Lynn Hershman Leeson, Chair of the Film Department at the San Francisco Art Institute has been a pivotal firgure in new media art and feminist discourse since the 70s, developing fluency in all digital technologies as they evolved. In 2010 she was awarded the d.velop digital art award [ddaa], honouring her pioneering achievements in digital art.
Joseph Beuys studied Sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Beuys' oeuvre includes various artistic media. The artist's declared goal was to create a unity of art and life. He repeatedly participated in the documenta and the Venice Biennale. In 1979/80 the Guggenheim Museum in New York hosted a comprehensive retrospective of his work. The artist won international recognition especially for his long-term happening of planting a total of 7000 oak trees, which he began at the opening ceremony of the 1982 documenta.
Sergei Komarov was one of the leading actors in Kuleschows experimental workshop at Sowkino along with Pudowkin and Narnet who later also became directors. His roles were characterised by precision and exactness: the one eyed man in The unusual adventure of Mr West in the land of the Bolschewiki (1924, Kuleschow), the adventurer in Mrs Mend and Hans in According to Law (based on Jack London, both 1926, Kuleschow), Jesuit Brzesinski in Salamander (1928, Roschal) and Father Buldi in The two Buldis (1930, Kuleschow) amongst others.
Wolf Vostell studied at the École National Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. The work of Karlheinz Stockhausen in the electronic studios of the WDR in 1954 inspired him to create electronic “TV-décoll/agen“. This was when his involvement with the Fluxus movement began, which he helped define in the early 60s. In 1958 Vostell was involved in the first European happening which took place in Paris, and where he produced objects using televisions and car parts.
Adel Abidin (*1973) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad before moving to Helsinki in 2000. Having started his career as a painter, he began to work with video and consequently completed an MFA in New Media at Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts in 2005. Adding sculpture and installation to his repertoire, Abidin uses humor and irony to investigate themes of cultural identity, marginalization, nationalism, war, terror and heroism, surveying different experiences of living in a conflicting and precarious world.
Sharon Paz was born in Israel and currently lives and works in Berlin where she received the “Hauptstadtkulturfonds” exclusive grant in the year 2005. Her video works are part of the collection of the Israel Museum. In April 2005 she was invited to participate in the Artist Work Program at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Her work has been screened at Thomas Erben Gallery, Art in General, and Anthology Film Archives in New York City; Contemporary Art and Design Museum in San Jose, Costa Rica; and AB Gallery in Mexico City.
Born in Kuwait in 1974, Ala´ Younis graduated with a B.Sc. in Architecture from the University of Jordan in 1997. Her work, which is displayed in Jordan and internationally, was first exhibited at the French Cultural Center in Amman in 2004. It originates from personal experiences and memories which she ties to thoroughly researched collective conditions, thereby subtly touching on the position of individuals in a world that is politically driven.
Magnus Bärtås is an artist, writer and Professor of Fine Arts at the Konstfack in Stockholm, working with text, video, objects and installation. He has recently exhibited at Platform-09 in Seoul and the 4th Bucharest Biennale. His video works have been screened at Centre Pompidou; Gothenburg International Filmfestival; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and The Powerplant Gallery, Toronto; among other venues. His dissertation You Told Me – Work stories and video essays, examining narrative models in contemporary art and the practice of the video essay, was published in May 2010.
Influenced by philosophy and science, American-born artist and filmmaker Reynold Reynolds works primarily with 16mm and Super 8mm film as an art medium. He has developed a common film grammar based on transformation, consumption and decay. Reynolds' depictions frequent disturbed psychological and physical themes, increasingly provoking the viewer's participation and dismay. He was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2003 and in 2004 he was invited to The American Academy in Berlin. He has received numerous awards, including the Distinction Award at transmediale.09.
exhibition artistfilm/video artisttransmediale award nominee
