In the cultural heart of Berlin, we encounter a destination where writing is not merely a tool for communication but a visual feast in its own right. PalaisPopulaire invites us into a world of alphabets and lines with the exhibition “Seeing Words, Reading Images,” which opened on March 20 and will run until August 17, 2026.
A Dialogue Between Two Massive Collections
This exhibition brings together The Written Art Collection, one of the most significant private collections of contemporary “written art,” and the Deutsche Bank Collection, one of the world’s leading institutional collections of works on paper, in a multi-layered dialogue.
- The Written Art Collection: Comprising nearly 400 works from Europe, North America, East Asia, and the Middle East, this collection traces writing as a global art form.
- Artistic Spectrum: The exhibition presents a wide range of styles, from post-1945 gestural abstraction and modern calligraphy to global conceptual art and various forms of media art.
- The Focus: The exhibition examines the relationship between word and image through the lens of line, handwriting, typography, and the written image.
Writing as a Medium for Global Understanding
Curated by Marie-Kathrin Krimphoff and Svenja Gräfin von Reichenbach, the exhibition highlights the capacity of written art to serve as a medium for global understanding. The limitless visual and textual possibilities of storytelling—ranging from poetry and political critique to historical reckoning and everyday notes—are presented through thematic sections. Works such as Etel Adnan’s The Linden Tree Poems stand out as some of the most striking examples of this poetic and visual integrity.
“Writing should not just be seen as something to be read; it should be viewed as a landscape where every line, dot, and space tells its own story.”
