Welcome to Art in five Senses.

My name is Sonja Baer, art historian, life lover and passionate surfer. When I was in Bali for a surf trip a few years ago I made an experience that changed the way I looked at art. I was in my masters of art history for the fourth year at university and of course interested in which topics Balinese artist are dealing with in their paintings. So I went to this museum in Ubud watched closely at a painting and discovered that I couldn’t say a word about it. Although art history and researches about paintings and images was THE object of my studies. I had no idea if the paintings were religious, if they depict gods or if this were genre scenes. Nor did I know if there was any book (like the bible to speak in Christian ways of thinking) they were referring to. I left this museum and was amazed and shocked at the same time. “How can it be”, I was thinking, “that after all these years at university I was not able to even describe what I was seeing as soon as I am out of my cultural area?”

Eight months later I came back to Bali to get to know Balinese art and culture better and stayed over a year this time. This is why I am so interested in intercultural topics and in culture in general. It has so much influence on us and our thinking. We are what our cultures make us think is good or bad.

Today you can find me in back home in the Northern part of Germany where I live in a beautiful city called Hamburg.

Do you love art and culture as well? Join me then on my adventures through the art life of this world. Nowadays. Time travelling through other centuries and discovering different cultures and different forms of art all over the world.

Let’s flirt with culture!

Writing and Art Projects:

-Since 08/2018: Freelancing Author @ Gallerytalk.net

-06/2018: Free Author at Halle 4, Deichtorhallen Hamburg

-09/2017: “Pasar Indonesia” in Hamburg: Representing the paintings of the Balinese artist Apel Hendrawan/  Translation of the catalogue article (Indonesian => German)

-05/2017: “Walter Spies”, Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, De Gruyter Verlag

-06/2017: Altonale Short Story Writing: “Die Möwe Arthur und das Altonaer Möwenabkommen”  https://www.altonale.de/blog/2017/07/13/13-07-17-schreib-altona-altstadt-kurzgeschichten-aus-dem-stadtteil/

-04/2017: “Soner Bulut in der Villa Haller”: Preparation and Organization of the Exhibition, Proof-Reading of the work catalogue