Jan 10, 2026

Exhibition »Daria & Sharmila« with Former Fellow Sharmila Samant in Mannheim

Former fellow Sharmila Samant presents the exhibition Daria & Sharmila at the Off-space Maquis Mami Wata in Mannheim until January 10, 2025.

Solitude Alumna Sharmila Samant präsentiert bis zum 10. Januar 2026 die Ausstellung Daria & Sharmila im Off-Space Maquis Mami Wata in Mannheim.

Sharmila Samant is internationally renowned for her works exploring globalization, postcolonial identities, and consumer culture. In her practice, she transforms everyday materials such as bottle caps into woven textiles, mandala-like installations, and incisive commentaries on global capitalism.

In the exhibition Daria & Sharmila at Maquis Mami Wata, Samant presents Lux Loca – a constellation composed of discarded bottle caps that forms crystalline structures while simultaneously revealing global desires, consumer habits, and the often-invisible labor behind these materials.

The exhibition is a collaboration with Mannheim-based artist Daria Wilfing, whose ceramic works investigate natural materials and sustainable production processes.

Duration / Opening hours: Until 10 January 2026, Sundays, 4–5 pm Finissage & artist talk: 10 January, 8 pm
Where: Maquis Mami Wata, Bürgermeister-Fuchs-Straße 6, Mannheim

Sharmila Samant is a visual artist from Bombay/India.

She graduated with a degree in sculpture from the Sir J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai, in 1989 and obtained a diploma in interior design and decoration from the L.S. Raheja College of Architecture in 1990. She then completed a residency at the Kanoria Center for Arts, Ahmedabad, in 1992–1993, followed by a residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam/Netherlands, in 1998–2000 and Gasworks, London, in 2001. Samant was a fellow of Akademie Schloss Solitude in the Societal/Communal-based sphere of practice in 2025.

She works with a variety of media and forms, such as installations, performance, and photography. Globalization, identity, and consumer culture are issues central to her work. Samant has worked with activist groups and communities, engaging in both collaborative and participatory art projects, expressing her deep empathy for suppressed and marginalized voices.

She is the co-founder of a Mumbai-based collective called the Open Circle, which aimed to create a platform for meaningful dialogue among artists on an intercultural level and sought to address and engage with contemporary socio-political issues through the integration of theory and practice.

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