ELFIE SEMOTAN

To mark the 25th anniversary of the MQ, Elfie Semotan has photographed 25 personalities who share a special connection to the institution. Through her imagery, the individual character of each subject and their personal bond with the MQ comes to life, revealing it as a shared creative and living space. The graphic design by Beda Achermann extends this narrative further, staging the memories of the protagonists – drawn sometimes from private life, sometimes from a professional context – as an evocation of a place where stories, encounters, and ideas have been accumulating for a quarter of a century.

May 22 – September 25, 2026

Linz, Austria

Energie AG Upper Austria and OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH are once again presenting an impressive exhibition of current award winners at the Energie AG headquarters. The exhibition features Caroline Lerbro, winner of the Talent Promotion Award; Martin Veigl, winner of the Klemens Brosch Prize; Ilona Ágnes Tömő & Katja Vassilieva, winners of the Studio Residency; and Erli Grünzweil, recipient of the WHAT A VIEW! Photography Prize. Elfie Semotan joins the exhibition as an established and celebrated voice in contemporary photography.  

The dandelion – as a flower, botanical plant, cultural symbol and aesthetic phenomenon – possesses strength and quiet courage. Unobtrusive yet persistent, it adapts radically, returns, and resists. Under the title 30% Dandelion, the exhibition at  Kunsthaus Graz brings together more than 35 works dedicated to the flower and its direct connection to humans: humans share 30% of their genetic material with the flower. In the works, we encounter the melancholy of a crumbling present. At the same time, they take us on a journey into the familiar, beautiful, and intoxicating aesthetics of the flower and its exuberant expression of vitality. The focus is on recurring arrival, symbiotic cooperation and farewell: poetic, political and ecological.

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Elfie Semotan's flower photographs – spanning from the late 1970s to the present day – are featured in the exhibition "30% Dandelion" at Kunsthaus Graz.