia myth play a particularly significant role, addressing fundamental questions of origin, body, birth, value, and transformation. Many of her wooden sculptures are carved from entire tree trunks, including works made from a thousand-year-old linden tree, whose material presence renders growth and time tangibly perceptible.

Samsonow’s visual worlds address the collective unconscious—precisely at the point where it touches nature. They draw on fragments of dreams and experimental modes of perception that move between diagrammatic structures and archetypal forms, inviting viewers to reconsider and reinterpret familiar images. Her works open up spaces of possibility for alternative readings of history, corporeality, and community.

The exhibition also forges deliberate connections to the holdings of the Heidi Horten Collection. Works by Egon Schiele and German Expressionists are integrated into the presentation and placed in dialogue with Samsonow’s long-standing scholarly and artistic engagement with these positions. A specially designed area for creative work by young people and adults is conceived as an integral part of the exhibition, underscoring the open and dialogical character of the presentation.

A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.
Curated by Verena Kaspar-Eisert, Rolf H. Johannsen, and Hana O. O. Haas.