Verhexen
VERHEXEN manifests as an accusation, recasting the Salem Witch Trials (United States, 1692) as paradigm rather than anomaly.
Grounded in academic research, this work decontextualizes historic testimonies and employs objects as metaphors to trace a direct line from the persecutions of the past to modern assaults on women’s bodily autonomy. Blending documentary and conceptual practices with archival materials, VERHEXEN dissects the punitive theater of “justice” through investigative irony.
Portraits of modern Witches anchor the work, alongside staged reconstructions of alleged offenses, and forensic documentation of artifacts (witch bottles, abortifacients), evoking criminological evidence. This visual approach compels viewers to decode fact from fiction and bear witness to the irrational reasoning used to condemn innocent women, reasoning that finds its echo in today’s headlines criminalizing reproductive choice.
Historically, witch hunt rhetoric functioned as a mechanism of women’s persecution; repurposed today for male exoneration, it reveals a continuum of patriarchal control where the evidence has changed, but the power structure remains. This series gives voice to the untold stories of victims long silenced by time and indifference.
This project will be published as a monograph by Kehrer Verlag in 2026.
