Solo exhibition Municipal Gallery Berlin

Traveling with the Trans-Siberian Railway - From Diary to Graphic Novel
Exhibition from April 3 to May 29, 2022
Location: Municipal Gallery Berlin, Hohenzollerndamm 176, 10713 Berlin
Opening hours: Tue to Fri 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wed 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sat and Sun 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. - free admission

When the Berlin artist Bernadette Schweihoff set out in January 2020 to travel from Moscow to Vladivostock on the Trans-Siberian Railway, the pandemic had not yet arrived in Europe and a war in Europe was unimaginable.
Bernadette Schweihoff chose this longest railway line in the world to discover her own self - shielded in 7m² in a railway compartment - there and back. Contact with the outside world was mostly limited to the view out of the compartment window – it was bitterly cold outside anyway. She was accompanied by her partner and an empty diary.
In the exhibition “To drive”, the artist Bernadette Schweihoff tells of this journey on the Trans-Siberian railway in enigmatic images. The exhibition invites you to take part in this journey, starting with pages from her diary, through photographs and the pencil drawings that have not yet been colored, to the finished graphic novel. The drawings and diary entries allow participation in the artist's inner journey, reflecting her world of thoughts and ideas between female desire and identity.
Traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway is a feeling. It is graphic poetry or a composed song in pictures and text. Like a song of its own. And that's what I was trying to capture. On the trip itself I kept a diary and drew. And no matter where I heard a song, I searched for it with an app and saved it. At home I could then go back to moments with the songs. And then there were the individual stations where we got off. The further we got to Siberia, the more something had changed in me. It was initially an adventure, but it turned into an indescribable feeling that I didn't expect. What great things should happen if you can only look out the window for weeks. At first you think, hopefully we won't argue in this 7m² can.
The works in the exhibition document travelling, breaking out and arriving at oneself, on a temperature and color scale between pink and light blue. The original diary is also shown in the exhibition.
At the same time as the exhibition of graphic works and photographs, Bernadette Schweihoff's debut graphic novel, trieben - Unterwegs mit der Transsiberischen Eisenbahn, will be published by Edition Moderne, Zurich. (ISBN 978-3-03731-231-5, 168 pages, colored, 17 × 24 cm, softcover with flaps, 24 euros)
Bernadette Schweihoff, born in Gießen/Hesse in 1984, has lived and worked in Berlin since 2014 after working in Passau, Vienna and New York City. She is currently studying in the master class of Anke Moistenberger at the HAW Hamburg.
supporting program

Saturday, April 30, 2022 at 2 p.m
"From Diary to Graphic Novel"
Book presentation and signing with Bernadette Schweihoff and the publishing house Edition Moderne, Zurich

Sunday, May 15, 2022, 2 p.m
artist talk

Sunday, May 29, 2022, 2-5 p.m
Finissage - the artist is present