Opening:
03.07.2026 & 17.07.2026

Shared Matter #1 is a collaborative exhibition project by G10 Projektraum and students of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. Photographic representation is political: selection, framing, and context shape the stories that images tell. Navigating between proximity and distance, the participating students develop works through encounters with realities other than their own. 

Representing different realities is a political act; representation is never neutral. As bell hooks has argued, it is a site of struggle—and photography is one of the fields in which this becomes particularly evident. It makes visible what might otherwise remain unseen, while simultaneously shaping the way it is perceived.

Students from the Department of Design at Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, explored these questions in the seminar Sites of Struggle (Prof. Sara Maierhofer): How can we tell stories about lives that are not our own? How can we navigate the space between proximity and distance, empathy and projection? The resulting works understand photography as a dialogical practice—a way of entering into relationships with people, places, and with what unfolds between the camera and its subject. The photographs presented here are the outcome of these encounters, treating encounter not as a prerequisite, but as a method.

From 7 July, G10 will be open as a public workspace, allowing visitors to follow the exhibition's development as it unfolds. The opening reception will take place on 17 July at 7 pm. The exhibition runs until 26 July 2026.

With works by Jana Bender, Charly Burfeind, Berkin Dündar, Quinn Heyne, Johannes Gärtner, Sarah Sophie Radloff, Maren Schröder, and Anastasiya Sultanova.