Ulla von Brandenburg
b. 1974 in Karlsruhe
lives and works in Paris and Karlsruhe
| since 2016 | Professorship for painting and graphics at State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe |
| 1998-2004 | Studies in Fine Arts at University of Fine Arts Hamburg (Degree Diploma) |
| 1995-1998 | Studies in scenography und media art at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design |
| 2013 | Kunstpreis Finkenwerder, Kulturkreis Finkenwerder e.V., Hamburg |
| 2007 | Kunstpreis der Böttcherstraße in Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen Scholarship, Cité des Arts, Paris |
| 2006 | Scholarship, Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung zur Förderung junger Künstler, Berlin |
| 2005 | Travel scholarship, Verein Neue Kunst in Hamburg e.V. Scholarship, Künstlerstätte Schloss Bleckede |
| 2003 | Scholarship, Karl H. Ditze Foundation, Hamburg |
| 2022 | Masked and above all – discreet, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Produzentengalerie Hamburg Wiener Festwoche, Wien Walküre, 3rd Act, Staatsoper Stuttgart |
| 2021 | Eine Landschaft ohne Blau, wie ungefähr, Weserburg Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen Blaue und Gelbe Schatten in “Voyage à Nantes”, Passage Sainte-Avoye, Nantes Der absolute Tanz, Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin |
| 2020 | Noire Lumière, How Art Museum, Shanghai Le milieu est bleu, Palais de Tokyo, Paris |
| 2019 | BLAUEPAUSE, Meyer-Riegger, Karlsruhe L’hier de demain, Mrac, Sérignan |
| 2018 | Sweet Feast, Whitechapel Gallery, London SWEETS, QUILTS, SUN, Kunstmuseum Bonn Produzentengalerie Hamburg Der Regung Regel, Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt Musée Jenisch Vevey |
| 2017 | Musée des Beaux Arts de Rennes Künstlerraum Ulla von Brandenburg, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf It Has a Golden Sun and an Elderly Grey Moon, Telfair Museums, Savannah BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts, Lisbon One and Other, Testing Ground, London |
| 2016 | Pérez Art Museum Miami It has a golden red sun and an elderly green moon, The Power Plant, Toronto Manchmal Ja, manchmal Nein, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich Orange Meets Blue, Kasia Michalski Gallery, Warsaw Sink down mountain, raise up valley, The Common Guild, Glasgow |
| 2015 | Performa, New York City Objects Without Shadows, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London Kalns, grimsti ! Ieleja celies !, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga Baisse-toi montagne, lève-toi vallon (Performance), Kaaitheater, Brussels Zuvor wie Vorher, Produzentengalerie Hamburg |
| 2014 | 24 Filme, kein Schnitt, MAMCO, Geneva Drinnen ist nicht Draußen, Kunstverein Hannover |
| 2013 | Innen ist nicht Außen, Secession, Wien Das Versteck des W.L., Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburger Kunsthalle Following the signs, Herzliya Museum, Herzliya, Tel Aviv Gleich Gleich Gleich, Kiosk, Gent Eigenschatten – Ombra Propria, Monitor, Rome |
| 2012 | Le Granit, Galerie du Granit, Scène Nationale de Belfort Le chevalier inexistant, Rosascape, Paris Ulla von Brandenburg. Mirrorsong, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London |
| 2011 | Das Versteck des W.L., Produzentengalerie Hamburg Vitrine de l’Antenne, Le Plateau – FRAC Ile de France, Paris Neue Alte Welt, The Common Guild, Glasgow |
| 2010 | Neue Alte Welt, Art: Concept, Paris Chorspiel, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf The Objects, Galerie Saint-Séverin, Paris |
| 2009 | Wagon Wheel, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London Name or Number, Le Plateau – FRAC Ile de France, Paris Chisenhale Gallery, London |
| 2008 | Whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be, IMMA, Dublin Passengers: 1.8 Ulla Von Brandenburg, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco Wo über dem Grün ein rotes Netz liegt, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf La Maison, Docking Station project Space in Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam |
| 2007 | Karo Sieben, Art: Concept, Paris Brief oder Neuigkeiten, Produzentengalerie Hamburg |
| 2006 | Cinq milliards d’années. Module 1, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Kunsthalle Zurich |
| 2005 | Ulla von Brandenburg, Künstlerstätte Schloss Bleckede Der Brief, installation in public space, Berlin I am making a crazy quilt and I want your face for the center, Pavilion Project, Montreal Fünf sind’s doch schon im ersten Spiel, Trottoir, Hamburg |
| 2004 | Ein Mensch ist keine Nadel, Blaue Kugel Hamburg Ouija, Graduate Exhibition, HfbK, Hamburg |
| 2003 | Den Gelben in die Ecke, Doublette in der Mitte, Studiogalerie Kunstverein Braunschweig |
| 2001 | Ja. Auch Sie!, Galerie Taubenstraße, Hamburg |
| 2022 | Kubus. Sparda-Kunstpreis, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart Aller contre le vent, FRAC Franche-Comté, Besançon Mimicry-Empathy, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille |
| 2021 | Textiles instalativos: del medio al lugar, CAAC, Sevilla Dance?, Centro Atlántico de Art Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria La couleur crue, Musée des Beaux-Art de Rennes sharity – teilen, tauschen, verzichten, Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Rapperswil-Jona Children Power, Frac Ile -de-France, Paris, FR |
| 2020 | Diversity Untited, Contemporary European Art, New Tretyakov Gallery Moskau, Flughafen Tempelhof, Berlin, Paris SERIEN. Druckgraphik von Warhol bis Wool, Hamburger Kunsthalle Group show, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen Mask, Galerie C, Neuchâtel |
| 2019 | I dreamed I was a house, Casino Luxembourg Toi qui chemines il n’y a pas de chemin, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, CN; Minsheng Museum, Shanghai Hinge Pictures: Eight Women Artists Occupy the Third Dimension, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans L’Adresse du Printemps de septembre, Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse The Event of a Thread Global Narratives in Textile, Istanbul Modern |
| 2018 | Colorama, Le Silo, Château Thierry Experience Traps, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp The Flying Land, Jut Art Museum, Taipei Autofiktionen – Zeichnung der Gegenwart, Wilhelm-Hack-Museums, Ludwigshafen MIMICRY—EMPATHY, Lajevardi Foundation, Tehran |
| 2017 | A look at the French scene, the nominees of Prix Marcel Duchamp, HANGAR H18, Brussels The Event of a Thread, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), Kunsthaus Dresden |
| 2016 | Bühnenreif 1. Akt (1900–2016), Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen Art:Concept Galerie, Paris |
| 2015 | Vidéodanse, Le corps en jeu, Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR Signalwege, Rudolf Virchow Center, Research Center for Experimental Biomedicine, University of Würzburg After Dark, Oeuvres de la collection du Frac Ile-de-France, Mamco, Geneva Creating Realities, Goetz Collection, Pinakothek der Moderne, Museum Brandhorst, Munich The Way We Live Now, Modernist Ideologies at Work, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard |
| 2014 | The other sight, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius Something Less, Something More, CNAP, Palais de Tokyo, Paris Per/Form, How to do things with[out] words, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid You imagine what you desire, 19th Sydney Biennale, Sydney Bash, BYRDCLIFFE Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, Woddstock |
| 2013 | Film as Sculpture, Wiels, Bruxelles 1966–79, Institut d’art Contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes The Objects, Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Glasgow |
| 2012 | Andreas Slominski, Christoph Blawert and Ulla von Brandenburg, ph-projects, Berlin The Way Things Are, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia Les Matres du désordre, Kunsthalle, Bonn Tools for Conviviality, The Power Plant, Toronto Memento Mori, Arario Beijing, Peking |
| 2011 | Gespenster, Magie und Zauber in der Kunst, Neues Museum Nürnberg People Things Enter Exit, Catronia Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver Chorspiel + Stereoskopisk övning (with Malin Pettersson Oeberg), Bonniers Konsthall Stockholm Eyes Wide Shut – Contemporary Drawings from Germany, Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York THE REHEARSAL OF REPETITION, Galerie GRANTPIRRIE, Sydney |
| 2010 | Cut. Scherenschnitte 1970-2010, Hamburger Kunsthalle-Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburg Light Drifts, Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai Possible worlds I / Des mondes possibles I, NCCA, Nizhni Novgorod SIMPLY VIDEO. Bewegte Bilder aus der Kunsthalle Bremen, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart Being There, Meet Factory Gallery, Prague |
| 2009 | Nuit des Tableaux vivants, Musée des Augustins, Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse Contour, 4th Biennial of Moving Image, Malines Ein Traum ist alles Leben und die Träume selbst ein Traum, Kunsthalle Lingen Le sang d’un poète, Biennale Estuaire Nantes, Saint-Nazaire |
| 2008 | transformational grammars, Galleria Francesca Kaufmann, Milan Disarming Matter, Dunkers kultuhus, Helsingborg, SE Vier, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main That beautiful pale face is my fate, Newstead Abbey, Nottingham Ghost in The Machine, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo |
| 2007 | Like Leaves, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York Continuous Project Altered Monthly, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco RE-DIS-PLAY, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg Tanzen – Sehen, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen |
| 2006 | Deutsche Wandstücke, Sette scene di nuova pittura germanica, Museion, Bolzano, Palais für aktuelle Kunst, Glückstadt Again for tomorrow, Royal College of Art Gallery, London Motor Immobile, Greene Naftali, New York Bonanza, Jack Tilton, New York as if by magic, Art Center/ South Florida, Miami Beach, Miami |
| 2005 | Don’t accept manana, Kunstverein Braunschweig Neue Freunde, Kunstverein Schwaz I still believe in miracles, ARC Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris Jahresgaben 2005, Kunstverein Braunschweig Jahresgaben 2005, Kunstverein Schwaz |
| 2004 | Deutschland sucht, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne Provide it, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg Nobody. Der Graue Zylinder, Merrettich Pavillion, Berlin Index, Kunsthaus Hamburg |
| 2003 | Feine Ware 3, Kunstverein Hamburg Reward, Blueroom Gallery, London Zimmer aufräumen, Zupfgeigenhansel kommt, Künstlerhaus |
| 2002 | Slow, Shedhalle, Zurich Jahresgaben 2002, Kunstverein Braunschweig |
| 2001 | Wir, Comawoche, Klasse Cosima von Bonin, Hamburg |
| 2000 | Die jüngere Generation, Orgelfabrik Karlsruhe Durlach Neue Blicke. Neue Räume, Schauspielhaus Hamburg |
Brandenburg’s multimedia installations fuse elements of theater, dance, and folklore into stage-like productions. The artist intervenes in the sober architecture of the White Cube using color, floor-to-ceiling fabric panels, sculptural objects, videos, and performances to create sensually charged spaces in which visitors can immerse themselves. The resulting works blur the boundaries between performance and reality as well as performers and audience.
Personne ne peint le milieu
The video installation “Personne ne peint le milieu” (Nobody Paints the Middle) immerses visitors in a shimmering blue semi-darkness. They move through a labyrinth of faded fabrics floating in space, on which Brandenburg projects videos reminiscent of underwater shots following a shipwreck. Personal objects—a mirror, shoes, a tambourin—seem to be slowly sinking into the depths. Where do they come from, why are they drifting in the water? The beginning and the end of the story remain open. Detached from their original frame of reference, the objects unfurl a new, independent existence that leaves room for individual narratives.
Blaue und Gelbe Schatten V
In a performance within the fabric installation “Blaue und Gelbe Schatten V” (Blue and Yellow Shadows V), Brandenburg and other performers present themselves as explorers. Assuming different roles and with the help of various props that visitors encounter time and again in the exhibition, they rediscover buried forms of communication.
The focus is on human interaction that takes place via symbolically charged objects, song, and dance. Using language to express feelings and opinions can lead to misunderstandings on the part of others, since words leave room for interpretation. Brandenburg thus dedicates herself to new ways of understanding. Her dramatically staged performances consciously break the rules of classic theater, to which she refers several times in the exhibition. Hence, in contrast to traditional theater models that separate the events on stage from the audience area, performers and visitors share the performance space. The interaction between actors and spectators—that is, including the audience in the artistic act—thus dissolves familiar role models.
White Cube
The “White Cube” describes an unadorned, brightly lit exhibition space. Artworks are hung on white walls, which ultimately draw the viewer’s attention to the objects. In her installation “Color Notation”, Brandenburg transforms the sober surroundings into a colorful fabric setting for objects whose staging follows a different pattern. Instead of focusing on the objects, she turns her attention to making them disappear, to the traces they leave behind. In her video “The Objects” the camera repeatedly loses sight of the objects. Rectangular silhouettes on the fabric suggest shadows from paintings that have long been taken down. Watercolors lie on the floor, seemingly at random. The fleeting character of the setting offers visitors the opportunity to develop their own narrative.
Cyanotypien
The motif of the trace also plays an essential role in Brandenburg’s cyanotypes, an early form of photograph. Here, the paper is chemically treated and turns blue when exposed to light. Everything that comes into contact with it during exposure leaves a shadowy imprint.
