DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM proudly present Holobionten, Bernhard Martin’s opus magnum, on view from July 1 through July 31, 2026, Tue–Fri, 11 AM–6 PM.

Epic in scale, the 25 meters long work premieres in our new headquarters at Linienstrasse 40, Berlin-Mitte.

Since 2020, Bernhard Martin has been working on the monumental wall frieze Holobionten, which spans eleven large-format canvases. Originally conceived as a four-part work, the project has evolved over the years into a growing pictorial organism—a painterly entity that brings together all the previous phases of his artistic practice, both formally and conceptually, while extending far beyond them. Martin regards Holobionten as his central artistic statement: a complete living being in both the literal and metaphorical sense.

A holobiont is a biological system consisting of a host organism and its symbiotic companions, which together form a viable, ever-changing organism. Martin translates this concept into painting—as an artistic metaphor for a world composed of heterogenous, sometimes contradictory elements: historical stylistic references, fragments of popular culture, personal experiences, mythical and scientific interpretations of the world, and speculations about the future. Past, present, and possible future merge within a constantly transforming pictorial space.

In Holobionten, different temporalities, spheres of life, and social and ecological constellations collide. The painting is conceived not as a representation, but as a living organism. Stylistically, the work traces his artistic development—from early expressionist approaches through figurative and surrealist phases to hybird, media-reflective pictorial solutions.

A man counts money through his fly. His chin forms an anal fold. A table fountain spews sparks a lasso swinging above. Under the table, women’s legs and microphones. Further back, the wallpaper tears open, revealing a landscape. A shredded fenestra, a picture within a picture. Then toilet paper and a stick figure. And women’s legs again, women above all, again and again, or parts of female bodies, pars pro toto. Keyholes, sponges, and phalluses. A raft, the moon, and a convict with his file. Bodies in color and color and bodies, strings in eyelets, syringes, and a bird, and arms stretching out, greedily grasping for an exit, a door. Only there is none. The gaze remains within the picture, roaming back and forth, up and down. There is so much to see, almost like in a Netherlandish Wimmelbild, a battle scene, or a panorama. But these are the wrong terms. For this picture is much more than the sum of its parts. Everything seems to be connected to everything else, like the manifold limbs of an organism.

The above is an excerpt from an essay by Björn Vedder.