Past Residents

Residents Map

Anna Jermolaewa

Anna Jermolaewa works primarily in the mediums of photography, video, and installation. Her main interest is the analysis of functional structures of society and social systems in everyday life. She continually focuses on the basic conditions of human existence and the nature of man, capturing the relationship between the individual and the masses, freedom and restriction, power and powerlessness, (especially around relationships and networks of hegemonic structures). Her photographs and videos provide information about a world of failure, through conscious and unconscious fears, desires, and passions. The result is a reflection on individual and collective historical consciousness in the form of images that remain in the viewers’ mind. Through the visual telling of history and stories, she attempts to create places of remembrance.

Anna Jermolaewa was born in 1970 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and is currently based in Vienna. In 1998 she graduated in Art History at the University of Vienna and in 2002 the New Media class of Peter Kogler at the Vienna Art Academy. She was a Professor for Media Art at the University of Arts and Design, Karlsruhe, Germany from 2005-2011. She also had solo exhibtions in the Victoria Art Gallery, Samara (2013); Camera Austria, Graz (2012); Kunsthalle Krems (2012); Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia (2011); Kunstverein Friedrichshafen (2009); XL Gallery Moscow (2008); and Museum Moderner Kunst, Passau (2004). Her works are part of various collections including the Stedelijk Museum, Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, MUMOK-Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien, Volpinum Kunstsammlung, Museum Startgalerie Artothek, Vienna, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Vehbi Koc Foundation, Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Group and Belvedere.

Past Resident
2014: Mondriaan Fund

Melanie Bonajo

Melanie Bonajo examines the paradoxes inherent in ideas of comfort. Through her videos, performances, photographs and installations, Bonajo examines subjects related to progress that remove from the individual a sense of belonging and looks at how technological advances and commodity-based pleasures increase feelings of alienation within the individual. Captivated by concepts of the divine, she explores the spiritual emptiness of her generation, examines peoples’ shifting relationship with nature and tries to understand existential questions by looking at our domestic situation, ideas around classification, concepts of home, gender and attitudes towards value.

Melanie Bonajo’s work has been exhibited and performed in international art institutions, such as De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam; Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; The Moscow Bienniale; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul and PPOW Gallery, New York and her films have played in festivals such as International Documentary Filmfestival (IDFA), Amsterdam and Berlinale. In 2012 she initiated the collective Genital International which tackles subjects around feminism, participation, equality, our Earth, ‘Politics beyond Polarity’ and ‘Revolution through Relaxation.’ She wrote for several art magazines, was creative editor of Capricious magazine and curated shows such like the QQC performance festival about pop music in visual arts at the Paradiso, Amsterdam. She published several books including: Modern Life of the Soul, I Have a Room with Everything, Spheres and Furniture Bondage. In 2013 she released an album with her band Z▲Z▲Z◎Z◎ called Inua. Her work as alter ego MatrixxBotanica has been spotted in urban and rural spaces.

Past Resident
2014: Anonymous

Alexander Tovborg

Alexander Tovborg is known for his ability to tell a story through his work. Weaving abstract and expressive elements with figurative imagery, Tovborg uses painting, drawing, sculpture and performance to produce compelling works that engage the spectator. At the crux of Tovborg’s artistic practice is the ability to draw on elements from the past to draw attention to who we are as human beings today. Taking inspiration from mythological stories, religion, and natural and social history, Tovborg explores complex metaphysical issues such as female and male archetypes, the division between the real and imaginary worlds, as well as ideas of love and hierarchy. As a result of Tovborg’s intentions towards these issues, there is a spiritual quality that emanates from his work.

Alexander Tovborg (born 1983) studied at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. He is represented by Galleri Nicolai Wallner in Copenhagen and Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in New York.