WHO WANTS TO DIE? – PArTICIPATING ARTISTS

More about the project can be found here.

Marta Antoniak (*1986 Zabrze/PL) | ABRASIVE BATTLE
Liquid mass plastic figurines from cartoons, toys, gadgets and toy blocks are applied onto canvases. On one hand they are sentimentally reminiscent of one’s childhood, while on the other, they are coldly manipulated almost destroyed with the strategic hand of an artist. In this way one can both be a child and an adult at the same time. The work resembles architectural stucco medallions. The biomorphic patterns were achieved by a simple solution – plastic toys sunken in paint. What seems interesting is a contrast between the violence of this gesture and the decorative effect.

Marta graduated from Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in the Painting Department, Cracow in 2011. She is currently a PhD student in the same apartment after receiving her diploma. Marta’s work has been presented in Germany, Czech Republic, France, Netherlands, Poland and Lebanon, p.e. at the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow/PL.

Malte Bartsch (*1984 Braunschweig/DE) | UNTITLED

The video work shows a rocket that gets pulled back after it was launched by a cord string and explodes only when it touches the ground again. The video is not only dealing with the failure of the rocket but also deals with the failure of the belief in the progress and with the phantasm that the earth is our only reference and horizon of thinking which we can leave behind. The rocket describes many different contexts that continue evolving as the video goes on.

Malte received his B.A. in Human Geography and Economics at the Utrecht University Netherlands in 2009 and studied Installation and Sculpture at the Braunschweig University of Art. After a 6 months visit at the Beaux-Arts de Paris/F in 2012, he completed his studies at the Institut für Raumexperimente/UdK in 2014. Since 2015 he has been a Meisterschüler at the Berlin University of the Arts. His work has been presented in various exhibitions in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Croatia, China, Ethiopia, p.e.at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin/DE and Croatian Association of Artist, Zagreb/HR.

Christoph Both-Asmus (*1984 Soden-Salmünster/DE) | REQUIEM

The audience can listen to the artist Christoph Both-Asmus being in conversation with the botanists Prof. Francis Hallé and Prof. Phillipe Danton about Christoph’s sustainable art project THE TREE WALKER, the rainforest canopy, the mystery of life and the origin and responsibilities of humanity. Printed information about THE TREE WALKER project is part of the installation and can be taken away.  The video is based on a ritual live-performance by the artist. Charcoal pieces are set alight and placed around the stalks of beautiful flowers. One by one the flowers succumb to the smoldering heat of the charcoal, wilt and collaps. In contrast to the high-speed of the thousands of industrial chainsaws roaring the death knell for the rain forests, the performance and thus the video is quiet and very slow. This allows the viewer to take time to experience and relate on a more emotional level with the questions of our relationship to nature and the environment.
The multimedia artist Christoph Both-Asmus questions our relationship to nature and the environment. His work includes all kinds of media like performance, video, photography, sculpture and Land Art as well as installations, painting and drawing. He mainly uses natural materials such as live and dead animals, plants, ice, earth and fire.

Christoph received his M.A. from the Sandberg Institute of Fine Arts in Amsterdam in 2010. He received numerous awards and grants for his work, including the Mondriaan Fond Amsterdam. His work has been presented in exhibitions throughout Germany, Netherlands, Poland, UK, Portugal, Greece, Japan, Canada, USA, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon p.e. at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin/DE, Center for Polish Scultpure Oronsko/PL, Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig/DE, Coda Museum Apeldorn/NL, Serralves Museum, Porto/PL.

Krzysztof Debicki (*1977 Wrocław/PL) | THIN LINE SKY

The artist is mainly dealing in his works with the layers and histories of buildings and quarters, as well as the topics of urbanization, restoration and destroying.
Since 2012 he explores in countless works the motive of destruction by the example of the small village Hong Jia Ying (China), one of 3000 villages so called ‚village-in-a-city‘. It used to be more on the countryside, now it is in the middle of the fast growing city and gets absorbed by it. It should be taken down to make new place for skyscrapers.  For his works the artists obtained access to the dilapidated buildings, to document the consequences for the population.
His work is a reference to the thin line of heaven people can still see, being completely circled in skyscrapers. Furthermore it is discussing the supply networks which are also crossing the tiny line of heaven – and symbolize another topic: electricity, heating and water of the inhabitants, which are mostly turned off, if they don’t agree to the expropriation and stay in their houses.

Krzysztof received his B.A. with distinction in Drawing from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary in 2000 and his M.A. at the Institut für Raumexperimente/UdK in 2013. He lived in Calgary, New York, Rome, Barcelona, Beirut and Osaka before settling in Berlin in 2011. In 2012 he was the Junior Assistant at the BMW Guggenheim Lab, Berlin and worked for The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art and Science, in the Film and Video Department at the Whitney Museum of Art, NYC/USA, and at the Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto/JP. In 2013 Krzysztof was invited to the artist-in-residence at Contemporary Yunnan/CN and was awarded with the Mart Stam Prize in 2014. Exhibitions led him through Germany, Poland, Canada, USA und Japan, p.e. Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin/DE, Contemporary Arts Center, Osaka/JP.

Miłosz Flis (*1986 in Lublin/PL) | BARBECUE

His work is a brief comment on the human lack of moderation. By putting together participants of picnic and atomic explosion, the artist refers to the absurdity of the arms race and excessive mindless consumption, while showing that both phenomena on a global basis are the result of the same primitive myopia. As a counterweight to commented facts, the object was reduced to a very small scale. Milosz’ artistic interests include painting, sculpture, graphics and technology.

Miłosz holds a master degree from the sculpture department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw/PL in 2012. His works were exhibited in Poland, Belgium, France, Germany, Latvia and Bulgaria p.e. at the Museum of Sculpture in Oronsko/PL, Modern Museum and Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw/PL, OSTRALE – Centre for Contemporary Art in Dresden/DE, Le Beffroi – Ville de Montrouge in Paris/F, Science and Art Center “Bruzis” in Cesis/LV, Polish Institute in Sofia/BG, The Baltic Contemporary Art Gallery in Slupsk/PL, Hangar h18 in Brussels/BE, MDS Gallery in Wrocław/PL, Gallery Arttrakt in Wrocław/PL, Gallery Labirynt in Lublin/PL, Mazovia Contemporary Art Center “Elektrownia” in Radom/PL.

Jakob Grebert (*1987 Rüdesheim/DE) | TO BECOME AN EVEN BIGGER MONSTER

The title of the work is a reference to a possible way of dealing with fear, which tries to become scarier than the source of one’s fears. The drawings show glimpses of the life of a nameless protagonist, who wears a red pointy hat. Primarily the hat is a means of narration, which assigns the story to an alternate reality. There is no linear narrative, the images are not directly linked to each other and the viewer seemingly misses out on the nodal points of the story. It can be observed however, that the protagonist is hardly taking part in his own story. The aforementioned monster might also be a person that has gotten comfortable with being alive, but not living.

Jakob finished his  Bachelor of  Fine  Arts at  the  Muthesius Kunsthochschule in Kiel/DE in 2014 During his studies he spent half a year in Tromsø/Norway at the  Norges Nordiske Universitet, followed by a stay at the Ecole Superieur d‘Art et Design in Saint-Etienne/F. He is a scholarship holder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and a co-founder of the artist collective STUDIO 18.

Rafael Ibarra (*1986, Mexico City) | HEARTBEAT CLOCK

Place your finger on the sensor installed in the pedestal. Keep constant pressure until the clock starts moving! The clock will move as long as the pulse sensor receives information from the blood flow in your finger.

An analogical wall clock is connected to a pulse sensor. Each time the sensor reads a heartbeat of a touching visitor a signal is sent to the stepper motor to turn the second hand of the clock approximately 6º. The piece creates a link between a vital sign and the time measuring device per excellence. Clocks work based on the premise that time runs in one direction and never backwards, but always towards the entropy.

The classical expression “memento mori” became important to the artist in a period of his life when many decisions had to be made. As most of young people postpone many things for the future they waste plenty of chances driven by fear. How would we behave if we could really acknowledge that we can die anytime? It keeps Rafael fascinating, how important the role of the ‘death is a friend’ is like in the Zen philosophy as well as in the beliefs of the Shamans of his home country Mexico. If you recognize how much life time is limited, do you really want to spend creating conflicts and fears?

Rafael began his artistic education under the mentorship of the painter Saúl Villa Walls. In 2011 he started to study Visual Arts at the Berlin University of Arts. In 2013 he was a guest-student at the Institut für Raumexperimente/UdK. In 2015 he was awarded with the Berhard Heiliger Fellowship for sculpture and exhibited at the Foundation’s museum in Berlin. He graduated this summer from the University of Arts Berlin with a Meisterschüler degree.

Janosa Mike (*1993, Hamburg/DE) | RIP BABY

The peacefulness of a baby lies in all of us; however, over the course of our lives we learn to forget it. The work shows 100 soaps in form of newborns lying on the floor, waiting for their future lives. The number is as a symbol of unity and wholeness. Almost every individual on earth is surrendered to an identical fate: being thrown into a world where racism, religion and resources are still the main causes of wars. The washing bowl demands the spectator to kneel and wash himself, cleansing all wicked feelings and thoughts we hold against our environment.
Janosa has been studying at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg since 2012. Initially starting with product design, she decided to switch to the Fine Arts. Past exhibitions of Janosa were shown in Germany p.e. at the Gallery Genscher in Hamburg/DE.

Teresa Otulak (*1992 Szczecinek/PL) | KZ SYNDROME

Speaking about the problems of any discrimination usually draws attention to the problems of the public. The smallest social group like a family is overlooked. Very often in relationships with the closest people we use hate speech, not knowing the reason. The reason of this can be traumatic experiences, which describes the ‘KZ Syndrome’ (Survivor guilt). It occurs in the former concentration camp prisoners and it is inherited by their descendants.

Teresa’s works include experimental animated film, installation and collage. She studied Multimedia at the Szczecin Art Academy. She has exhibited her works in Poland.

Urszula Pieregończuk (*1984 Pionki/PL) | PARABELLUM Luger

The work is a quasi documentary movie using found footage talking about Georg von Luger and his invention: the 9mm Parabellum pistol. It was the first mass-produced gun which was officially accepted into the military service. Between 1908 and 1942 it was the first service pistol for the German army. The gun’s journey can be retraced from utilitarian object to symbolic artifact, which lost its primary war context. The soundtrack plays a key role in the movie – the British-English voiceover and instrumental music in the background create an atmosphere of the film which can be compared to the excitement and joy like in the beginning of the 20th century.

Urszula herself acts as director, screenwriter, editor, producer and scenographer. Since 2008 the artist has been making films oscillating at the intersection of theatre and cinematography, and since 2013 she has been developing found footage films, and creating sculptures and installations. She graduated from the Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin/PL in 2011. She exhibited in Poland, Ukraine, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, p.e. at the Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko/PL and the National Art Museum, Kiev/UA.

Jovana Popic (*1977 Zadar/RS-CRO) | SPACE NEGATIVES – BLACKBOARDS

The series was shot in a devastated grammar school in the former war zone in Ex-Jugoslavia. In the plundered classrooms the empty spaces are still visible where the blackboards used to be. The main attention point was in charge of educating and giving knowledge to a younger generation. With some irony this work underlines that education failed in giving the society the power to prevent hate and destruction. The blackboard’s absence penetrates and creates an immaterial, inverted place, a breakthrough inside a world of a disrupted occasion. Their power is that of the Hegelian inversion and the force of the negative which should be regarded as stairs of a greater process, leading relentlessly to higher knowledge and social unity.
The work of the multimedia artist consists of drawings, objects and phosphorescent polyester, videos and installations. She explores in addition to the specified location the transcendent level of existence. The focus of her productions is the involvement of the visitor to follow the artistic devotion to culture and history of a place, but also of nature.

Jovana entered the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade with a Serbian State Scholarship for Science and Art Talents. She has been often awarded for her work such as BurgaKnipsel Founding Scholarship in 2010-12, with the ‘Meisterschülerpreis des Präsidenten’ of the Berlin University of the Arts in 2010, the Friedrich Neumann Foundation Scholarship in 2006. She has exhibited her works in Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Russia, USA and Japan, p.e. at the 50th Biennale di Venezia, Venice/IT, Contemporary Art Museum Macura, Novi Banovci/RS.

Włodzimierz Pożniak (*1985 Grodno/PL) | 6704476

During his service in the Belarusian army the artist received an order to carve an AK – 74 machine gun in wood. The title refers to the serial number of the gun. Due to lack of tools he used a knife to make it and repeated this act in 2014.

His works include different media like painting, drawing, stage design, video installation, performance and object. Włodzimierz completed his study of Fine Arts at the State University of Grodno and studied New Media and Stage Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He teaches at the Faculty of Arts and works as artistic director of the Drama Theatre in Grodno.

Dominik Ritszel (*1988/Rybnik /PL) | CAMPERS

His film opens on a sequence where we see two soldiers in front of an undefined concrete construction, in a winterland scape. As the sequence unfolds, they begin to act strangely, playing nonchalantly with the codes of military parade. An uncertainty prevails throughout the film, in which it never becomes clear what the role of the two soldiers is as they appear in one site after another. It is never sure if they are patrolling these sites or if they are idly defyin military duty. The absence of any narrative leads us to consider the soldiers as extras in a scenario where the main characters are finally the sites themselves: a park, an abandoned artificial lake, ruins of an unfinished police academy, a railway line, which appears deserted or as idle as the soldiers themselves. Common to all the sites is the fact that all lost their functions. Due to a lack of maintenance, the municipality had no other choice than emptying the polluted water of a lake. How do you value a space? There is nothing to fight for, nothing to conquest in these spaces (like on playground).
Dominik creates his films like music, focusing on the rhythm of close-ups and zoom-ins. He emphasizes his characters at a starting point, before anything has happened. He allows viewers to accompany them, to delight in boredom, anxiety and excitement that have been created for them.

The artist studied at the Faculty of Graphics/Institute of Arts at the University of Silesia in Cieszyn/PL and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice/PL, where he experimented with graphic arts. His works were exhibited in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Finland and Poland. He was often acknowledged p.e. he represented Poland during the Rauma Biennale Balticum in Finland 2016, with his video Versus. He has been crowned as the 2015 winner of the Young European Artist Trieste Contemporanea Award.

Martin Schwarze (*1987,  Berlin/DE)  | TÄTER

Martin’s work focuses on the interaction between art and sociopolitical themes. His series present the terrorist’s responsibility for the 11th September 2001 attacks. Unlike the media,  Schwarze is not simply showing his audience who the terrorists were. He presents the people who the public find guilty for these attacks as Christian icons. This style of painting resembles of Giotto’s  work. By showing the terrorists in a different religious light, Schwarze questions the obvious initial view the public has of these people: If these people are seen as religious icons to their faith, shall we doubt our view on our own religious icons? More importantly: Do they not challenge our culture’s moral and ethical codes? Do we not become terrorists ourselves, when we forcefully invade their country? With his work, the intention is to change perspective, thus hopefully creates more understanding.

Martin studied Graphic Design at  the  Academy  of  Fine Arts  Leipzig,  achieving  his  diploma  in  2016.

Anna Siekierska (*1987 Warsaw/PL) | GLORIA VICTIS

She is working with different mediums as installation, sculpture, drawing, photography, but recently she is creating mostly wooden structures. The most important idea in her works is an ethical approach to the animals and environment. In March 2016 she was invited for an artistic residency in the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko/PL and there created two installations taking on the subject of hunting.

Anna received her M.A. in Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw/PL with the title „the house for hens” which was shown in the exhibitions of the Best Art Diplomas in Warsaw/PL in 2013 and in Glasgow/UK in 2014. She has exhibited her works in Poland and UK. She received a scholarship for academic merit 2009–2013. She is artistically active in the field of sculpture and wooden structures, drawing, painting and photography.

Wanda Stang (*1985 Bad Saarow/DE) | IT’S ALL A MENTAL THING

The artist reflects the debate about humans and their inner self, and investigates the term „pacifism“ from the inner perspective. For her the precondition for pacifism is based on the inner position of every single person. Wanda also deals with self-resistance towards self-deconstructing powers and the willingness for being open towards the different. Another influence in the work of the artist takes the topic of transience and the resulting realization of unpreventness. Especially the countless facets are discussed, which build themselves up between the poles of the simple acceptance of this fact and the power of thoughts which can change everything.

Wanda completed her studies in Painting and Pedagogy for Waldorf schools as well as the studies of Fine Arts in Baden-Württemberg and is currently a Meisterschüler at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art, where she graduated from classes of painting, textile and surface design. From 2006 to 2007 she was involved in the restoration work for the re-opening of the Neues Museum in Berlin. In 2011 her path led her to London, where she worked as a designer for Alexander McQueen. Back in Berlin, she participated in solo and group exhibitions in Germany, Netherlands und Hungary, p.e. at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin/DE and Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle, Berlin/DE.

André Uerba (*1983 Lisbon/PT) | LIFE AND OTHER MATTERS

Uerba is mainly interested in the media performance, films, videos, installations and photography. His work searches for ways of transforming the meanings of selected objects without transforming their original functions. The artist is striving to activate at imaginary space where the process of “reading” seeks a presence of a compact body, in essence did extracts material from reality and time. Like vanishing, like appearing. Like anxiety, like release. Like twilight, like gazing. Like sleeping, like shifting states. Like collapsing, like being under water. Like remarks, like triggers. Like my eyes, like the camera. Like the interior, like the unconscious. Like fragments.

For the last few years he has been working on the threshold of Performance and Visual Arts, extending his work-study to diverse territories while developing ways of capturing “interior” imagery – landscapes triggered by emotions. Other matters is a constellation of sculptures that brings together new pieces that have never been displayed before. The pieces are constructed to stand both, as single pieces in the gallery context, or to be activated in a performative set up: an image he had for a long time in his mind – the Li(f)e neon piece – and the question: what it means to exist?

André holds a M.A. in Arts, Solo/ Dance/ Authorship from the HZT and University of Arts Berlin (2013-2015). Before he studied Graphic Design and after short passage through the Lisbon Theatre and Film School he decided to study Photography at Ar.co (Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual) where he was a grant holder in 2011. In the same year Uerba did a residency at Sparwasser HQ Berlin. In 2013 he received the Centro Nacional de Cultura’s (Portugal) Young Creator grant. He is a performer and visual artist developing since 2007 both collaborative and solo works along the intersection of performance and visual arts. His artistic work has been presented widely in Portugal, Germany, Denmark and France.

Ivar Veermäe (*1982 Tallinn/EST) | CRYSTAL COMPUTING (Google Inc., St.Ghislain)

Data in the Cloud seems to be disembodied. But in reality, it does have a physical manifestation, albeit a small one, on the hard drives on internet servers. To cool the servers requires massive amounts of energy, so the data is stored in huge centers that look like factories, complete with chimneys releasing large clouds of vapor into the atmosphere. One of the largest data centers in the world with close to 300.000 servers is in St. Ghislain, Belgium, where Google Inc. uses a code name, Crystal Computing. Ivar Veermäe was not granted permission to visit the centre, so he filmed it from a distance. The distance makes the physical location of the data take on a magical quality, like an unattainable paradise, but with unfavourable auspices. The work of Ivar circles around questions of public space, networks and new technologies. As a result of long-term artistic research by means of photography, film and sound, his works are presented in versatile ways such as video, on-site installations, interactive works and performances. Ivar aims to document and analyze the infrastructure underlying our contemporary culture of data and information. His projects show a processual, still evolving and therefore non-finite character that enables further discussions.

Ivar received his B.A. in Photography from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2009 and his M.A. from the Institut für Raumexperimente/UdK in 2014. He received numerous awards, such as Elsa-Neumann-Scholarship in 2015, Media Art Grant of the Edith-Russ-Haus, the Grant of Foundation of Lower Saxony in 2014 as well as the Wiiralt Scholarship from the Estonian Ministry of Culture. His works have been exhibited in various exhibitions in Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegowina, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Australia and Brazil, at venues such as Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin/DE, Kunstverein Wolfsburg/DE, Contemporary Art Museum Tallinn/EST, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga/LV.