In China not only intellectual, dissident artists have a tough life – think political repression, threatening, even imprisonment – their partners suffer, too. Liu Xia is one of those – she is the wife of Liu Xiaobo, writer, Nobel Peace Prize winner and dissident of China’s leading party. He has been in prison for almost five years now and Liu Xia herself has been under house arrest since 2010, although she was never charged with a crime.

A highly talented artist herself, her photographic work is now shown in Berlin. The opening of her exhibition in the Martin Gropius Bau was attended by friends and benefactors of her, i.e. author Liao Yiwu. Liu Xia was not allowed to leave her country to attend the exhibition opening. The only way to see her is on a TV screen where an interview with her is shown on video.

Put under arrest in her house in Beijing, the painter, photographer and writer suffers from increased mental and physical distress.

The photographs shown are from the series “Ugly babies” (1996 – 99). It shows ugly dolls that come alive in a disturbing manner: Scowling, howling, sulking and screaming – their eyes and mouths wide open and still silent. The photos are an outcry of horror, an expression of resistance and of helplessness at the same time.

The exhibition in Berlin opened last week and is on until April 19, 2015.