The PalaisPopulaire in Berlin presents the first institutional solo exhibition by Chinese-Singaporean artist Charmaine Poh (b. 1990), Deutsche Bank's "Artist of the Year" 2025. The exhibition showcases her multimedia practice spanning video, installation, and performance, addressing themes of identity, power structures, feminism, and queerness in Southeast Asia, while weaving together personal and collective narratives.
According to Stephanie Rosenthal, director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project, who nominated her: "In her work, Charmaine Poh often explores intimate, self-chosen relationships that go beyond traditional family ties (…) She is also guided by concepts such as Édouard Glissant's notion of opacity—the claim to remain opaque, ambiguous, and complex."
Key works include The Moon is Wet (2025), created especially for the exhibition, which reflects the different facets of Singapore—from the financial district, a central hub of global trade, to the endangered mangrove forests on the city's outskirts. Other films revisit Poh's traumatic childhood as a TV star through AI and deepfake technology, as well as her explorations of queer love and family.
