Mika Sperling was born as the youngest of eight children in the remote, closed city of Norilsk, Russia. She later relocated to Germany, where she pursued studies in photography and book design before completing her MFA in studio art at the San Francisco Art Institute in California.

Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in photography and writing. Time and again, she returns to her childhood, seeking to confront significant, often traumatic, life events. Through this introspective process, she unravels the complex emotions attached to these memories, aiming to understand and ultimately heal. Since the age of thirteen, Sperling has used self-portraiture and creative writing as tools for documenting and processing her personal journey.

Currently residing and working in Darmstadt, Germany, her work has been exhibited internationally at renowned venues such as the Rencontres d’Arles, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Fort Mason Center for Arts, and Foam Museum in Amsterdam. Sperling’s project I Have Done Nothing Wrong has garnered several prestigious awards, including the Louis Roederer Discovery Award, the Zeitstiftung Bucerius Fellowship, and the German DGPH Award. In 2024, it was published as a monograph by Actes Sud, marking her second major publication.

Documenting myself in moments with my children became a way to confront the violence of my childhood and the silence that surrounded it. Through video performances, photography, text, and song. Since 2021 I explore the home as an intimate space where care and power intersect. The normalization of physical punishment in my family left me with secondary trauma and a deep fear of passing this violence on.

When I became a mother, suppressed anger and grief resurfaced. In a family-based self-help group, sharing art became a form of collective healing. My work compelled me to face a painful truth: taking responsibility for a child also means acknowledging and reflecting on how one’s own wounds can cause harm.

In moments of failure, I repeated certain patterns—but I chose responsibility, apology, and change. Gradually, this became a path from inherited violence toward the conscious decision to practice a peaceful form of motherhood.

During my stay as a Passage Artist-in-Residence, I was able to further develop and expand this work.