Past Residents
Past Resident2012: Danish Arts Foundation
A Kassen
Artist group A Kassen has engaged in a collaborative practice since 2005, including works that take the form of performative installation, architectural intervention, photography, and sculpture. Their work is rooted in the exhibition site and refers to context and the social space, exploring the conditions of perception and interpretation.
A Kassen is Christian Bretton-Meyer, Tommy Petersen, Morten Steen Hebsgaard, and Søren Petersen. Educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen; the Städelschule, Frankfurt, and the Akademie der Bildende Künste, Munich, the group is based in Copenhagen. Recent exhibitions include Reykjavik Arts Festival; Kling & Bang Gallery, Reykjavik; Facetime, On Stellar Rays, New York City; THE TITLE IS A PILE OF LETTERS, IMO Projects, Copenhagen; La Vie Mode d’Emploi, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, and Window to the World, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León.
A Kassen, Window to the World, 2010, Plywood and glass panels, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
A Kassen, Window to the World, 2010, Plywood, glass panels, and sliding door mechanism, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
A Kassen, Minus Roof, 2010, Removed airplane roof, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
A Kassen, Encirclement, 2012, C-print and curved glass, 43 × 55 in. (109.22 × 139.7 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
A Kassen, Damaged by Water, Financed by Insurance, 2008, Artist's book. Courtesy of the artist and Space Poetry.
Residents from Denmark
Past Resident2012: Alfred Kordelin Foundation
Lauri Astala
Lauri Astala’s art deals with concepts of space and the cultural structures that form our way of conceiving space. His recent work – videos and computer aided video installations – focus on our experience of space. Within the framework of mediated reality, Astala examines concepts such as absence, presence, and the ambiguity of the sense of belonging. Astala’s installations break the traditional division between film, cinema and audience, in which the role of the spectator is limited to passively observing outside reality. These installations place the spectator on a stage where he becomes an active protagonist, thus making visible the spectator’s here-and-now reality in contrast to another place and time that (cinematic) images traditionally present.
Lauri Astala (born 1958) lives and works in Helsinki, Finland and Avallon, France. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, in 1989. Astala continued his studies with a Fulbright grant at Chicago Art Institute (MFA, 2001). Astala’s medium is moving image, often constructed as in-situ installations. Recent solo shows include: Gallery Heino, Helsinki, 2008 and 2012; Helsinki Art Museum, 2010; KUMU Contemporary Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, 2008; Institut finlandais, Paris, 2008 and Forum Box Gallery, Helsinki, 2005. Recent group exhibitions include ARTER, Istanbul, 2010; Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany, 2010; Palazzo Esposizioni, Rome, 2009; Bucharest Biennial, Romania, 2008 and Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, 2008. Astala was awarded the State Prize of Fine Arts (Art Council of Finland) in 2007.
Events & Exhibitions
Salon: Lauri Astala and Nuria Montiel
December 11, 2012
Lauri Astala, Of Disappearance, 2012, Computer-based video installation, film mixed with real-time camera, and stereo sound, 6 min. 6 sec. Courtesy of the artist.
Lauri Astala, Of Disappearance, 2012, Computer-based video installation, film mixed with real-time camera, and stereo sound, 6 min. 6 sec. Courtesy of the artist.
Lauri Astala, Small Spectacle about Image-Semblance, 2005, Video installation, text stretched on a steel wire, and stereogram video animation (loop), Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
Lauri Astala, Small Spectacle about Encountering, 2005, Video installation, computer-controlled one-channel video, chair, semi-transparent mirror, projection surface and stereo sound, 9 min. Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Finland
Past Resident2012: KdFS Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
Mario Pfeifer
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.
Mario Pfeifer, Code Unknown [Re_Sync], 2010, Wall prints, inkjet prints, and video projection.
Mario Pfeifer, A Formal Film in Nine Episodesm Prologogue & Epilogue, 2010, 35mm film in HD projection, 52 min.
Mario Pfeifer, Reconsidering The New Industrial Parks near Irvine, California by Lewis Baltz, 1974, 2009, Synchronized dual 16mm film installation with sound.
Mario Pfeifer, Yet Untitled ("Pieces of Nature"), 2008, S16mm transferred to HD, 11 min. 30 sec.
Mario Pfeifer, Untitled (Two Guys), 2008, HD video installation, 7 min. 30 sec.
