Bittersweet Symphony

“I can change, I can change, I can change —
but I’m here in my mold.”
— The Verve, Bittersweet Symphony (1997)

Bittersweet Symphony brings together works by Stefanie Moshammer (Each Poison, A Pillow) and Eric Meier (Vaterland) in a quiet yet powerful dialogue about alcohol addiction—poetically veiled and documentarily confrontational, always focusing on what remains unspoken on a personal level and what is repressed by society.

Stefanie Moshammer has developed a multi-layered work consisting of photographs, objects, and video works that approaches her mother’s alcohol addiction from a personal perspective. Her visual and material language oscillates between closeness and distance, control and vulnerability. Fragmentary arrangements, texts, and moving images open up a space in which shame, responsibility, and care become visible without being rigidly defined.

Eric Meier, on the other hand, portrays alcoholic men from a residential facility in Eisenhüttenstadt—many of whom have been marked by the upheavals and exclusions of the post-reunification period. His photographs are not voyeuristic, but rather imbued with great closeness and respect. They show people who have become socially invisible, with a dignity that has a quiet impact. Meier’s works reflect images of masculinity, social isolation, and a language in which social clichés echo, but there is little room for genuine encounter.

The exhibition does not create a false reconciliation. It asks questions—about responsibility, about origins, about failure and repetition. Between intimate imagery and structural analysis, Bittersweet Symphony opens up a space that does not provide answers, but rather enables reflection on the unspeakable.

Curated by Katharina Schilling
Curatorial assistance: Tatjana Rotfuß