Photographs give the impression of depicting something. The Cologne-based artist Claudia Grünig utilises this fact for her photo cycle ‘Geister’ (Ghosts) by placing the illusion in ‘reality’ through her choice of medium. In doing so, she uses the individual elements of reality as a new beginning in terms of content and composition. The finished picture is created by superimposing several photos and only by cutting out individual picture elements. She often refers to content that we are familiar with. Quite banal occurrences and occasions, fairy tales and legends, history as well as pictures by old masters, are the initial impetus for the pictorial invention. The ‘ghosts’ gathered in this exhibition can be found in the cycles Fairy Tales and Legends, Guardians, Exhibits, Calamities, Home, Unbreakable as well as in her most extensive cycle Wonderland. The content of her works is characterised by different aspects. The uncanny and also the incalculable emanate from them; our hunches make us suspect, fear and hope, but not know… On the other hand, there are works that consciously and almost deliberately propagate their own idyll in a clichéd way. They remind us of childish wishes – an unspoken vague promise that could be fulfilled. Shining chandeliers, a recurring motif, thrown into the forest, fallen or lost, promise ‘rays of hope’ and the literal prospect that a little light may appear from somewhere, even if they too always harbour something sinister. In her cycle ‘unbreakable’, the artist shows fleeting moments. The fleeting moment inherent in these pictures, as well as the uncertainty as to whether the porcelain can still be saved, remind us of our own transience. With these works, however, the artist also refers to the desire for invulnerability that is deeply rooted in all of us. The appeal of these works stems not least from their ambivalence and, as in all her paintings, it remains open whether the viewer will be able to fulfil this desire when viewing the picture. Just as they wish.