Art as a Bridge between Cultures: Maria Isserlis on Curatorial Work between Europe and Ukraine

Specialists who can organically connect different cultural traditions are particularly valuable in today's art world. Maria Isserlis, head of international relations at the Dresden State Art Collections, recently discussed her projects that unite Ukrainian and European art, and how cultural initiatives become a form of diplomacy in challenging times.

Twenty years ago, Maria Isserlis's move from Ukraine to Germany marked a turning point in her professional development. After studying art history at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität and collaborating with the Goethe-Institut and Manifesta biennial, she developed a unique approach to curatorial work.

"When I lived in Ukraine, we understood art more as something beautiful—paintings, sculptures. But only when I arrived in Germany and began working in this field did I encounter the world of conceptual art, and this opened up my horizons."

This encounter with different perspectives on art became a source of professional growth for Maria. She notes the influence of German curator Kasper König, who built an impressive career without formal education, driven by his passion for art.

"He built an entire career solely through his love for art. He was an important figure for me from a young age because I saw that one could work very sincerely with art, without compromising," — Maria explains.

Working with the Manifesta team in Zurich, where she was responsible for 15 new projects, allowed Maria to develop a special approach to curation—creating works tied to specific places and times (time-based and site-specific). This method became the foundation for her subsequent projects.

Today, Maria is the head of international relations at the Dresden State Art Collections, a co-founder of the AD Curatorial platform, a visiting lecturer at the Berlin University of Arts, and a curator for RIBBON International.

One of Maria's most valuable projects was the "Pair Skating" exhibition in Kharkiv, which brought together two outstanding contemporary photographers: Ukrainian Boris Mikhailov and German Wolfgang Tillmans.

Many considered the project impossible due to both artists' self-sufficiency, but it was born spontaneously after watching Nikolai Ridny's film about Kharkiv in Berlin.

"We were standing on the street with Boris and Wolfgang. Tatiana Kochubinska and I were thinking about a project in Kharkiv then. It was important for us to create an exhibition specifically in Kharkiv. And I simply asked, 'Why don't we make an exhibition of both of you in Kharkiv?' And they both immediately said, 'Yes, let's do it,' Maria recalls.

The project took almost a year of intensive work. Maria emphasizes the role of Kharkiv's YermilovCentre and its director, Natalia Ivanova: this exhibition would not have happened without their participation.

"We started working with the artists last May. The entire process lasted until the opening because small works and ideas were constantly being added at the last moment. It was a genuine dialogue. They worked on the central wall the longest because there was a constant creative exchange. The whole process resembled a dance—when one artist makes a move, and the second responds."

The exhibition marked Tillmans' first showing in Ukraine and the first joint exposition of the two artists, in which their works engaged in dialogue with each other. The creative process that accompanied the creation of the exhibition was exciting.

The artists worked on the central wall of the exhibition in constant dialogue: Tillmans would propose three photographs, Mikhailov would respond with his works, Tillmans would look at these responses and make changes, and Mikhailov would react again, creating a living exchange of ideas.

There was even a moment when Mikhailov said about one of Tillmans' photographs: "I cannot respond to this, it's impossible, I'll just write something on the wall." But Wolfgang insisted: "No, no, no, we're staying within photography."

The entire exhibition was carefully designed for the YermilovCentre space. The curators created a complete 3D model, thought through all the visual axes and sightlines. As Maria emphasizes, this exhibition cannot exist elsewhere because it was designed specifically for this particular space and context.

The exhibition explored several key themes that unite both artists' work: humanism, the human body, nature, and humor. Each expresses these themes in their own way. An important line was experimenting with photography as a medium—both Mikhailov and Tillmans explore the boundaries of this art form in their practice.

The political aspect of the exhibition emerged in the theme of borders. Tillman's work "The State We're In"—a large seascape created shortly before Brexit—became a metaphor for European borders. Mikhailov's archival series from Crimea and other places on the Black and Azov Sea coasts was presented in response.

Maria notes the special connection between Kharkiv and Crimea: For many Kharkiv artists during the Soviet era, Crimea was a place of creative freedom. However, after Crimea's annexation, this connection was severed.

"Kharkiv doesn't have a river or water like Kyiv or other cities. Now there's no Crimea either. It's a great loss. And we're also talking about this loss by showing important series by Boris Mikhailov—about the borders that Ukraine is fighting for now," Maria explains.

Despite the difficulty of working in wartime conditions, Maria considers it especially important to create such exhibitions in Kharkiv. Due to military action, this city has disappeared from Europe's cultural map. For her, it is essential to show that Kharkiv is a city of experimentation, avant-garde, and constructivism.

Maria's next Ukrainian project within the Rebbons International was a large-scale public space project with American artist Barbara Kruger for "Ukrainian Railways." The idea was born while working on the exhibition "Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Art from Ukraine," which mentioned Vasyl Yermilov's "Agit-train" from the 1920s.

"I immediately thought of the 'Agit-train' not as propaganda—it's clear that propaganda is seen as something negative. But for me, it was more about art that moves, mobile art that can enter public space precisely through movement."

Maria saw parallels between early 20th-century avant-garde practices and the works of Barbara Kruger, a well-known American artist who works with text and image. Like Yermilov, Kruger began her career as a designer before becoming a conceptual artist.

"Barbara's visual language resonates with the avant-garde. She's a critical artist who perfectly understands the power of her language. She has been working with public space for a very long time. She's very political and always on the right side," Maria explains her choice.

When Maria wrote to the 80-year-old artist with a proposal to design a train in Ukraine, the response was immediate: "Masha, I've been watching all this for so long, my heart aches, I don't know how to help except by donating." Many international artists want to support Ukraine but don't know how to do it concretely—this project provided such an opportunity.

Implementing the idea required close collaboration with "Ukrainian Railways." The initial plan to use a Warsaw-Kyiv route train was changed—they chose an Intercity train that travels throughout Ukraine, allowing more people to see the project.

Barbara Kruger, who works without a studio and makes all her sketches herself, created the design based on exact carriage plans. The Ukrainian company Megapolis was engaged for production, professionally wrapping the 200-meter train in just three days—a timeframe dictated by the fact that the train couldn't remain out of service for long.

"Only when you're physically next to this train do you truly understand the scale. I think when I had this idea, no one could even imagine it. Even Barbara's files don't look as impressive as the reality," Maria shares.

According to Maria, working with art in public space is much more challenging than an exhibition in a gallery or museum. People go to museums specifically to see art. But when an artwork appears in a public space, everyone sees it, without choice. This creates additional complexity but also makes the project's success more significant.

"With such projects, you can find a new audience for contemporary art. People who won't come to a museum will still encounter art in public space," says the curator.

Speaking about presenting Ukrainian art abroad, especially during wartime, Maria emphasizes the importance of cultural diplomacy.

"We all understand that there's now a great demand for Ukrainian content. This happens because of the negative situation and the war, but there are many opportunities in this. It's important to understand that every project done abroad is diplomacy."

She notes that initially there were many scattered initiatives, but now the focus has shifted toward quality. In her opinion, this is a positive trend that allows for creating more meaningful projects.

Maria talks about the "Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Art from Ukraine" exhibition in Dresden, which she curated and organized with Tatiana Kochubinska in 2023. This was preceded by a project with Asortymentna Kimnata at A:D:Curatorial and CCA Berlin, when major museums were not yet ready to collaborate.

She sees a significant gap in the representation of Ukrainian culture abroad.

"There were practically no works by Ukrainian artists in our collections, except for Boris Mikhailov. There has been very little understanding of Ukrainian culture and history over the last 100 years. This is important work that needs to be done."

Maria believes that presenting Ukrainian culture in Europe is a task for Ukrainian specialists.

"Europeans won't do this. It's our task—we need to prepare information in a form that will be understandable to them. It's not easy work, but we have a lot of material, wonderful collections, both contemporary and historical."

The security situation in Ukraine, which doesn't allow many works to be shown within the country, provides an opportunity to present them abroad. Interest in Ukrainian art persists, but establishing connections between Ukrainian and European institutions is required.

Maria talks about the Ernst von Siemens Stiftung program, which since 2022 has been supporting Ukrainian museum curators and researchers, allowing them to work in German museums for six months to a year. Such initiatives help build critical professional connections.

"This is impossible without people, human contact, and human dialogue. I encourage everyone to develop these connections so Ukrainian culture is properly represented abroad," says Maria.

She emphasizes the importance of dialogue in creating international projects. In her opinion, it's not good to bring a ready-made project to a foreign institution—it's better to work together with local curators, considering their interests and approaches. Such collaboration makes the project truly international.

Maria suggests presenting collections and finding museums with similar themes and interests. She talks about a project she's currently working on: comparing works from the 19th-century collection of the National Museum of Ukraine with German Romanticism, particularly the works of Caspar David Friedrich.

To conclude the interview, Maria speaks about the significance of culture during wartime, when it often takes a back seat.

"It's important for us not to close ourselves off now and not to focus only on ourselves, but to remain open to the culture of other countries that comes to us, and to continue to bring our culture to the outside world. If we close ourselves off now, that would also be wrong... All these processes happen because of the war, but we shouldn't normalize this. We need to understand that we are in a state that is not normal, so that we can continue to develop."

Maria is convinced that culture is critical today as a diplomatic tool abroad and as a special language within Ukraine. She sees the mission of cultural figures as preserving culture, carrying it forward, continuing to work on it, and opposing tendencies where cultural issues are pushed to the background.

For Maria Isserlis, history and the present confirm that culture remains the most critical conductor of values and ideas capable of uniting people even during challenging periods. Her work at the intersection of different cultural traditions serves as an example of how art can transcend boundaries while preserving the uniqueness of each culture and contributing to their mutual enrichment.