Past Residents
Michelle-Marie Letelier
Michelle-Marie Letelier is interested in exploitation of minerals, working across topographic changes of a landscape, juxtaposed with the speculation of resources within the current economic framework. She spent her early life in Chuquicamata, the biggest open-pit copper mine in the world, in the Atacama Desert. This served as a starting point in her practice, documenting the town’s burial process through video and photography. Since settling in Berlin, Letelier has focused on copper and coal: minerals which have also become objects themselves in her drawings, paintings, objects and installations. Letelier’s work carries heavy socio-political overtones, especially in times of unveiled globalization, the increasing scarcity of raw materials and the crisis of the neoliberal model.
Michelle-Marie Letelier (born 1977, Rancagua, Chile) obtained her BFA at the Universidad Católica de Chile. Her recent solo exhibitions include Die Feinfühlige Zone, Die Ecke Gallery, Santiago and Doomed Scape,Perlini Arte Gallery, Padua. Her group exhibitions include Magic Block, Stiftelsen 3.14, Bergen and To Seize Matter and Leave a Landscape, X Video and Media Arts Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago. Her videos have been exhibited in several screenings and festivals across the world. In 2005, Letelier participated in the Mercosur Biennial and in 2012 she was awarded the first edition of ORA International Art Prize. Letelier lives and works in Berlin.
Events & Exhibitions
Salon: Michelle-Marie Letelier and Akansha Rastogi
July 8, 2014
Michelle-Marie Letelier, The Prediction of Tarapacá, 2014, Mixed media, 17 x 157 x 157 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Michelle-Marie Letelier, Energeia Series, 2012, Mixed media, 4 x 6 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Michelle-Marie Letelier, Wo Fass Ich Dich, Unendliche Natur?, 2011, HD video, 5 min. Courtesy of the artist.
Michelle-Marie Letelier, Doomed scape, 2012, Drawing, 83 x 124 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Michelle-Marie Letelier, Doomed scape, 2012, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Germany
Past Resident2014: The Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Olaf Brzeski
Olaf Brzeski’s practice is rooted in surrealist visions, which he puts into life via film, three-dimensional sculptures and installations. His comments about his own works do not so much mirror his personal interpretation, but narrate fictional stories, illustrated in the artworks or, in fact, made believable through the existence of the latter. This is the way in which Brzeski generates new worlds and their inhabitants.
Olaf Brzeski, Dream - spontaneous combustion, 2008, Bone soot, polyurethane resin and ash, 70 4/5 x 59 x 37 2/5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Olaf Brzeski, Untitled (from the little orphans series), 2009, Cast iron, chair, 35 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Olaf Brzeski, Out of love for a woman, 2012, Steel, bronze, oil, paint and wood, 118 1/8 x 118 1/8 x 177 1/8 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Olaf Brzeski, The fall of the man i don't like, 2012, Painted steel, 106 1/3 x 137 3/4 x 82 2/3 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Olaf Brzeski, Untitled (from the little orphans series), 2009, Cast iron, wood, glass and light, 82 2/3 x 35 1/2 x 51 1/5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Past Resident2014: Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Community Visual Arts Department
Manor Grunewald
Manor Grunewald is first and foremost as a painter, although he is also active in the fields of sculpture, installation and prints. His work is characterised by the constant analysis of the development of the pictorial in our daily environment. He finds and collects the sources of his images everywhere in daily life: in newspapers, advertising, books, comics, digital media and even illustrations of biological microcosms and macrocosms. His image archive serves as a source of inspiration, and his found pictorial material is often altered, partially on purpose and in some cases arbitrarily, by copying, enlarging or collaging. The artist thus creates new pictorial information, which is largely free of cognitively controlled processes and which reveal the unfamiliar, allowing this to become the content of his painting.
Manor Grunewald’s works have been exhibited across Europe and in the United States. In 2011, he was nominated for the Young Belgian Painters Prize at BOZAR. Recently, he has completed solo projects at Arco Madrid, Volta New York and Volta 9, Basel. Grunewald has presented recent solo exhibitions at Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne. He will take part in a group exhibition with Evan Gruzis and Christian Vetter at Super Dakota Gallery, Brussels in April 2014.
Manor Grunewald, Unhelpful Hunt - Ze hat is not mine, I'm only trying it on for size, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne.
Manor Grunewald, Unhelpful Hunt - Ze hat is not mine, I'm only trying it on for size, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne.
Manor Grunewald, Life's a beach - grey, 2013, Oil, acrylics, spray paint, lacquer, paper, uv print on wood, 47 × 71 in. (119.38 × 180.34 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Manor Grunewald, Untitled (Organic Mess #2), 2013, Oil, acrylics, spray paint, silkscreen, foil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 27 1/5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Manor Grunewald, Sloping Attempt (Atom Ant), 2013, Wood, epoxy, plaster, oil, spray paint, metal, foam, 55 1/2 x 50 3/4 x 10 in. Courtesy of the artist.
