She studied philosophy under Margherita von Brentano and film under Michael Klier at the Free University of Berlin, and under Jutta Brückner at the Berlin University of the Arts, supplemented by postgraduate studies in documentary film at the University of London. In 1997, she was appointed to the Chair of Audiovisual Production in Media Convergence at the HTWK in Leipzig. Her themes include Apeiron (ἄπειρον) and Peras (πέρας), trauma, and healing. 

Work Title: Transformation

In Daniela Butsch’s images, Lower Lusatia appears as a landscape of transition. Geological time periods, lignite mining, and today’s structural change overlap to form a visible transformation of nature, industry, and energy. At the center of her video work is the F60 overburden conveyor bridge, which serves as both a symbol of industrial intervention and a sign of its end. Where lignite was once mined, lakes, forests, and wind and solar farms are now emerging. The change is visible, but not yet complete. Daniela Butsch’s video recordings depict transformation not as a completed process, but as the coexistence of past, present, and future. The footage was shot at Partwitz Lake and Geierswalde Lake, as well as at the active Welzow-Süd open-pit mine—places where the transformation of the landscape can still be directly observed today.