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Excellence Prize
front
Installation
Artist : Johanna REICH (Director)
(Germany)
Johanna REICH
Born in Minden, Germany, 1977. Studied at the Art Academies of Munster (Germany), Barcelona (Spain) and Hamburg (Germany). She has won several young artist awards. In recent years, she has followed art programs in Istanbul, Barcelona and Luxemburg and developed her video, sound and installation work. Currently lives in Cologne.
I am very happy to have won this prize and have my artwork shown in Tokyo, as this is my first Festival Exhibition in Japan. My video shows a young woman boxing towards the camera and a man and woman speaking. They are both saying the same thing, but in different languages: "The wind doesn’t change, bit by bit I learned, the wind doesn’t change." Gradually, the black and white image acquires colored spots, evidence of an invisible fight. A poetic fight. I combined modern technical effects with an old fashioned monochrome film style to create a particular mood. This manipulation of colors and style challenges the viewers’ perception.
The opening scene is impressive; a young woman casts a challenging look towards us with large eyes. On her white face, she has vivid bruises, like flower petals around her eye and mouth. The girl is boxing towards a digital camera, which absorbs and computerizes every moment. It is a simple but strong message. The fight never ends, though the girl is clearly losing, she keeps getting up. The performativity of this work is beautiful.
How old were you when you "created" something first time in your life? At that time, what did you create, and what kind of medium did you use?
The first thing I can remember was when I was a three or four year old girl. I made a “sculpture” of snow and felt the mystery of changing material into something real…
What kind of tools or medium do you use now? Please tell us the reason why you choose them.
Now I´m working with video and also performance. I chose video because with this specific medium I can combine sound and image that`s my main interest.
If you could get "dream tools/medium" for your creation, what do you wish to get?
My dream toolsmedium would be a camera placed in my head to record all my dreams and thoughts. Then I would like to change this camera with somebody else.
Do you have any consistent subject matter or theme through your works? If so, please explain us.
My main theme is to investigate how the queerness of life affects on inner feelings and emotions. I love it to convert them into silent images in contrast to nowadays mainstream invasion of images.
Please tell us the most difficult or considerable part when you create your work.
The most difficult thing is to question your own work before definitely finishing it.
It`s hard to look at your work as a stranger that would criticise everything.
Have you ever felt that your work is a "media art"? Also, what is the difference between "media arts" and "traditional fine arts"?
I am interested in working from both fields – traditional and media art.
Contemporary art is a kind of contemplative work, it`s a completed work in itself. Media Art uses digital technologies, therefore it can be interactive, work in progress or an open source of investigation. I like to be in the point of intersection, I like the freedom of Media Art to try and investigate but sometimes there is the danger to be too fascinated of nowadays technology and one will loose the clarity art has.
Referring to this I love it to reconcentrate on contemporary art.
Contemporary art is a kind of contemplative work, it`s a completed work in itself. Media Art uses digital technologies, therefore it can be interactive, work in progress or an open source of investigation. I like to be in the point of intersection, I like the freedom of Media Art to try and investigate but sometimes there is the danger to be too fascinated of nowadays technology and one will loose the clarity art has.
Referring to this I love it to reconcentrate on contemporary art.
As an artist/creator, please tell us your approach, stance or point of view when you create your work.
I like to find new and poetic images of daily life, the struggeling in a modern world of technology and progress, but not to loose a kind of poetic humor.
What is your motto?
Do what you love, love what you do.
What kind of situation in every day life do you get inspired most?
I get my inspiration from making music and traveling around foreign countries.
What kind of vision do you have in your future development as the creator?
My vision is to investigate this world in progress.
Please name of the people, things, or phenomena that you have got most influenced by as the creator.
Me deepest influences whrere my professors Paul Isenrath, Wim Wenders, Peter Schumbrutzki and Andreas Köpnick.
But as important as my teachers was the time I could spend in Spain, Barcelona. It was for me the first time I lived more than six month in a foreign country and it changed my way of thinking very effectively.
But as important as my teachers was the time I could spend in Spain, Barcelona. It was for me the first time I lived more than six month in a foreign country and it changed my way of thinking very effectively.
