In her most recent photographic works, Wilmsen turns her attention to museum spaces as complex institutional frameworks. Through her images, she explores new visual perspectives on institutions dedicated to art or scientific research. Her particular focus lies on the hidden, usually inaccessible areas of these institutions—those interstitial spaces where their structures, processes, and self-conceptions subtly reveal themselves.
Alice in the Field was developed during a one-year artist residency at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Andrea Wilmsen explored the museum’s vast collections and the research departments hidden behind the scenes, entering a world that unfolds like a parallel universe within the institution.
The series combines photographs of collection objects with portraits of scientists working largely outside public visibility, their immediate work environments, and selected private archival materials. Referencing “Alice in Wonderland,” the title frames the museum as a site of shifting perspectives and wonder—where knowledge production, classification, and imagination intersect.
The project got published in 2024 by Distanz Verlag.
The publication "Alice in the Field" got nominated for the longlist of "The Most Beautiful German Books 2025" by Stiftung Buchkunst, Frankfurt, Germany.
2022-2024
Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin, 23.5.2024
book release and artist talk
Foto @ Maria Gänßler
Alice in the Field
- Alicia en el Museo -
Goethe Institut Barcelona, 17.4.-17.7.2026
