Gezeiten der Dunkelheit was a multidisciplinary exhibition bringing together artistic positions on grief, pain, and loss curated by Je.Jesch
Presented at the Hybridraum of the Semmelweisklinik in Vienna, in April 2026, it unfolded across painting, photography, sculpture, as well as video and light installations.
The exhibition addressed experiences that are often pushed aside or silenced.
Grief and pain remain largely taboo in society, rarely given space, often expected to pass quickly. And yet, they are inevitable companions in human life. Whether through the loss of others or the awareness of our own mortality, these states shape how we perceive, feel, and move through time.
What happens to us in moments of grief
How does pain, physical or emotional, transform us
What becomes possible when these states are not avoided, but consciously felt
These questions were approached by the participating artists
Je. Jesch
Barbara Klampfl
Stephanie Krawinkler (MissBubblebliss)
SimSon
Ute Zaunbauer
Funded by the cultural budget of Währing
A Fragile Now. Touching time before it breaks
I work with soap bubbles. Sculptures that appear and disappear.
The world is in constant transformation, and change and impermanence are part of life.
อนิจจัง (a-nít-jàng, impermanence, instability)
Anicca (a-nic-ca, impermanence, instability)
ไม่เที่ยง (mâi-thîang, not lasting, not permanent)
Nothing is fixed. Everything is in motion.
Soap bubbles are made of water and air, like us.
They follow a clear order and find the most economical form, the sphere.
At the same time, they are fragile. A single dry particle is enough, and they burst.
And yet they are stable enough to become sculptures.
Within them lies a tension that can also be felt in the human body.
Visible Impermanence
A glass with a single bubble accompanies the work.
Over the course of days, it slowly shrinks, its size and colours changing.
Transformation becomes visible.
Inspired by Eiffel Pflasterer.
Colours of Change
A macro video shows a soap film in motion.
Colour does not arise from pigment, but from light, through interference.
It appears, changes, and disappears again.
Three photographs condense these observations.
A Trace of Almost Nothing
A close-up of a soap film. Black is already visible, a sign that the bubble is about to burst, and yet all colours are still present.
In these moments, the tides of darkness become especially tangible.
Even in deep darkness, light can be present.
MissBubblebliss
Reflection
A moment of self-observation.
MissBubblebliss
Fragile Layering
A fragile structure. Dense and almost foam-like at the bottom, above it a single floating bubble, while the transitions in between remain barely visible.
MissBubblebliss
In Thai traditional medicine, the body is understood as a composition of elements.
ดิน (din, earth)
น้ำ (náam, water)
ลม (lom, air)
ไฟ (fai, fire)
อากาศ (aa-gàat, space, ether)
A balance in time.
Pain arises from attachment, from holding on to how something should be.
Dukkha (dukk-ha, suffering, pain)
ทุกข์ (túk, suffering, pain)
describes this state.
Through observation, perception, and the recognition of what is, this suffering can transform.
Grief, เสียใจ (sǐa-jai, loss, sorrow), is not a disturbance, but a form of connection.
Death is part of life.
Soap bubbles, as a metaphor for impermanence, carry the certainty of their disappearance within them and reveal their full spectrum of colour only in the right light.
They remind us that every moment carries colour, even when it is not always visible.