FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY

Eins' collages combine natural materials such as leaves, tree bark and seaweed with manufactured and found materials including African textiles, maps, tickets, consumer packaging and printed matter.

Collected from places she has lived in, visited or passed through—including Africa, Europe, Israel and the United States—these fragments become visual records of movement and memory. Brought together on paper, elements from different worlds exist simultaneously, creating compositions in which personal histories and geographical references overlap.

“My work seeks to preserve memory through material and metaphor.”
— Stefanie Eins

At the centre of JUXTAPOSED is the act of placing seemingly unrelated elements side by side. Natural and manufactured materials, permanence and transience, personal histories and geographical references coexist—sometimes harmoniously and sometimes in deliberate tension.

BORDERS, LANDSCAPES AND ENDLESSNESS

The exhibition considers ideas of borders, boundaries and endlessness through abstract drawings and layered compositions. Lines often extend beyond the physical boundaries of the paper, suggesting borders that remain open and unfinished.

This sense of openness is closely connected to Eins' relationship with the Namib Desert, a landscape that has influenced her since her first encounters with Namibia in 1996 and her eventual decision to make the country her home.

Her paintings similarly develop through layers of colour placed beside and over one another. Sharp lines meet blurred edges, creating ambiguity between foreground and background. In these works, layering becomes a metaphor for memory itself—fragmented, overlapping and constantly shifting.

MOVEMENT, DISPLACEMENT AND LEGACY

Themes of wandering, displacement and restlessness run throughout the exhibition. Eins draws from her own experiences of movement as well as the histories of her ancestors, whose roots extend to Belarus and Northern Italy.

This personal and inherited history informs her ongoing exploration of displacement, cultural layering and legacy, making JUXTAPOSED both a personal visual archive and an invitation to consider how individual identities are shaped by the places and histories we carry with us.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1964, Stefanie Eins has lived and worked in Namibia since 2013.

She holds two Master's degrees in Fine Arts: a Master's in Fine Arts in Public Spheres from the Academy for Design and Art in Luzern, Switzerland, and a Master's in Fine Arts from the University of Arts in Berlin, Germany.

In 2014, Eins established the Art & Design Department at the International School of Walvis Bay. Her professional practice spans art, art consultancy and education, with a focus on design, drawing and painting. She also works across painting, installation and land art.

Eins' work has been exhibited in Germany, Switzerland, Namibia, Spain and South Africa, and is represented in private collections across Europe, Africa and the United States.

ENTER THE ARCHIVE

With JUXTAPOSED, Stefanie Eins invites audiences into a world made from fragments—places travelled, materials encountered, memories preserved and histories inherited.

The exhibition becomes an open visual archive, where boundaries remain unfinished and different worlds exist alongside one another.

Visitors are invited not simply to observe these fragments, but to consider their own relationship with place, memory, movement and belonging.

EXHIBITION DETAILS

Exhibition: JUXTAPOSED
Artist: Stefanie Eins
Opening: Thursday, 8 October 2026 | 18:00
Exhibition Dates: 8 – 22 October 2026
Venue: Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre (FNCC), Windhoek
Entry: Free