Alicja Kwade

Meet The Artist:

31 August 2026

Meet The Artist:

Alicja Kwade

31 August 2026

Q: Many of your sculptures bring together seemingly antagonistic materials: for example, natural tree branches and industrial steel. One embodies unpredictability and organic growth, the other precision and human control. How do you think about the tension between control and chance in your practice?

A: Indeed, this tension is an Import Daily issue in my work. By nature, I tend to be very controlling. I try to ensure that everything has a reason, that every decision follows a logic. The difference is that the rules I follow are not necessarily Common logical ones, they are quite not following certain mathematical rules, but also my own invented systems, and I adhere to them quite rigorously.

At the same time, I feel a strong need to break out of those systems and allow for moments of chance, intuition, or simply feeling.

More broadly, though, what really interests me is the relationship between constructed systems and agreements and unexplainable issues.

Whether these are mathematical or physical principles, social structures or political frameworks, they all shape our understanding of reality.

Q: Much of your work questions how we construct knowledge and perceive truth. What does "knowledge" mean to you? Where do you see the boundary between scientific understanding and the beliefs we take for granted, and how do your works approach that boundary?

A: One would hope that knowledge is the key to understanding the world and to creating justice. To some extent, it can be. But unfortunately, it is not the key to solving our problems. Despite all the knowledge we have, exclusion and injustice still exist, even though, based on what we know, they should no longer be possible. Whether we are talking about antisemitism, racism, or the environmental crisis, knowledge alone is clearly not enough. That makes me angry and leaves me speechless. Nevertheless, I try not to let this anger directly influence my work, but rather to examine it on a subtler level.

Science itself is also not politically neutral. It is conducted by people, and there are always interests involved. That is why scientific understanding and knowledge are not automatically the same thing for me. Perhaps what we really need is an ethics of knowledge.

In general, I find assumptions that are no longer questioned to be dangerous. Collective assumptions can very quickly be turned into populist narratives.

"I believe it is always important to doubt things, and not accept them as given, and to doubt yourself. That is something I try to do in my work, and with myself."

Q: You've often said that your practice is deeply informed by physics and philosophy. Do you remember your first meaningful encounter with philosophy? Was there a particular thinker, text, or idea that fundamentally changed the way you looked at the world?

A: Yes I definitely did. When I was very young, I absorbed everything I thought would explain the tragedy of existence: Sartre, Camus, Nietzsche, Freud. But I think, at the time, I understood almost nothing. It was more a kind of youthful - puberty arrogance.

In fact, I took philosophy in school, and I was incredibly lucky to have a wonderful teacher, Mr. Popp. He introduced us to the ideas of Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. He would always walk into the classroom impeccably dressed, wearing a bow tie, a suit, and carrying a newspaper under his arm. Years later, he took his own life, which somehow felt deeply ironic in light of our search for the meaning of life.

Around the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, I read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Of course, Huxley is not usually considered a classical philosopher, but the book affected me profoundly because it radically questioned common assumptions about morality, ethics, and society. It was the first time I realized that everything could actually be completely different.

Later, especially during my studies, my reading became much more focused. I started reading Stephen Hawking, the notebooks of Nikola Tesla, and, a little later, between many other sources, the sociologist Elena Esposito, who had a great influence on me. I believe I have read almost all of her books.

Ironically, when I was in school, I thought I would never need mathematics or physics because I was going to become an artist. So, I simply ignored those subjects. Looking back, I really regret that, and I have spent many years trying to make up for it half ways.

Heisenberg’s lectures were incredibly enlightening for me, as was his biography. I also spent quite a lot of time engaging with Bohr’s work.

But I am neither a philosopher nor a physicist, and in truth I certainly know far too little, but actually I’m trying to source from the not knowing not understanding and the simple try to illustrate all of that for myself.

Q: Are there any emerging artists whose work excites you at the moment?

A: Sally von Rosen. She is having an amazing energy.  

Q: Looking back at your own path, what do you wish someone had told you earlier? What advice would you pass on to emerging artists?

A: You should not believe that other people have a better strategy for your career than you do. Many gallerists think they have to tell artists which strategy they should follow. Of course, it is always good and important to seek advice, and there are certainly people who genuinely want the best for you. But most people also have their own interests. In the end, there is no strategy that anyone else knows better than you do when it comes to how you should do things and how you might achieve what you want.

You have to believe in yourself. You have to dare to do things. You have to approach people directly and simply ask.

Most opportunities don’t exist because someone offers them to you, they exist because people have the courage to ask for them.

Q: What does Berlin give artists, and what is it still lacking?

A: That is a question I can hardly answer because I have been here for too long. It is a bit like your hometown, you hate and love it at the same time.

But yes, I still think there is a sense of freedom. There is complete freedom of expression, and there are many places where you can become active and develop your work, and there are still great people who shape the city.

At the same time, I think it is a myth that Berlin is still cheap or that it makes life easy for artists. That may have been true twenty years ago, but it is no longer the case. Like so many other cities, Berlin has become heavily gentrified, it is almost impossible for young people to find a flat anymore.