2025
installation

On the summer evening of 31 August 1900, while returning from a dance at Steffens Park, Maria Knoblauch, née Müller, told her husband Richard that she wanted to leave him. The man drew a revolver from his pocket and fired three times in her direction. The first bullet struck Maria’s left temple, the second her right, and the third, aimed at her torso, ricocheted off her corset. The woman ran to a nearby bench and called for help. A passing man in a carriage saved her life and took her to hospital.

One hundred and twenty-five years later, Magda Mucha seeks to fulfil Maria Müller’s unrealised dreams – Maria longed for independence and hoped to work at a station buffet. In her installation Delusions, the artist constructs a buffet for Maria, where every object carries multiple meanings. Here we find, for instance, drinks labelled with beliefs or phrases that often sustain us in situations of violence, such as ‘I thought he would change’…

It was violence that drove Maria to wish for separation. Almost every Saturday, Richard Knoblauch would start quarrels and assault her. Their marriage lasted two years – one hundred and twenty-eight Saturdays during which Maria endured aggression. Although she survived her husband’s brutal attack, her later fate remains unknown.

Magda Mucha’s work offers a symbolic tribute to Maria Müller, elevating her to the role of a spiritual guide. By rotating the table that forms part of the installation, a pointer marks the passing Saturdays of Maria’s suffering. The work reflects on entanglement in familial trauma and the confusion that arises within abusive relationships. In such circumstances, we lose the ability to distinguish truth from illusion; our thoughts and emotions gradually lose their weight. The artist offers a ‘takeaway menu’ containing vital information on how to seek help in moments of danger.

trigger warning: domestic violence

MAGDA MUCHA is a stage designer, costume designer and anthropologist. She graduated in ethnology from the University of Łódź and also studied fashion design and interior architecture. In her artistic work, she explores socially engaged themes, using a wide range of media including illustration, collage, objects, video and textiles. Many of her stage designs emerge from attentiveness to the specificity of the space in which she works, situating figures and themes within the context of place and time. Mucha is also the author and producer of documentary projects.