Marita Vollborn

Artist Statement

My profession is writing, my calling is sculpting. As a science journalist, I am used to understanding the world through facts and describing it in clear, precise language.
Sculpting is the counterpoint for me: this is where I let go, work intuitively, and use my hands to give shape to everything that cannot be put into words – or does not want to
be put into words.

I mainly work with clay and create expressive, figurative sculptures that make conflicts and human ambivalence visible. Whether strength or weakness, power or guilt, fearlessness or despair – my figures are always honest and openly show what moves people from within.

I was born in 1965 in the former GDR and grew up in Thuringia. Life in the countryside gave me freedom and comfort early on – I loved community, but not being patronized. In 1989, I completed a degree in crop production and subsequently worked for an international food company. Later, I studied journalism at the University of Music and Drama in Hanover and,
together with two fellow students, founded a science journalism agency that still exists today. My first non-fiction book was published in 2001, followed by nine more, including bestsellers. Several of these titles have been included in the library of the German Bundestag and in the permanent collection of the US Library of Congress.

Yet facts and findings capture only one part of reality. In order to give form to the subtle and the unsayable, I began working with clay in 2010. Since then, around 50 sculptures have emerged in my project “Sinn und Scherben” (“Sense and Shards”), exploring facets of human nature and socialization. Some of these sculptures have already been cast in bronze.