For the ML HEART launch and SS27 exhibition we teamed up with artist Paula Oltmann.

The space was framed by the work of Paula Oltmann. Oltmann (born 1997 in Kiel) is a Berlin-based artist and 2026 Gottfried Brockmann Prize winner whose sculptural work explores material as a gateway to memory and narrative. Towers of bangles rose from the floor like a skyline, while bags hung from the ceiling above them, a meeting on two levels. Paula Oltmann describes her piece as follows:

"Think of the city as one big bag. Inside it, a smaller bag. Maybe a house. And inside that, an even smaller bag: us. Within the fabric of the city we move from place to place, brushing against surfaces as we pass, pausing to look through a window, moving on, changed a little each time. We bring something home: a story, perhaps, or a new pair of shoes we put on the very next morning and walk out the door in. We meet others, or stay alone, telling ourselves what we don't yet know. At night we hold our clutches close, speaking softly to the houses as we wander the streets, hoping they will answer."

"Picture a city, that's me" brings together four works exploring the texture of the city as a fabric of stories. Each piece frames, opens or closes off a space in its own way, forming new connections or exposing old ones. Underneath it all lies one question: who are we, and how do we tell our own story? The four works offer a possible frame for that question. Oltmann's work and ML HEART's collection were developed independently of one another, yet the collaboration was no coincidence. Shapes and structures from her pieces, the rivet among them, reappear in ML HEART's accessories, so that the collection and the artworks relate to one another indirectly. It was this kinship that made it natural to conceive of the exhibition as one shared project rather than two separate parts of the program.