Ours
In the exhibition OURs, artist Karin Schmuck presents for the first time works created during her 2025 artist residency at the Ermitage in Clervaux. The exhibition is complemented by a site-specific installation in the castle’s passageway, entitled OUR WOODS. For many years, Karin Schmuck has been exploring the theme of borders in depth. Her artistic practice combines research, physical experience and photographic work: every year she undertakes a journey to a selected border area, which she explores, examines and documents on foot. At the heart of her interest lies the process of seeing itself. Karin Schmuck explores the tension between the clear, map-drawn lines of political borders and the fluid, often barely perceptible transitions in the real landscape. This reveals how relative and transient these man-made boundaries are – overlaid by nature, history and personal perception.
During her stay in Clervaux, Karin Schmuck explored the Our Valley on foot – from the Belgium-Luxembourg-Germany tri-border area to Wallendorf. The low-mountain landscape, some 50 km long and fed by around 600 springs, forms the border between Luxembourg and Germany over long stretches. Historical events such as the crossing of the Our by allied troops in September 1944 during the liberation of Luxembourg overlap here with the present-day experience of a seemingly peaceful landscape. The artist was particularly fascinated by the Our’s status as a condominium – that is, as a jointly administered border river. The artist was particularly fascinated by the Our’s status as a condominium, that is, as a jointly administered border river, as well as the linguistic proximity of ‘Our’ and the English ‘our’, which poetically underscores the motif of the shared.
In the series OUR RIVER, Karin Schmuck superimposes two photographs of the river so that the opposite banks merge in layers. The images appear familiar and yet slightly detached – deserted, timeless, sometimes reminiscent of 17th-century landscape paintings or cinematic imagery.
The works in the series OUR WOODS and IN THE MIDST take these reflections further. Photographic views of forests on either side of the border merge to form new pictorial spaces. The walk-through installation in the castle passageway is accompanied by audio contributions (OUR VOICES), created in dialogue with residents of Clervaux from various linguistic communities. Their voices tell personal stories in their respective mother tongues – navigating the space between the individual and the community, between “mine” and “ours”.
Biography
Karin SCHMUCK studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Urbino and photography at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. She has had numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, the Centro per la Fotografia d'Autore and the Villa Brandolini. She has won several awards, including the Combat Prize and the Premio Carlo Gajani, and was nominated for the Premio Driving Energy.