Mario Pfeifer’s work explores representational structures and conventions in the medium of film, in locations ranging from Mumbai to California to the Western Sahara. Conceiving each project out of a specific cultural situation, he researches social-political backgrounds and weaves further cross-cultural art historical, filmic and political references into a richly layered practice, ranging from film and video installations to photographs and text installations. Often, Pfeifer collaborates on publications that reconsider these projects, offering research materials and critical investigations by writers and thinkers of related fields, concerning issues suggested in his projects for a wider social-political discussion.

Mario Pfeifer (born 1981, Dresden) studied in Leipzig (HGB), Berlin (UDK) and graduated from Willem de Rooij’s class at Städelschule Frankfurt am Main in 2008. Pfeifer was a Fulbright fellow at the California Institute of the Arts from 2008 – 2009. Further grants from Goethe-Institut and DAAD lead him to Bangkok, Mumbai and New York. Awards include the Video Art Award, Bremen and the Salon Video Art Prize, London. A first monograph was published by Sternberg Press in 2011 followed by publications with Fotohof edition / KOW and Spector Books in 2012. Pfeifer’s works have been exhibited at MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Cultural Centre, Brugge; KW – Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Circa Projects, Sunderland, UK; Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden; Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen and Landesgalerie Linz, Austria. His films have been screened at Anthology Film Archives, New York; London International Documentary Film Festival; World Film Festival, Bangkok; Images Festival, Toronto; Museum of Art and Design, New York; Moca Detroit; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Folkwang Museum, Essen; Sprengel Museum, Hannover; Arsenal, Berlin and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Mario Pfeifer is represented by KOW BERLIN.