Ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard by Kinga Bódi

Paula Doepfner’s primary medium is drawing. Her intricate, branching compositions initially appear airy, delicate, and mysterious – resembling at first glance natural phenomena such as clouds, tree branches, or landscapes. But as we step closer, it becomes clear that these are not drawn lines at all, but text: tiny, 0.1 mm, thin printed letters, arranged side by side on translucent paper to fill the entire surface of the work. These texts are barely legible, and indeed are only visible from close up, while from farther away they dissolve into abstract, unreadable lines. They convey content that is not only difficult to read or comprehend, but also emotionally unbearable. Paula Doepfner uses no aids to create her drawings – no rulers, no magnifying glass, nor even so much as a pair of glasses. She works with her eyes and hands, drawing attention to the way in which historical events, as they recede in time, grow smaller, more elusive, harder to express, and ultimately invisible.

In her drawing Ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard she incorporates excerpts from Alwin Meyer’s book Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz (Vergiss Deinen Namen nicht – Die Kinder von Auschwitz) and Paul Celan’s poem Stretto (Engführung). Meyer’s book recounts the stories of Holocaust survivors who experienced the tragedy as children, as well as those of children who died in the concentration camp. Celan – “a bearer and participant of the Jewish fate, keeper of the past and the memory of the dead” – seeks in his poem to engage in a dialogue with the dead. This drawing, completed in November 2024, was specifically offered by Paula Doepfner to the Collection of Prints and Drawings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. In 2024, numerous exhibitions were held across Europe, including Hungary, to mark the eightieth anniversary of the Holocaust. Against this backdrop, it is particularly significant that Doepfner’s drawing Ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard has become part of a public collection in Hungary.

Kinga Bódi
October 2025

Text for the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Reminiscent Practices’, curated by Kata Harangozó, at the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest.