Rosa Stern is proud to present the first edition of TESTSPIEL: a series of short interventions by local artists using the space and architectural structure of Rosa Stern Space for the production of new works. The focus shifts to the artistic process and the production set becomes the exhibited work. Our first guest was Munich based artist Sophia Mainka. She produced the first sequences of her new video work SHTF (working title) and created a film set dealing with the topics of security, prevention and fear. The video work tells the story of a woman who lives in isolation and tries to stay safe by all means. The work is inspired by the prepper scene, post-apocalyptic video games and domestic safety strategies. It develops a voyeuristic view of the woman’s exhausting daily life.

Sophia Mainka is a Munich based artist who works with various media like drawing, video and sculptures, staged as absorbing installations. She studied philosophy at the LMU Munich (2012) and graduated as a master student of Alexandra Bircken (2020) and Stephan Huber (2018) at Akademie der Bildenden Künste München. She received the prize of the Erwin and Gisela von Steiner-Stiftung for her degree show. Her works investigate the intricate relationship between the current consumer culture and the fears and desires of the European middle class, oscillating between objectophilia and the wish to escape the constraints of modern-day capitalism. Recent solo and group shows: „Zweites Paradies“, Künstlerhaus Lauenburg (2019, Lauenburg), „Carmen“, Galerie der Künstler (2020, Munich), Positions Art Fair (2020, Berlin). She received the Stiftung Kunstfonds scholarship for SHTF.