Words by Lena Kunschert

Fräulein Talents: Paula Oltmann

Fräulein Talents introduces women you should have on your radar – who have chosen an extraordinary and unmistakably personal path, capturing our attention with the worlds they build. This time: Paula Oltmann. Born in 1997 in Kiel, she is currently pursuing her Master’s at the Berlin University of the Arts, supported by the German National Academic Foundation. In her objects and installations, Oltmann explores the material presence of space as a gateway to memory and narrative, working through processes of deconstruction and reconstruction that search for temporality and transformation. Combining organic materials such as wax and wood with synthetic substances and digital imaging techniques, her practice moves between nature and artifice, questioning how landscapes – and the stories we attach to them – evolve over time.

Fassade 1, 2025. Pressspan, Furnier, Farbe 81 x 135 x 9 cm. © Kumo Bscura

What really relieved me was the thought that it is ok and normal that not everyone will understand and like what I do and that I have no control about what other people think. I can only do the things the way I do them, and that is enough.

Please answer in just one sentence: Why do you do what you do?

It is the only thing that makes sense to in the sense that it doesn’t need to make sense all the time.

Tell us about your upbringing and the first time you experienced a moment of calling when it became clear: I have a vision and I will follow it.

I don’t think I really had a vision but I had the feeling being creative was a way of finding identity.

If you had to define your approach to life, would you say it’s more “I fight my way through” or “what’s meant for me will find me”? And why?

It is both, sometimes even at the same time, and it depends on the situation. I feel like being able to wait for what will find me is a fight itself sometimes. It is not easy to let go and trust the process, especially as an artist in these insecure times. Also, I think, these different states of being kind of depend on one another, one wouldn’t exist without the other.

Große Ringe, 2025. MDF, Presspan furniert, 43 x 210 x 180 cm. Ausstellungsansicht Picture a city – that‘s me, Universität der Künste, Berlin. © Kumo Bscura

How did you find your own specific (esthetic) expression, and how would you describe it today?

I think I haven’t found it yet and also I hope, I won’t. I want to be ever changing, being open to react what- or whoever is around me. I think, once you found your ‘esthetic’ there might be the danger that you might just start reproducing yourself. For me, art is about staying connected to the world and to get involved in a dialogue, connecting impression and expression. What I do feel though is that I am always very aware of how my body is in contact with the world and how I depend very much on my own personal and human perspective as my source of receiving. With my body I measure my surroundings. Even if that sounds weird, your own body (including the mind) is the only true reference of measure.

In what ways is your work connected to your personal development and life circumstances?

Working as an artist I can identify and connect a little bit more with the parts of my family that I haven’t seen so much. There are great artists in my family, women who did and do amazing sculpture. I think I’ve always felt naturally drawn towards the sculptural practice, and I only later understood that it might come from these parts of my family.

How have changes in your life influenced your art?

What I realized was that moving from my hometown Kiel to Berlin really changed the materiality and process of my works. Architectural elements play a bigger role now. Also, living in Paris influenced my particular interest in façades. So, in general I would say it is mostly the changing of spaces that paly a big role.

I might change in the future but right now I am here and from here I have to move on.

Schlafend wurde ich zum Baum, 2025. Aluminium, Plastik, Schaumstoff, Stahl, Textil, Wachs 250 x 23 x 27. © Paula Oltmann

If your artistic vision were a physical space, what would it look like?

It might just be the inside of my bag. Always a bit messy but not too much.

Describe a moment when working on something felt like “magic” to you.

I have a lot of epiphanies, ideas that shoot through my head, which, in that moment, seem to be the best idea ever. I try to not trust them too much anymore. My brain sometimes is playing jokes with me… I think the true magic is being born. Like, what the hell? And mothers, or their energy, can also be magic.

When does something feel successful to you – and when does it feel like a failure?

I think my moments of feeling most successful are those where I can forgive and be empathetic. In my work, the feeling of success is based on staying connected with myself and feeling the trust to do things in a playful way, so I don’t need to control too much.

Fassade 2, 2025. Pressspan, Furnier, Farbe 108 x 135 x 9 cm. Ausstellungsansicht Common Landscapes, ACUD Galerie, Berlin. © Luka Naujoks

How much of being creative is also a struggle with yourself, your insecurities, and doubts about whether what you’re doing is good enough?

Oh, it is always there. And of course it plays a big role. But I must say that I try to let go more and more, trying to not force success in a general sense. What really relieved me was the thought that it is ok and normal that not everyone will understand and like what I do and that I have no control about what other people think. I can only do the things the way I do them, and that is enough. I might change in the future but right now I am here and from here I have to move on.

Tell us about an idea you never realized – and why not.

There are so many… I am trying to think of one. It is really hard because at the same time all these different ideas are kind of iterations of the way I work. It rather feels like I didn’t realize certain versions of an idea. But of course, some of the things I thought of were not possible due to cost, size of the studio or being able to physically manage the work on my own. But I mostly try to work with the things around me, or material that I get quite easily. I think, you can realize an idea in so many different ways. Also, I don’t want to overplan or overconceptualize a work and then not be able to realize it.

Have there been women in your life who supported you along the way and walked this path with you? What was special about that and what did it teach you?

Of course. There is my mom, she always supported me mentally and emotionally. But I also have to name the two professors that I each was and am studying with, Antje Majewski and Ina Weber. They are both women and artists (not “women artists”, for the record) who do incredible work in both their own practice and their role as teachers, giving a lot to their students.

How would you encourage someone who is just beginning to discover their own vision?

Just keep going and be okay with it taking time. You will never be “finished” but you will learn a lot. And trust your own weird ideas, don’t cancel them out. Be open for surprises.

Name a question that nobody has ever asked you but that would be important to truly understand you.

Hard one… I don’t know if I have never really been asked that but I guess it would probably the be the question: “What is your biggest fear?”

Just keep going and be okay with it taking time. You will never be “finished” but you will learn a lot. And trust your own weird ideas, don’t cancel them out.

Gebinde, 2026. Draht, Textil, Plastik, Leder, Wax, 240 x 29 x 26 cm, Installationsansicht der Präsentation „Connecting Bridges – UdK student's exhibition in response to Kazuko Miyamoto – String Constructions“ im Mediationsraum, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2025. © Paula Oltmann

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