Dagmar Schuldt: Archaeology Of Thoughts
On the Art of the Visible and the Invisible
09-10-2025
05-31-2026
1 | Karmeliter
2 | Waldfried
3 | Gundweg
4 | Schäferstein
5 | Tiroler Schneise
6 | Paul Gerhard
7 | Hügelgrab
The artist condenses urban and rural locations, making them tangible as a network of paths and thoughts. There are stamp points in the entrance and foyer area. Seven geolocations in the suburban area of Niederrad and the city forest, selected by the artist, mark historical references in the form of steles, under whose lids stamps are located. Visitors receive a map at the museum. As on a hike or pilgrimage, they can use it to connect the locations and thus determine their imaginary route. Each geolocation is assigned its own stamp motif. The QR code below also provides access to a short text with an introduction to excerpts from the respective history.
In her works, artist Dagmar Schuldt examines the construction and effect of our perception of history. For many years, she has been exploring phenomena of memory culture, questions of archaeology and history, and the search for traces. From which fragments of perception has our narrative of history emerged? How will our memory shape the future? Her work not only finds a place for what has been preserved and is obvious, but also for what we can no longer see, perceive, or remember.
Dagmar Schuldt, „Karte Frankfurt 2.2.“, 2024
Papier, Schellack, Tuschen, Graphit, 21 x 29,7 siebenmal gefaltet.
Foto: Dagmar Schuldt
Courtesy: Claus Friede Contemporary Arts
The cross-genre project “Archeology of Thoughts” connects the Frankfurt Archaeological Museum with the south-western urban area, specific sites and locations. For thousands of years, the area surrounding Frankfurt has been traversed and settled by people of different origins and cultures. Trade routes, pilgrimage routes, transportation, and communication hubs emerged, which continue to shape the city and its history to this day, enabling the exchange of ideas. The artist defines the term “thought” as a branching network of paths. She thus perceives “history” as a landscape. The stamps can be used to visualize impressions on the map, which can later be taken away as a work of art, souvenir, or template for an analog hike.
In “Cartography of an Interstitial Space”, Dagmar Schuldt presents her own maps as well as revised historical maps. Layers of paint and material, repeatedly painted over, reveal what can no longer be seen: old and new networks of paths overlap, the view is from a bird‘s eye perspective, and wanders into the depths of history and its layers.
In the former choir room, the artist lays out shards to form a “Train Of Thought”: a long mosaic of historical tile fragments with drawings in blue glaze. The tile fragments come from houses destroyed in World War II. Every German city has either mountains of rubble or storage sites for war debris that were created after the Second World War. The partial destruction of the former Carmelite monastery forms a thematic bridge here. Dagmar Schuldt‘s drawings are part of her own memories as well as fragments of collective history.
Dagmar Schuldt, Erinnerungsmosaik, 2021
Bemalte Fliesenfragmente zum Mosaik gelegt (Detail), 56 x 65 x 700 cm, Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte.
Foto: Sina Schuldt
Courtesy: Claus Friede Contemporary Arts
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