With the exhibition MƎTAATEM, Kerstin Brätsch transforms the Kunstmuseum Bonn into a vibrant experimental field of painting. As soon as they enter the rooms, visitors are surrounded by a strange tension: fields of color shimmer, structures seem to move and the boundaries between image, body and space begin to blur. Brätsch, born in Hamburg in 1979 and long since an internationally acclaimed artist, takes abstract painting further in a radical way - by stretching, alienating, mirroring and constantly reinventing it.

At the center of her practice is the question of what painting can be today. She combines the physical act of painting with digital processes, experimenting with stained glass, works on paper, wall installations and large-scale hangings. In doing so, she builds bridges between ancient craft techniques and contemporary visual worlds. Similar to the principle of mimicry, in which animals survive through imitation, her motifs wander through different media and formats - always in process, never finally completed.

Kerstin Brätsch, Nammu, Mother, 2012-2021, Photo Andrea Rossetti

MƎTAATEM presents new productions as well as works from the past 15 years and makes visible how broad Brätsch's artistic vocabulary is. She often works collectively - for example as part of DAS INSTITUT (with Adele Röder), KAYA (with Debo Eilers) or together with Sergei Tcherepnin and Wibke Tiarks. These collaborations question the classic image of authorship and open up the discourse on painting to social and political issues.
The exhibition makes tangible how Brätsch understands painting not as a static medium, but as a living organism. Color, light, chance and community - all of these become part of a process that opens up new spaces of perception for visitors.
December 11, 2025 to April 12, 2026
www.kunstmuseum-bonn.de