„Collaging my own photographs of the Berlin subway, I create images of an imaginary city. I detach urban elements – tunnel walls, platforms, passageways, architectural details – from their original context and reassemble them. A new, multi-layered structure emerges from the seemingly familiar – an imaginary, mystical space between reality and memory. The collage allows me to distort time and space, to interweave places that are in reality distant from each other.
For me, train stations are transit spaces – threshold zones where time and identity seem to stand still for a moment. Places of in-between – neither beginning nor end, but snapshots of transition in which movement can be felt.
The subway becomes a symbol – not only for urban movement, but also for the hidden, the flowing and the subconscious of the city. It runs beneath the visible surface, in the dark, full of noises, shadows and reflections.“
Johanna von Oldershausen is a Berlin-based artist focusing on digital and analogue collage. Originally trained in stage and costume design at institutions such as Berlin Weißensee School of Art and Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna, she transitioned into collage art in 2019. Her works often explore themes of identity, memory, and surrealism, blending personal photographs, drawings, and found images into intricate compositions that evoke theatrical depth. Drawing inspiration from her background in theater, her collages frequently incorporate elements like layered textures, curtains, and imaginative narratives, reflecting her fascination with the intersection of art, storytelling, and human experience.