Following a call for applications for the research and creation residency for architects, architecture researchers, illustrators, and authors at the Academia Belgica in Rome in 2023, 6 proposals were assessed. At a meeting on 24 January, the jury welcomed the range, focus and quality of the projects submitted. The jury members were Eline Bleser (Luxembourg Center for Architecture), Claude Kremer (National Centre for Literature) and Anne Simon (Resident 2022).
The jury unanimously decided to award the residency to Nathalie Kerschen for her research proposal URBS ANIMALIS.
Jury Statement
The jury was particularly impressed by the theme Natalie Kerschen proposed, a natural extension of her PhD research. The precision and methodology underpinning her thinking, combined with the almost intuitive approach she plans to take in the field, were rated highly by the jury which commended her for the exemplary nature of her academic approach.
The topic proposed by Nathalie Kerschen dovetails perfectly with current debates – still in the early stages – questioning current thinking about cities from the perspective of inclusive coexistence living beings in urban spaces. It is therefore highly relevant to current research in the field of architecture and the way in which we inhabit nature.
Project (extract from application)
“Drawing inspiration from the hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to architecture and recent developments in eco-phenomenology—i.e. the philosophical attempt to an ‘experience of nature’ through ‘nature of experience’ (Toadvine)—and studies of animals and anthropology, my research creation projects—which lie at the intersection between architecture and speculative design—aim to renew the relationship with animals in Rome through the prism of what the phenomenologist David Abram calls ‘becoming animal’.
This proto-eco-phenomenological approach is based on the idea that human bodies are in harmony with non-human bodies on the basis of a combination of physical experiences and conditions. It can be linked to the concepts of ‘interanimality’, and ’empathy’ (Einfülung) developed by the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty; a bodily experience shared by humans and animals. Since (eco)phenomenology focuses on the experience of animals, it offers a backdrop for examining the conditions and spatial contexts of non-human living beings from a familiar perspective, i.e. as co-inhabitants of our urban and rural spaces. At a time when exponential growth of urban populations, the extinction of species, and the loss of biodiversity seem irreversible, making animals visible in Rome means giving them a platform and bringing them back into focus for architects.”
About Nathalie Kerschen
After obtaining a master’s from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais and studying philosophy at Paris Sorbonne IV University, Nathalie Kerschen continued her academic studies at McGill University in Montreal. In November 2022, she defended her doctorate in the History and Theory Department at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture on ‘Reclaiming Nature in Computational Architectural Design: From Biology to Phenomenology’. In addition to her academic studies, Nathalie has worked for international architect’s offices and been exhibited in contemporary art centres, including Casino – Forum d’art Contemporain in Luxembourg and iMal Art Center for Digital Cultures & Technology in Brussels. In 2022, she began to teach theory and practical courses in the Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University in Montreal.
As a researcher, Nathalie has received several grants, including an AFR grant from the Luxembourg National Research Fund (2016-2020), a Schulich grant (2016), a Meita grant from McGill University (2016-2019), excellence grants for architecture graduates (2021) and an award on completing her doctorate (2022) from the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture.
Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Cultural service at the Embassy of Luxembourg in Berlin, is offering a six-week choreographic research and production residency at the Uferstudios Berlin, on the basis of a call for applications. This residency abroad encourages choreographers to immerse themselves in the Berlin art scene and promotes networking with the local art scene, contributing to the long-term development of their professional career.
The jury, made-up by Ainhoa Achutegui (neimënster), Mathis Junet (TROIS C-L – Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois), Jérôme Konen (Kinneksbond, Centre Culturel Mamer) and Saeed Hani (choreographer and 2021 laureate)assessed the applications received and forwarded their recommendations to the Uferstudios. Following the selection process, Anne-Mareike Hess‘ application was selected by the direction of Uferstudios Berlin.
Anne-Mareike Hess
Statement of Uferstudios Berlin
Simone Willeit, director of the Uferstudios, was delighted with the quality of the applications submitted by the jury. Knowing and appreciating the work of Anne-Mareike Hess, Simone Willeit was convinced by the Luxembourg choreographer’s residency project and particularly emphasised her intention to collaborate and interact with many artists in the framework of this residency. Anne-Mareike Hess has been familiar with the work of the Uferstudios for a long time and has accompanied Luxembourg artists in residence there in recent years. There is also no doubt that research period at the Uferstudios will strengthen her anchorage in the Berlin art scene.
Biography
Anne-Mareike Hess (DE/LU) works as a choreographer and performer. Trained at the Conservatory in Luxembourg, she continued her studies at the HfMDK in Frankfurt am Main and at the HZT Inter-University Center for Dance in Berlin. As a performer, she has worked with choreographers such as William Forsythe (Human Writes), Eeva Muilu, Rosalind Goldberg (MIT and Jump with me), Ingri Fiksdal (Cosmic body) and Antje Velsinger (PERFORM!), with which she has performed in a number of prestigious venues around the world.
Anne-Mareike’s works have been shown at numerous venues and festivals throughout Europe. This includes: I believe that we are having a dialogue, Tanzwut and Synchronization in process. Warrior, her first evening-long solo (2018), has been selected by Aerowaves Twenty20. In 2021 she premiered the one-on-one telephone project Through the wire and the new solo Dreamer.
For many years Anne-Mareike worked in close collaboration with TROIS C-L – Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois (LU) and Skogen (SE). Since 2016 she is associated artist at Weld in Stockholm (SE), in 2017-2019 she has been supported by the Grand Luxe network and she became an associated artist at neimënster (LU) in 2020-2023.
2012 Anne-Mareike was awarded with the Prize for emerging artists by the “Stiftung zur Förderung junger Talente”. 2015 Anne-Mareike was awarded with the “Danzpraïs” from the Ministry of Culture in Luxembourg.
Anne-Mareike Hess about her residency : « My motivation to apply for this residency, is my deep wish to have some creative time in Berlin to, outside of any production context, further and expand my choreographic language and practice and dive into this new research around the subject of “portrait”. Uferstudios is a vibrant place where many artists work and cross and performances and festivals are happening frequently. This residency would be the opportunity for me to finally connect to some great artists and colleagues based in Berlin and invite them to the studio to join me in the studio. »
A call for applications for the 2023 Research and Creation Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin resulted in 5 project proposals The jury met on two occasions: once in Luxembourg on 28 November; and once in Berlin on 30 November. It commended the quality of the applications and projects submitted. The first round jury members were: Clément Minghetti (Mudam – Luxembourg); Claudine Hemmer (Ministry of Culture); and Lisa Kohl (Resident 2022). The second round jury members were experts chosen by the Künstlerhaus Bethanien.
The jury decided to award the residency to Yann Annicchiarico for his research project titled “Mitdenken – Von Berberaffen und Kletten im Atelier” (Thinking – About Barbary Macaques and Burdock in the Atelier).
Jury Statement
The jury was particularly impressed by the energy the artist has poured into his personal research. The complexity of his work which explores radical otherness through cognitive thresholds is further developed in this proposed project. The artist’s approach this time follows the fine line that artificially separates humans, animals, nature and culture. Using the senses, he creates a way to perceive phenonmenon that are otherwise inaccessible to cartesian thinking. This time, however, Annicchiarico uses a geography and topics that are much more intimate and personal.
The Künstlerhaus Bethanien jury noted the following:
“We feel that the artist’s aesthetic approach is particularly varied, lying somewhere between art/research and magic. By exploring the relationship between the human and non-human, he is in direct contact with the most burning of contemporary issues. We therefore believe that he is extremely contemporary in the best sense of the term.”
The project (extract from the application)
“My work aims to integrate the way in which other living beings live into human thought. It seeks to abolish the artificial separation of nature and culture. It is in this light that I’ve been following current theories on non-human anthropology from the past decade with great interest. The body of works presented in my portfolio began with a chance encounter when a moth passed through one of my sculptures and left a trace of its presence. As flying, noctural creatures, the biological make up of moths offers radically different ways to exist and perceive the world, in comparison to ours. My small human universe was enriched by that chance encounter with an insect. Another important aspect of my work concerns the way in which architecture, through modern cities, structures our human thought and is undoubtedly the origin for this artificial division between nature and the world, nature and culture.”
About Yann Annicchiarico
Yann Annicchiarico (1983, Luxembourg) has held solo exhibitions at KIT – Kunst im Tunnel in Düsseldorf (2020), Nosbaum Reding Projects in Luxembourg (2019), and the Centre des Arts Pluriels in Ettelbruck (2018), and joint exhibitions at the MUDAM – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg (2021) and the Museo Archeologico del Chianti Senese in Italy (2019). He has been an research artist at the Contemporary Art and Temporalities of History (ACTH) research department at the Lyon Ecole des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) since 2011. He has completed residencies at the Fonderie Darling in Montreal (2019) and the Villa Medicis Académie de France in Rome (2015). He received the Francis-André grant in 2020 for his first monographic exhibition in a public institution at the KIT – Kunst im Tunnel in Düsseldorf. His work was selected for New Positions at Art Cologne in 2019. In 2022, he received a Kultur | lx Portfolio Grant for his book, De papillons de nuit et de l’échelle de Muybridge/Of Moths and Muybridge’s Scale. He lives and works in Luxembourg.
A call for applications for the 2023 Multidisciplinary research and creation residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris resulted in 11 project proposals. At a meeting on 29 November, the jury was pleased to note the diversity, quality of, and investment in the proposed projects. The jury members were: Souraya Kessaria (Cité internationale des arts, Paris); Marlène Kreins (Centres d’art de la Ville de Dudelange); Letizia Romanini (Resident in 2022); Nathalie Ronvaux (Kulturfabrik, Esch-sur-Alzette); and Francisco Sassetti (Philharmonie Luxembourg).
The jury unanimously decided to award the residency to the artist Julien Hübsch for his research project titled ‘walls/origins/replacements‘.
Jury Statement
The jury was particularly impressed by the extent to which the artist’s proposal was already well-developed, the relevance of the reflections under consideration, and the research process which is firmly rooted in the public space in Paris and the way in which is evolving.
The jury also noted the artist’s professional experience and believes that the residency comes at a significant moment in his career and will allow him to put his research into practice in the international environment of the Cité des arts and in Paris more generally.
The Project (extract from the application)
“Much of my work as an artist has focused on vandalism and the way in which it is dealt with in public spaces. My work is therefore connected with the history of graffiti. It looks not only at the technical aspects of painting with spray cans, but also the importance of public spaces as a playground.
During my residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, I would like to research historical sites that saw rapid growth in street art and tags across the world and which were considered key areas for interactions between graffiti artists since the end of the 1960s.
I believe my work would benefit significantly from time spent outside my production studio in Germany and allow me to focus my field research in one of the most important places for my current work in progress.”
About Julien Hübsch
Based in Luxembourg and Mainz, Julien Hübsch (1995, Esch-sur-Alzette) has studied at the Kunsthochschule Mainz, the Bauhaus University in Weimar, and the HGB Leipzig. He has been taught by Anne Speier, Franziska Reinbothe, Prof. Shannon Bool, Prof. Thomas Schmidt, Heike Aumüller, and Prof. Sven Kroner.
Julien Hübsch’s practice explores the concepts of vandalism and the understanding of urban spaces in order to create environments that fluctuate between paintings, in situ sculptures, and installations.
His work has been shown in several individual and group exhibitions in Germany and Luxembourg. He was also nominated for the Edward Steichen Award (2022) and the Robert Schuman Art Prize (2021).
Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, in partnership with Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn – Les Amis du Livre a.s.b.l., and in collaboration with the National Centre for Literature, launched a call for a two-month writer’s residency at the Literarisches Colloquium (LCB) in Berlin, including a supporting grant. A space for reflection, a workshop for experimentation, and an incubator for talent, this prestigious international literary institution organises readings, seminars and other literary events.
Jury members Christiane Krier (Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn), Frank Hansen (Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn), Ludivine Jehin (National Centre for Literature), Sébastian Thiltges (University of Luxembourg) and Nora Wagener (author & Luxembourg laureate) assessed the applications received and forwarded their recommendations to the LCB. At the end of the selection process, Jeff Schinker‘s application was selected.
Jury Statement
Jeff Schinker is a very active and prolific writer. His work is an integral part of Luxembourg’s literary and cultural scene. Through a large body of published works, the author has demonstrated a flair for experimentation and innovation. Supported by a start-up grant from l’Œuvre de la Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, the author completed a writer’s residency at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin in 2016. During that period, he was able to develop important new contacts and explore Berlin’s literary scene and sector.
The jury unanimously agreed on the quality of the research proposed and the reasoning behind the text the author plans to write. The author will address a subject that is still relatively unexplored in Luxembourg’s literature: emigration stories. A residency at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin is not only highly relevant to Jeff Schinker’s research, but also a key stage in his career and development as a writer.
The jury is therefore pleased to award this residency which will contribute to the promotion and development of Luxembourg’s authors and literature.
Author biography
After a childhood full of fun and games he barely remembers, Jeff Schinker (1985) spent his awkward teenagers devouring a ton of books, thereby causing a certain amount of damage to his digestive system. He then moved to Paris where he began a never-ending course of studies at university that could one day be crowned with a doctorate in comparative literature should he ever decide to pick them up again. He frittered away his time in the French capital, a clear sign that he was preparing for a career as a writer. He just needed his first texts, which he duly wrote in his studio apartment, and which were so bad that he couldn’t even find himself a Max Brod he could ask to burn them on his behalf. The writer persevered, however, as evidenced by his contribution to Fragments 3973, published by Hydre Éditions in 2013. After Retrouvailles, which came out in 2015 with the same publisher, things really took off. Unable to live off his writing despite the incredible success of his first book (in 2022 alone, the publisher reportedly sold one or two copies), he turned to journalism and became the editor of the Tageblatt culture section. After being included in several anthologies published in English and French, Schinker made a comeback with Sabotage, a megalomaniac project written in four languages. It was destined to be a flop, but was in fact shortlisted for the Servais Prize, the Lëtzebuerger Buchpräis, and the European Prize for Literature. In addition to these two trades, Schinker also organises readings which are much like his books, namely a little off the wall. After submitting the manuscript for Ma Vie sous les tentes to his publisher – a book that would also be shortlisted for the Servais Prize- he disappeared into thin air, disillusioned by the world in general and the literary microcosm in particular. According to a few juicy rumours doing the rounds on the Luxembourg cultural circuit, he’s apparently working on a fourth novel, but no one knows much about it, beyond the fact it’ll be full of sentences that are far too long.
The LCB residency is made possible due to an endowment from the Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn – Les Amis du Livre a.s.b.l. who support the book sector by donating part of the proceeds from sales of second-hand books by Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn volunteers to promote the production of literary works in Luxembourg.
Authors receiving the grant also undertake to write a Bourglënster Ried which will be published as a limited-edition pamphlet funded and co-published by the National Centre for Literature.
In collaboration with the Fonderie Darling in Montreal, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg offers visual artists research and creation residencies for a period of three months. For the first time, a pilot project will extend the residency by three weeks as part of the programme for joint Residencies at the Matapédia Station (Gaspésie).
Following a call for applications, jury members Stéphane Meyers (Rotondes), Stilbé Schroeder (Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’Art Contemporain) and Suzan Noesen (artist in residence in 2022) selected Justine Blau for her project VOYAGE EN SOLASTALGIE.
Jury Statement
Justine Blau has a solid track record and a strong relationship with Luxembourg whilst also being open to a wide range of influences and horizons. From her very first photo collages, Blau has explored landscapes in her work and the ways in which they are transformed by climate change and human intervention. More recently, Justine Blau has incorporated an ethical and ontological aspect into her work by looking at the plants and living beings that make up these landscapes and how they interact in various ways. Her research has naturally led her to look back at the ways in which humans have interacted with their natural environment: a relationship of domination and subjugation interwoven with narratives and beliefs, a relationship that is the opposite of the interdependence shown by other living species. In her most recent work, Blau has explored the memories of past landscapes and how they have been confronted with the way in which these landscapes have evolved and changed. This research has led the artist to focus on the people who saw their environment change as a result of progressive subjugation and who still suffer the effects of a deep trauma (solastalgia). Justine Blau uses her conceptual, almost scientific research, to create extremely refined visual works, such as videos, installations and tapestries.
In addition to the intrinsic value of Justine Blau’s work, the jury believes that the artist’s process for her project to explore the way in which communities of Indigenous peoples in Canada understand and pass on the concept of nature and landscape could be further developed during a residency in Montreal. The jury would also like to mention the artist’s contribution to art in Luxembourg and the synergies she has created around her. Her experimental approach, the range of collaborative aspects to her work, and her ability to open doors and build relationships with others are strengths that will undoubtedly ensure that this short residency will be fruitful.
About Justine Blau
Justine Blau adopts a multidisciplinary approach in her work, combining sculptures, installations, photographs and videos. Through her work, she addresses philosophical questions about humanity’s relationship with nature, images and the living world. Her creations have been exhibited many times in Luxembourg and across Europe, including most recently VIDA INERTE at the Centre Nei Liicht in Dudelange (2020), and the publication of THE VEIL OF NATURE, forthcoming from K.Verlag, Berlin. She is also currently completing PHUSIS, a film featuring a soap bubble representing an ephemeral moment, for which she received a Carte Blanche from the Film Fund. In 2019, she completed an artist’s residency at the Cité internationale des Arts in Paris.
The self-taught artist Sacha Hanlet is Associate Artist Residency at the Kulturfabrik from 2021 to 2024, allowing him to develop his solo project: Them Lights.
His residency started officially on 15 March 2021 and will end on 14 March 2024. During these three years, and thanks to the coaching and support from the Kulturfabrik team and its partners, Hanlet has the chance to develop his project from start to finish (writing, composition, visual identity, stage design, etc.).
A member of the group Mutiny on the Bounty for 17 years, Hanlet is a regular at Kufa, because he has been rehearsing there for 16 years. Born in 2017, Them Lights boasts five singles (and three video clips) in its discography: Got No, Yesterday, Mysterious Lights, Crimson Walls, Feeling Good (as a duo with Faruk). The music of Them Lights is a clever mix of pop, electro beats and avant-garde R’n’B, simultaneously dark and groovy.
Aged 40, his hope is that this residency will finally allow him to commit the maximum time to his creation, and to professionalise and perfect his project: from writing to staging, and also including visual identity. Extended periods of research, experimentation and creation (lighting, lyrics, sounds, clips, etc.) will therefore enable him to hone his artistic language.
Hanlet sees Them Lights as a global artistic project. The music, the visuals, the lighting and the sound are all interdependent. In the staged set, the “audience should live a real experience and feel transported by the sound, the lights and the various elements of the staging”. Familiar with being involved in all aspects of musical production and creation, Hanlet – who is also an event technician – hopes to pursue his holistic vision of the music as far as it can be taken. It’s worth adding that documenting the project (via videos, photos, texts, etc.) will be an important element of his work at the Kulturfabrik.
Kulturfabrik called upon Kultur | lx to join the steering committee of the residency. Within this committee, Kultur | lx, as part of its mission to support the career development of Luxembourg artists and creatives, provided advice to the artist on the internationalisation of his project. The aim is to assist the artist and the Kulturfabrik in their project export strategy by sharing the team’s expertise on this issue. Regular exchanges are organised in order to discuss the project’s promotion strategy abroad, to exchange on the different potential markets and to give advice on the development and directions to take for the project. Kultur | lx also has the role of connecting the artist and the Kulturfabrik to the industry on an international level.
Them Lights will present his new show at the Kulturfabrik on November 5th. More information here.
Establishing links with the Francophonies, Kultur | lx welcomed and met Hassane Kassi Kouyaté, Director of the Francophonies – Des écritures à la scène during the Focus Theatre last spring. On this occasion, we had the opportunity to talk with him about the festival that started on September 20th with a tribute to Monique Blin, founder of the Francophonies in 1984.
Kultur | lx: What does the Francophonies mean to you? What are the challenges?
Hassane Kassi Kouyaté: There are as many Francophonies as there are people. Language is a cultural object that expresses a combination of cultures, Francophonie is a cultural act. The accent, the way in which a sound is pressed, creates a word and also expresses different Francophonies.
What interests me is to hear authors who tell the world differently, who shed a different light. How, through these different francophonies, they tell the same world.
How do you see the programming and your relationship to plural Francophone writing?
We choose to focus on one region so that the audience can see the difference between the Francophonies from which political, academic or sociological discussions emerge (Editor’s note: the heart of the Festival will be at the Archipelago this year. Islands of words and songs, islands of music and dance, islands of terrestrial and literary nourishment. And above all, encounters, links, beyond borders to make an archipelago).
We are always on the lookout for other ways of conceiving, of saying. The different theatrical and written forms allow the artist to express his or her truth, which can be found in a universality.
We are in the craft business, every project is special and we take the time it takes to bring these projects to life.
What are your first relations with Luxembourg authors?
The meetings held during this focus have opened up perspectives and ideas for future collaboration. There is a real desire to support authors in this territory, a very positive dynamic.
Moreover, for the first time, we are welcoming a Luxembourg author in residence, Ian de Toffoli, for 6 weeks for his next project, Léa et la théorie des systèmes complexes, which will be the subject of a theatrical production, co-produced by the Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Les Francophonies de Limoges at the beginning of the 2023/2024 season.
With the Festival des Zébrures d’automne des Francophonies de Limoges in full swing, Ian de Toffoli, who is currently in residence until 22 October, finds this festival inspiring: “Every day you can see music, concerts and, above all, plays by French-speaking authors from all over the world, from the Caribbean, Africa, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada and – soon – even Luxembourg. It’s a great place for exchange, for dialogue, a place that promotes cultural diversity and openness to the world, which we all need in these dark times. It is a festival like a breath of fresh air! I have the chance to attend performances there, to make rich and inspiring encounters, to feed myself artistically from what I see and experience.”
The Künstlerhaus Bethanien is organising a group exhibition from 30 September to 23 October (opening on 29 September, 7 PM) presenting the work of 5 of its residents: François Lemieux (Canada/Quebec), Lisa Kohl (Luxembourg), Nicole Rafiki (Norway), Yun-Pei Hsiung (Taiwan) and Thomas Schmahl (France).
Focus on the work of Lisa Kohl, laureate of the 2022 call for applications offered by Kultur | lx, in residency from 01 July to 31 December.
The work of Lisa Kohl (b. 1988 in Luxembourg) can be understood as a conglomerate of digital media, installations, field research, documentation, staging and narration. Her artistic excavations revolve around the ephemeral, the absent and the imaginary. Aesthetic phenomena of absence, migration and situatedness play a central role in her work. In the field of tension between material presence and actual events on the one hand, and the realm of the possible, the fictitious and the invisible on the other, she finds near-endless artistic possibilities to merge both instances into simulations.
The video THE GAME (Bihać | Bosnian-Croatian Border | 2022) highlights the struggles of migrants through the aesthetics of gaming. Escape routes are shown on a smartphone from the perspective of a young Afghan man. The device is reminiscent of a VR game console. In the voiceover, the protagonist can be heard describing the different forms of escape and pushbacks that he personally experienced. A subtle sense of menace and tension underpins his account.
The photo series BLINDSPOT (Bihać | Bosnian-Croatian Border | Calais | France | 2022) metaphorically embodies the presence of the absent and the visibility of the invisible. The elements it depicts, such as the shelter, the mihrab carpet and the body cast, symbolically allude to the notion of refuge and the appropriation of anonymous spaces of living and prayer. The sacral mood here refers to belief and hope in relation to identity and strangeness, intimacy and home(lessness).
The series HALIDOM (Canary Islands | Spain–North Africa | 2022) represents sainthood on an iconographic level – as a pictorial metaphor for life and death, presence and absence, limitation and expanse, height and abyss. Sculptural figures in barren areas and border zones become symbolic monuments and representatives of the unseen. The veil is synonymous with concealment, protection and camouflage. The relief and the folds of the cloth suggest notions of divinity, heroism and inviolability. This series confronts us with spaces of transition – an allegory for the longing for freedom and redemption.
The video installation ACROSS (2022), created during the artist’s stay at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, confronts us with brutalist window architecture and a view of a vast sky lined with dissolving clusters of clouds. Concrete and air these two materials could not be more different and yet here they form a harmonious entity that calls to mind countless images, from medieval Annunciations to window depictions in German Romanticism and famous film scenes. They all have one thing in common: the window serves (in various ways) as a threshold between this world and the hereafter that not only separates the two but also establishes a contact between them. The artwork was created in collaboration with the sound designer Sören Schenk.
EXHIBITION SPACES
Kottbusser Straße 10
10999 Berlin
Free admission
Tue – Sun: 2pm – 7pm
Continuing its series of Visual Arts “Repérages”, Kultur | lx hosted a series of meetings with Berlin professionals and actors in the visual arts field from 20 to 22 July 2022, on the fringes of the Berlin Biennale. The group started its journey with a visit to Lisa Kohl, a Luxembourg photographer and video artist in residence at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien since 1 July.
Following a first Visual Arts Repérage hosted in Kassel in June, Kultur | lx focused its “Mobility, Research and Career Development” support scheme on the city of Berlin, offering support to artists who wished to explore this art scene or deepen existing relationships. During three days, artists and curators from Luxembourg were invited to meet with directors of residencies, gallery owners and curators present in Berlin. Six artists were able to benefit from this specific programme.
Residencies with variable sizes
The first meeting took place at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien with Christoph Tannert, director, and Valeria Schulte-Fischedick, curator and coordinator of the international residency programme. The Künstlerhaus Bethanien GmbH, Germany’s top artist residency (founded in 1974), has been located in a former Lichtfabrik near the Kottbussertor underground station in the heart of Kreuzberg since 2009. Since it was founded in the former Bethanien hospital, it has welcomed more than 950 artists in some thirty studios.
Lisa Kohl, winner of the residency programme at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien initiated by the Focuna and taken over by Kultur | lx in 2022, opened her studio to us where she was still getting her bearings. This 6-month programme will enable her to develop her project Shutdown dreams | Angels in fall, to show her work in a group exhibition which will be launched in mid-September, to participate in studio visits or open days, and to benefit from a critical article in Be Magazin, a newspaper which publishes critical essays on the work of the residents, commissioned by the Künstlerhaus Bethanien.
The group then had the opportunity to meet Isabelle Parkes, coordinator of the Callies International Residency Programme, a venue that opened in the Wedding district in 2020, initiated by an American artist living in Berlin. This second venue welcomes artists from all walks of life, with practices ranging from writing and performance to dance and music. Callies is open to unsolicited applications all year-round and offers great flexibility to aspiring residents.
Germany-Luxembourg hops
One of the highlights for our 6 participants was the meeting with Lidiya Anastasova, curator at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK) and director of the NBK’s art library collection, a collection that can be borrowed by anyone, consisting of 4,000 original works, including Marina Abramović, Victor Vasarely or Thomas Schütte, which allows Berlin-based artists to benefit from regular commissions, notably in the context of screen printing editions. Lidiya had participated in the studio visits of the Visual Arts Focus in May 2022 and met a large number of Luxembourg cultural actors.
The six artists also visited their compatriots who had a current exhibition in Berlin. On 20 July, Catherine Lorent gave a talk at the Kunstverein Tiergarten Berlin on the issue of gender in art in the context of her exhibition Relegation ~ via. Voice:over II. On 22 July, Eric Mangen launched a duo exhibition with the Ukrainian artist Artjom Chepovetskyy at the Jarmuschek + Partner gallery.
Finally, the Berlin Biennale, orchestrated this year by the artist Kader Attia (FR), provides the backdrop to these meetings. The 12th biennial takes place in contemporary art institutions and museums but also in informal places. Its title, Still present! invited us to consider individual and societal traumas from the perspective of Mending – that of objects and individuals, but also that of time and history. The exhibitions visited formed a coherent and rich whole, perfectly reflecting the commitment of the artistic team involved in the project. After the documenta, a completely different way of placing art directly linked to societal commitments, which was a source of inspiration and provides food for thought to the group.
The next Visual Arts Repérage will take place during the professional days of the Lyon Biennale on 12 and 13 September.