This exhibition takes its title from the evocative closing line of a poem: "Und was vorüber schien, beginnt"—what seemed to be over begins again. In his poem September (1955), Erich Kästner captures a profound moment where what appears to end does not truly disappear, but instead transforms and begins anew. This is a solemn acknowledgment of the cyclical nature of existence. Memory does not vanish; it lingers. Loss does not conclude; it resonates. In this cycle, the end of one form becomes the essential gateway for the beginning of another.

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Three artists—Byungsun Song , Andrea Cataudella, and Seona Jeong —explore this cycle through different visual languages. They do not share a single narrative, but their works reflect, refract, and echo one another, forming a space where presence, dissolution, and resonance coexist.

 

 

Byungsun Song (b.1945, Uiju, North Korea – d.2025, Deagu, South Korea) A witness to the turbulent modernization of Korea, Song’s realist paintings serve as an honest archive of disappearing landscapes. His work preserves the quiet dignity of everyday life and communal bonds, insisting that what was lived still matters. His paintings are not mere memories but a living record of presence. In the summer of 2025, the brush fell from his hand, but the light he gathered did not fade.

 

 

Andrea Cataudella (b.in Syracuse, Italy) Exploring the "liminal" spaces between life and death, Cataudella portrays human figures at the threshold of dissolution. His dark, textured portraits do not fear the end; instead, they observe mortality without judgment, capturing the spiritual traces that remain when the physical form fades. His early cinematic background informs his approach to painting, where figures inhabit a middle ground between reality and the unconscious.

 

 

Seona Jeong (b.1995, Incheon, South Korea) Jeong transforms the sense of alienation experienced as a stranger in Germany into dreamlike, exotic landscapes. Using symbolic forms and luminous textures created with colored pencils and oil paint, she visualizes the "luminous echoes" of memory. Her work explores the imperfection of existence and the persistent emotions that drift between reality and transcendence, turning vulnerability into a dignified visual resonance.

 

Together, these three artists reveal how what seems to end does not disappear. It transforms, persists, and begins again—in memory, in feeling, and in the quiet, sacred space between what was and what will be.