Ulla von Brandenburg (born 1974 in Karlsruhe) is a German artist. She lives and works in Paris.
She shows her work internationally and is one of the four finalists nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2016.
Background Ulla von Brandenburg was trained in Germany at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design in scenography. She also studied visual arts at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. She benefited from an artist residency at Cité internationale des arts in Paris, in 2007, 2008, et 2009.
Artistic approach Ulla von Brandenburg's work is inspired by literature, theatre and psychoanalysis. She is interested in the iconography of the XIX Century, in the history of technology and in the industrial revolution.
She uses a wide variety of media and techniques, including video, performance, theater, mural painting, drawing and fabric layouts. Ulla von Brandenburg declares that "I get the idea for a work at the same time as the appropriate format for that work".
If she favours black and white for her videos, it is in colour that her visual works are expressed. An architectural colour for her curtains, installations of fabrics, pictures of ribbons with shimmering fabrics or even coloured paper cut. A faded colour for her watercolors of ghostly characters.
Ulla von Brandenburg's works raise the matter of representation and it is through the style and language of theater and scenography that she builds many of her projects. The scenic elements, the curtains of the Commedia dell'arte, the costumes of Harlequin, and so on, are all references that allow her works to go from reality to fiction or illusion.
Her installations unfold like decorations that are often perceived by inverting the setting and in which one enter through curtains. The curtain is a fundamental motif in her work, which she describes as follows: "As the mirror has two sides, the one that reflects us and the one that is hidden behind, the curtain has two sides too. At the circus you can fold it up in a very small size and unfold it to bring a marquee out of it. I like to camouflage or change the space with poor or very simple means to create an elsewhere. Fabric is the ideal medium, inexpensive, easy to transport, modular. It’s a nomadic material."
The other recurring motif of her work is the forest, that can be found in her videos (such as Chorspiel) and her works in cut wallpaper. As with the curtain, this motif does not refer to a particular subject, but it refers "as much to Wagner and to Germany as to Tarkovski and to a common culture. Everywhere it corresponds to a universe, to tales, to the unconscious... ".
Her performances, in public or video, reveal the different facets of Ulla von Brandenburg's work: she writes the texts and the songs, she designs sets and costumes, chooses and directs the actors.
In February 2019, an exhibition at the Musée régional d'Art contemporain Occitanie, in Sérignan (Hérault), she presents her portraits of committed, learned and militant women.
Personal exhibitions
2005 : Künstlerstätte Schloss Bleckede, Germany Der Brief, installation in public space, Berlin I am making a crazy quilt and I want your face for the center, Pavilion Project, Montreal Fuenf sind’s doch schon im ersten Spiel, Trottoir, Hamburg 2006 : Cinq milliards d’années, Module 1, Palais de Tokyo, Paris Kunsthalle, Zürich, Switzerland 2007 : Karo Sieben, Galerie Art: Concept, Paris Brief Oder Neuigkeiten, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg 2008 : Whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be, Dublin Project Space PS1, New York Art Unlimited, Art 39 Basel Passengers: 1.8: Ulla Von Brandenburg, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco Ulla von Brandenburg ? Wo über dem Grün ein rotes Netz liegt, Düsseldorf La Maison, Docking Station project Space au Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 2009 Name or Number, Plateau - Frac Île-de-France, Paris Wagon Wheel, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London Chisenhale Gallery, London 2010 : Neue Alte Welt, Galerie Art: Concept, Paris Chorspiel, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö, Sweden K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf Galerie Saint-Séverin, Paris 2011 : Das Versteck des W.L, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg Vitrine de l’Antenne, Frac Île-de-France, Paris Neue Alte Welt, The Common Guild, Glasgow 2012 : Mirrorsong, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London Le Chevalier inexistant, Rosascape, Paris 2013 : Death of a King au Palais de Tokyo, Paris Die Straße, Galerie Art: Concept, Paris Innen ist nicht Aussen, Secession, Vienne Kunstpreis Finkenwerder, Kunsthaus, Hamburg Prospectif Cinéma, Centre Pompidou, Paris Das Wertesck des W.L, Kunsthalle, Hamburger Gleich, Gleich, Gleich, Kiosk, Gent, Belgium Eigenschatten - Ombra Propria, Monitor, Rome Following the Signs, Herzliya Museum, Herzliya, Israel 2014 : 24 Filme, kein Schnitt, MAMCO, Genève, Genève Inside is not outside, Kunstverein Hanover 2015 : Zuvor wie Vorher, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg Baisse-toi montagne, Lève-toi vallon au Kaaitheater, Bruxelles Gestern ist auch morgen und heute ist wie hier, Kunstverein Kassel Kalns, grimsti ! Ieleja celies ! (Baisse-toi montagne, Lève-toi vallon), kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, Latvia Ulla von Brandenburg : Objects Without Shadow, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London Sink down mountain, Rise up valley, Performa, New York 2016 : Orange meets blue, Kasia Michalski Gallery, Varsovie, Pologne It Has a Golden Orange Sun and an Elderly Blue Moon, Darling Foundry, Canada Sink down mountain, Rise up valley, The Common Guild, Glasgow, United Kingdom Manchmal Ja, manchmal Nein, Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland 2018 : Ulla von Brandenburg: Sweet Feast, Whitechapel Gallery, United Kingdom 2020 : Das Was Ist, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Awards Begabtenstipendium der Dietzte-Stiftung, 2003 Reisestipendium, Verein für Neue Kunst in Hamburg Stipendium Künstlerstätte Schloss Bleckede, 2005 Juergen-Ponto-Stipendium, 2006 Kunstpreis der Böttcherstraße in Bremen, 2007 Finkenwerder Art Prize, 2013 In 2016, she is one of the four finalists nominated for Marcel Duchamp Prize Kubus. Sparda-Kunstpreis, 2022
References