Photographic seriality is one of the basic principles of Mia Unverzagt’s work. Repetitions, along with their conceptual counterpart, deviations, seem to provide a framework for the individual image within the whole and thereby to test it with regard to its validity. Instructions, vague or detailed, to the people being portrayed; questions as a basis for dialogues that prescribe a particular attitude – these are integral parts of this artist’s oeuvre. Often there is a visual framework: a particular place, a prescribed selection of clothing, the way those garments are draped, etc. These constants, which are inscribed into the serial works, create the same “starting conditions” for the people being portrayed. They thus constitute a setting in which the action can take place. This framework is defined by the artist, but the result of the (inter)action remains radically open.

Stefanie Kreuzer