For Liste Basel 2025, our presentation weaves together two central themes of Sophie Utikal’s practice: maternity and migration, expanding to pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Using her own brown body as an anchor, Utikal crafts hand-sewn textiles that transform spaces with their scale and softness. These works explore cultural trauma, healing, and motherhood’s transitions, challenging colonial perspectives while honoring ancestral memory and embodied knowledge.

Sophie Utikal (b. 1987) is a textile artist based between Berlin and Vienna. She studied contextual painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2014–2019). Her work has been shown at Kunsthalle Wien, Museion Bolzano, and Mediterranea Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions include Kunstraum Innsbruck (2023), Kunsthalle Trier (2024) and neuer Kunstverein Gießen (2025). Her works are in public and private collections, including Museion Bolzano.