Past Residents

Residents Map

Tobias Pils

Tobias Pils’s working method is characterized by the fact that when beginning a new piece of work he attempts to forget all past works, and engages with a motif. This motif can be anything from a traditional allegory to an abstract rhythm or harmony. His pictorial language as developed in recent years combines expressive elements with geometric structures such as grids, but never quite cuts the link with representation despite its dominant tendency towards abstraction. Intuition, inspiration and individuality are criteria relevant to Pils’s painterly oeuvre, and form the basis of his understanding of painting as a language and means of expression.

Tobias Pils (born 1971 in Linz) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. His selected exhibitions and projects include: Secession, Vienna, 2013; Galerie im Traklhaus, Salzburg, 2012; Jack Hanley Gallery, New York City, 2011; Tenda Gialla, Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb, 2010; Beijing Biennale, NAMOC Museum, Beijing; Rezan Has Museum, Istanbul; Gironcoli Museum, Herberstein; Genia Schreiber University Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2008; Tresor BA Kunstforum, Vienna and Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, 2007. Pils lives and works in Vienna.

Past Resident
2014: Alfred Kordelin Foundation

Terike Haapoja

Terike Haapoja’s work consists of installations and collaborative projects characterized by the use of new media and new technology. In her projects Haapoja investigates our relationship to the non-human world from scientific, existential and poitical viewpoints. Haapoja’s projects are mostly large-scale and built around thematic framing, often including collaborations with professionals from other fields of studies.

Haapoja’s work has been show widely in solo and group exhibitions and festivals both nationally and internationally. She was honored with the Finnish Art Association’s Dukaatti Prize in 2008, with Finland Festival’s Young Artist of the year Prize in 2007, received a SÄDE Prize for best visual design in theatre and in 2010 was a nominee for Ars Fennica. Haapoja’s works are in the collections of Finnish State, Helsinki City Art Museum, Oulu Museum of Art and the Amos Anderson Art Museum. Haapoja represented Finland in the 55th Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition in the Nordic Pavilion. She lives and works in Helsinki.

Axel Töpfer

Axel Töpfer uses photographs, text and objects to construct imaginary events through an extension of narrative space. The work is structured so that the viewer performs the movement to assemble each story out of its parts. Töpfer continuously searches for instruments of inspiration such as: a late completion about space on Fotodinamismo Futurista by Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Secret Notes by Josef Albers and On Dimension Zero or Why Structural Cinema is Narrative by George Maciunas. He believes magic can be achieved through stuttering and repetition.

Axel Töpfer (born 1977 in Königs Wusterhausen) is Director of the Laboratory for Visibility Hy Brasil since 2012, Co-founder of the network Videoklub (2004) and a member of zeitgenossen since 2000. He studied media art, photography and typography at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig and sculpture and film at Akademie der Bildenden Künste Vienna. Töpfer works on the island of Hy Brasil and is living in Ulthar.