Clara Stoikow

When you live in a place only temporarily, your perception shifts. You are neither fully local nor simply a visitor. Time feels intensified—colored by the awareness that departure is inevitable and that part of your heart will remain behind. Clara Stoikow lived near New York City for four years. During long walks, she absorbed the energy of the city—its museums, architecture, murals, and street art. Inspiration was everywhere. The urban landscape, layered and dynamic, became a constant source of visual stimulation. After nine years abroad, returning to Berlin meant rediscovering a city she once knew intimately. It was there she had studied, built friendships, fallen in love, married, and started a family. Yet distance had altered her perspective. Berlin was no longer the carefree city of her student years nor the backdrop of young motherhood. As a working woman, architect, and artist, she now encounters the city through a new lens—finding inspiration in the textures and rhythms of everyday life. The quilts presented in this exhibition emerge from this dialogue between cities and identities. Inspired by maps, art, street art, atmospheres, and personal memories, they translate urban experience into textile form. Each quilt reflects movement, transformation, and the emotional geography of belonging.