Interview: Birthe Ostermann
Luca Curci talks with Birthe Ostermann during THE BODY LANGUAGE 2021, at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space.

My intention as an artist is usually to awake the positive feelings and the joy of the viewer more than transmitting a message through the paintings. With the different motives and colours, I want to reach the sensory impressions and that’s the most exciting thing about contemplating artworks. Each of us is looking and feeling in different ways and I want to give the viewer an harmonic and pleasured art break. The paintings you can see in The Body Language exhibition are inspired by all the migrants, who came to Germany especially in 2015. I just wanted to show people walking in such a long way with great hope for a free and safe country. They are not alone – two people together or a greater group looking directly at a light somewhere in the future in a foreign place.

Luca Curci – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
Birthe Ostermann – I have always been drawing as a child, but I started seriously to paint ten years ago, studying painting and art understanding. Now I just take care of my art and paintings and I love it. Impressionism inspired most of my art and also the Russian oil paintings fascinate me. Therefore I took a Master’s degree in Russia (Moskau, Igor Sakharov) in landscape painting.

LC – How did you get to your current artistic practice?
BO – After several studies from a ukrain/russian artist (Max Skoblinsky). He made grow my interest in landscape paintings.

LC – Do you use art to express something in particular? Is it like your medium of expression?
BO – I usually don’t have the intention to tell something with my paintings. The only important thing is showing how beautiful and impressive nature can be and we should indeed take care of nature and climate. I made a few paintings about climate.

LC – What is your creative process like?
BO – Well, sometimes I use a long time to find the best place to paint. I make hundreds of pictures and then I decide what to paint and how to make the composition.

LC – How is being an artist nowadays?
BO – I am lucky that I don’t necessarily need to sell paintings for a living. So the paintings I sell give me money of course, but more than that happiness to see how many people want to look at my paintings. I usually have a lot of visitors to my landscape exhibitions.

LC – Can you explain something about the paintings you have in our exhibition?
BO – Yes, they are a little special, because I painted them during the migration of 2015 and I just had to paint some figures and their hope.

LC – What do you think about the concept of this festival? How did it inspire you?
BO – It’s a good possibility for many artists from around the world to exhibit. Normally I would have been there too, but in the actual situation, I was not allowed to travel.

LC – What do you think about the organization of our event?
BO – It’s a very good organization. I had always an answer to my questions via email and always a kind handling.

LC – Would you suggest a collaboration with us? What do you think about our services?
BO – Yes, I think the service is okay.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
BO – I have no experience now but hopefully we will see this next time.