We continue to wander through the multilayered world of Fotografiska Berlin. After the horrors of war and the illusions of artificial intelligence, this time we turn our direction to a much more internal, silent, yet equally shattering battlefield: family bonds and childhood traumas.
Armenian-American artist Diana Markosian invites us to reflect on absence, memory, and reconciliation with her deeply personal and autobiographical exhibition “Father”, which has been open to visitors since 21 November 2025 and will close on 19 April 2026. It is a unique visual diary about how decisions shape who we are.
A Face Cut Out from the Family Album
Markosian’s story begins in Moscow. The artist, whose parents separated before she was born, left Russia at the age of seven with her mother and brother and settled in California. This intercontinental migration completely and seemingly irreversibly severs the ties of an already fractured family.
Upon arriving in America, her mother chose a drastic way to erase the father’s existence from their lives: she cut out every image of the father from the family photo albums with scissors. No visual, no trace of her father remained in the child’s mind. On the other side, the father was left staring after the “lost children” he desperately tried to find for years.
This enormous void created a deep mystery and confusion within Markosian. For years, she began searching for her father both physically and emotionally in the faces and silhouettes of other men.
Finding a Man Without a Face 15 Years Later
Eventually, exactly 15 years after she last saw him, Markosian set off for Armenia to find her father with no photograph or address in hand.
The exhibition presents a decade-long (2014–2025) account of the artist’s effort to rebuild a relationship with her father. Every frame on the wall reveals new complexities about the parent she lost and how this absence transformed Markosian into the person she is today.
Art as a Space of Healing Without Blame
The most striking aspect of this exhibition is that it does not search for a culprit. Markosian refuses to judge either her mother or her father; instead, she invites the viewer to empathise with both sides. “Father” offers a powerful testament to the healing power of art: it shows how the creative process can become a path to processing, understanding, and ultimately acceptance. It whispers to us that family bonds are never perfect, but that art can provide a safe space for collective healing.
