Sonja Riemer – Between Stillness, Nature, and Presence
The artworks of Sonja Riemer revolve around the human condition. They explore inner states, memories, change, and the question of how we position ourselves in a changing world. Her works are both powerful and understated. She creates sculptures and paintings that don't aim for immediate impact, but rather for atmosphere and emotional depth.
Born in Austria in 1981, Sonja Riemer discovered art early on. As a child, she experimented with various materials and developed a particular fascination for forms, surfaces, and natural processes. Her artistic practice began autodidactically and was later deepened through studies and further education in Vienna, Salzburg, and Zurich. From 2019 to 2022, she completed a diploma degree in Fine Arts with a focus on sculpture at the School of Art and Design Zurich. Today, the artist lives and works in Switzerland. Her works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland and Austria.
Humanity is at the core of her work. Many of her sculptures deliberately remain open and universal. Faces are merely hinted at, bodies appear reduced and fragile. This creates space for personal thoughts and emotions. Her approach to materials is particularly distinctive. Clay, metal, wire, rust, or patina are not just raw materials, but part of the message. Change, weathering, and transience remain visible and become an essential component of the works. Simultaneously, a tension arises between weight and lightness, protection and openness.
The sculpture "Where the Silence Breathes" is exhibited as part of the Art Garden Hotels at Hotel Lindenhof in Brienz. The figure sits introspectively in the garden, gazing into the distance. It appears both serene and vulnerable, almost like a quiet counterpoint to the pace of everyday life.
The work belongs to Sonja Riemer's "HOPE" series, in which she explores hope as a quiet yet powerful form of human resilience. The sculpture creates a poetic dialogue between humanity and nature, deliberately integrating subtly into the garden landscape of Hotel Lindenhof. This particular location enhances the work's impact. Amidst old trees, open sightlines, and the vastness of the mountain landscape, a space for contemplation emerges.
Materiality also plays a central role. A protective iron skin changes with weather and time, developing a patina and making transience visible. The figure's delicate wire "garment" simultaneously appears protective and permeable – a symbol for the fragile balance between the inner world and outer reality.
With her works, Sonja Riemer doesn't provide definitive answers. Instead, she opens up spaces for feelings and thoughts. Her art moves between melancholy and hope, between stillness and presence, reminding us how important places of contemplation have become.
