Express (25.02.2026), Merit Böger, Clara Rotermund

»Express

25.02.2026

An exhibition by
Two artist living in two cities,
bound through love.
Their pictures make a naked performance.
And You can squeeze inbetween their presences.«

This is a poem from the newspaper advertisement for the exhibition Express. In the announcement they also said about the two artists:

»One has recently changed to the international artschool in Frankfurt and already conquered the city. The other completed her diploma in fine arts with distinction and will take her next carreer steps in the big city of Berlin.«

In this remarkable exhibition just two paintings were shown, hanging face to face to one another in a container in the backyard of the art school where they had studied together. Records say that it took place at the exact location of their very second time of meeting each other. In the painting to the left one could have seen some squares. A trace of the process in which Merit Böger had been removing, no, tearing off the DIN pieces, copied prints with photographs that had made the context of the piece. This practice is still called kill your darlings. Since then, the painting called Lost in Translation has remained mysterious. What does it hide from us? What time lies behind it? 

The second painting was on the right. Sommerferien is one tender figurative piece of Clara Rotermund. While in the abstract painting the photographs had left their place on the canvas because of their darlingness, the figurative painting as a whole had moved out of her diploma presentation shortly before this exhibition opened. The painting was even too darling for the examination. But at that exhibition, we caught a last glimpse of it out of the corner of our eyes. It turned away, facing the other painting. They narrowed toward the vanishing point of the small room. It seemed like a farewell to the school. The pictures, selected and removed darlings, were too good for us and drove away in their shaking express train compartment.