Katharina Sieverding: Life-Death

Opening: 11 September 2026, 6:00 – 9:00 PM // Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin

For Berlin Art Week 2026, Galerie Thomas Schulte presents the exhibition Life–Death by Katharina Sieverding. At the heart of the exhibition is the 1969 film of the same name, complemented by large-format film stills and previously unpublished Polaroids. Created in what was then West Berlin, the work reflects an early period in the artist’s practice and a historical moment of concentrated political, social, and aesthetic upheaval. Notably, Life–Death was shown at documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 – an early marker of its art-historical significance.

Within Sieverding’s filmic output, Life–Death holds a singular position. The work was shot on 16mm film during a period that was both personally and artistically formative. At the time, Sieverding was a student of Joseph Beuys at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, witnessing firsthand the institutional conflicts and protest movements of the late 1960s. Filming took place shortly after the events surrounding the academy’s temporary closure – protests in which she participated both as documentarian and as active participant. Life–Death thus represents not only an aesthetic search for new visual forms but also the experience of a society in flux.