Artists

Ulla von Brandenburg Born in 1974 in Karlsruhe, Germany | Lives and works in Hamburg und Paris

Portrait

Ulla von Brandenburg

Ulla von Brandenburg
Foto: Chung-Leng Tran

Ulla von Brandenburg’s world of imagery is informed by the phenomena and events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a time when there was a great interest in the paranormal, psychoanalysis was taking root as a discipline, vaudeville was coming into being, and the theater was developing new forms of performance and visual languages.

Von Brandenburg’s conceptual strategies revolve around these themes, ranging from the occult, mystical, and the subconscious. Concrete historical facts hold no interest for the artist, but rather her work with visual material results in independent pictorial choreographies in the form of drawings, murals, films, installations, and performances. At times, her performative acts project into the viewer’s space. Von Brandenburg usually stages her cinematic works in rooms subdivided by curtains that, as in the theater or in religious contexts, direct the viewer’s steps, conceal or reveal something, and prepare for what is coming. Her textiles emerge as a threshold between art/stage and audience, between fiction and life. In her performances, von Brandenburg also works with the concept oftableau vivants—movement and stillstand become inverted, stressing the tension between the visual media, painting, photography, and film and the eventfulness of theater.

Education

1998-2004 Hochschule fĂĽr Bildende KĂĽnste Hamburg
1995-1998 Szenographie/Medienkunst, Akademie der Bildenden KĂĽnste Karlsruhe

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2012 Le Granit, Galerie du Granit, Scène Nationale de Belfort, Belfort
Mirrorsong, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London
The Nonexistent Knight, Rosascape, Paris
2011 Das Versteck des W.L., Produzentengalerie, Hamburg
Vitrine de l’Antenne, Le Plateau - FRAC* Ile de France, Paris
Neue Alte Welt, The Common Guild, Glasgow
2010 Chorspiel, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö
K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, DĂĽsseldorf
2009 Name or Number, Le Plateau - FRAC* Ile de France, Paris
Ulla von Brandenburg, Chisenhale Gallery, London
2008 Whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be, IMMA, Dublin
La Maison, Docking Station project Space in Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
2007 Karo Sieben, Art: Concept, Paris
Brief oder Neuigkeiten, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg
2006 Cinq milliards d'années. Module 1, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
2005 Der Brief, installation in public space, Berlin

Group exhibitions (selection)

2012 Made in Germany 2012, Kestnergesellschaft, Sprengel Museum und Kunstverein, Hannover
30 Künstler – 30 Räume, Neues Museum Nürnberg
2011 Chorspiel + Stereoskopisk övning, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm
Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit
A Geographical Expression, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
2010 Cut. Scherenschnitte 1970 - 2010, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Melbourne International Arts Festival 2010, Melbourne
WYSTAWA, Museum of Modern Art, Warschau
2009 Making Worlds, Venice Biennal, Venedig
2008 YOKOHAMA 2008: International Triennal of Contemporary Art, Yokohama
The World as a Stage, ICA, Boston
2007 Performa07, The 2nd Visual Art Performance Biennal, New York
The World as a Stage, Tate Modern, London
2006 Deutsche WandstĂĽcke. Sette scene di nuova pittura germanica, Museion, Bozen
Again for tomorrow, Royal College of Art Gallery, London
2005  I still believe in miracles, ARC MusĂ©e d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris