On Friday, 12 September 2025, the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation will open the exhibition “Wasserland” by Hamburg-based photographer Marc-Oliver Schulz as part of Berlin Art Week 2025. The series comprises 35 photographs, presented in Berlin for the first time, exploring the Wadden Sea from a conceptual artistic perspective.
Image above: Marc-Oliver Schulz, Überfrorene Steinbuhne 06.02.2012 © Marc-Oliver Schulz
Between 2009 and 2017, Schulz regularly visited the Elbe estuary between Büsum and Cuxhaven, a landscape reshaped every six hours by the tides. His photographs were often taken at dusk or at night, when the boundaries between sea, horizon, and starry sky dissolve.
The conceptual rigor of his compositions abstracts the Wadden Sea and elevates its stark beauty to a universal level. Perception itself becomes the subject, as the emptiness and vastness of the tidal flats sharpen the viewer’s awareness.
In contrast to Alfred Ehrhardt, who deliberately excluded traces of human presence, Schulz integrates markers of civilization such as beacons, groynes, wooden barriers, drilling platforms, or the distant lights of coastal cities.
These elements highlight the fragile balance between nature and civilization, where humans constantly contend with the forces of the sea. The stone wall on which the photographer positions himself – and with him the viewer – becomes a metaphorical threshold between both realms.
Accompanying Events
- Saturday, 11 October 2025, 4 pm: Guided tour with Marc-Oliver Schulz and Dr. Christiane Stahl
- Thursday, 30 October 2025, 7 pm: Talk “Connection with an Island that Outlasts Everything” (Literaturhaus der Fotografie)
- Thursday, 27 November 2025, 7 pm: Lecture “Climate Crisis and the Impact on the Wadden Sea” by Dipl. Biol. Bernhard Rauhut
- Thursday, 11 December 2025, 6 pm: Guided tour with Marc-Oliver Schulz and Dr. Christiane Stahl
WHEN?
Exhibition date: Saturday, 13. September until Sunday, 21. December 2025
Opening: Friday, 12 September 2025, 7 – 9 pm (in the presence of the artist)
WHERE?
Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung
Auguststraße 75
10117 Berlin
