2024
Insight into my exam project – „Echoes of Mind“
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technology that produces detailed images of the internal structures of the human body. By applying strong magnetic fields and radio waves, the hydrogen protons in the body’s tissues are excited, generating signals that are captured by the MRI machine and converted into images. This technology makes it possible to look deep inside the human body without the need for invasive procedures.
Despite its medical significance, an MRI scan is associated with strong emotional reactions for many patients. The confined space of the MRI machine, the loud noises, the need to lie still, the health problems and the lack of information can cause feelings of fear, anxiety and uncertainty. In addition, the results of an MRI scan – which indicate health problems – can often cause emotional stress. At the same time, an MRI can also arouse fascination and curiosity, as it offers the unique opportunity to look inside one’s own body and understand the functioning of internal organs and structures. For some people, it is fascinating to see the detailed images of their muscles, bones and organs and to realize how complex and impressive the human body is. In my work, I would like to explore these emotional aspects of the MRI experience. „Echoes of Mind“ arose from a personal experience that has had a lasting effect on me. When I underwent an MRI myself, I was fascinated not only by the technical precision of this technology, but also by the emotional resonances it triggered in me. A haunting feeling from my first experience was in 2010, when I was sent into the machine without sufficient explanation. The unknown and the idea of how loud and tight the device would be scared me. In the changing room, I hecticly searched for magnetic objects and was afraid of forgetting something that might be attracted by the strong magnetic field. Half-naked, I was left alone in the small changing room for a long time, which increased my nervousness. The unusually dark light in the examination room was probably supposed to have a calming effect, but the previous isolation and discomfort had already increased my fear and made me feel my own vulnerability intensely. Ultimately, I couldn’t imagine lying in this MRI machine for half an hour, rigid, barely breathing so as not to ruin the images, while photos were taken of my inner life. I began to wonder how other people had similar MRI experiences. How does MRI affect their emotional well-being? How do they deal with the fear and uncertainty? Or does it trigger fascination in them? Were they well informed before the examination and well supported during the MRI? These questions form the starting point for my final project „Echoes of Mind“. Through interviews with patients, I want to capture their individual stories and perspectives and present them in an installation for my final project. Through this artistic approach, I want to raise awareness of the emotional aspects of medical procedures.
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„Echoes of Mind“– oil on canvas/ oil on foil/ sound 37:30 min sound: Sula Bassana – Rundgang Kunsthochschule Kassel, 2024
photo: Florian Bode
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photo: nordhessenblende
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2023
BODYSSEY IV, installation, linocut/foil/video/sound 2023
sound: Sula Bassana
.With the installation BODYSSEY IV I try to deal with the individual layers, levels of the entire theme. I play with reflections, with the visible and the illusion of perception. Screeching, even rhythmic sounds can be felt as if inside the body. From time to time there is a booming sound like a MRT machine.
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Pop-Up exhibition (BODYSSEY II & BODYSSEY III), cooperation with network Hammerschmiede, ehemalige Kantine Kassel, 24.06.2023
Together with the concert of BASSANA,MODDROW,SOBOTTA. (Sula Bassana, Steffen Moddrow, Ulli Sobotta) we created one evening with a little exhibition and live music.
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2022
BODYSSEY II
BODYSSEY II comprises performance, video and sound in one. Screen, body and video
are fused together to create the membrane of the in-between. Through increased
attention to body, light and sound, I try to achieve a more conscious perception of movement.
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BODYSSEY II – performance 2023, sound: Sula Bassana, camera: Tobias Krappweis
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video – sound – performance – 2022 / live performance 18 minutes / recording cut to 8 minutes
sound: Sula Bassana
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Sound Carpet / Klangteppich
‚Let the tapestry of sound touch you.‘
For about 3 months I wove a carpet from old tapes. While I was weaving, I recorded the sounds of the environment. The idea was to embody the imaginary sound carpet.
During the performance I hung up the carpet and played the recorded sound. Permanently my weaving noises could be heard live, but also in the sound recording. As long as the sound was playing I was weaving and at the end I lay down under the carpet.
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Listen to the sound carpet…
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Sound Carpet / Klangteppich, performance 45 min, Rundgang Kunsthochschule Kassel
photo 1 top left: Kim Vishnoir
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NOMMER C’EST TUER, group exhibition with the performance class (Kunsthochschule Kassel), Mounira Al Solh and Lina Majdalanie at Galeria Kollektiva, Kassel. The exhibition resulted from a workshop with the lebanese theatre/writer/performer Lina Majdalanie based in Berlin.
Workshop Biokhraphia: What does your own biography mean to you? How do you introduce yourself? What do you focus on? Do you sell yourself enough? Is that what it’s all about? Which predefined rules do you follow and how can you free yourself from them? Is there a possibility to tell everything? – We asked ourselves these questions and presented our own biography in an exhibition in form of an art work
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Stumm, performance 3 hours, Galeria Kollektiva Kassel
First day: I showed a 3 hours performance behind the glass vitrine of the exhibition room. I was alone with my self-portrait painted in oil. I shared thoughts about my whole life, intimate feelings and experiences, asked questions to the audience and interacted with my oil painting. The glass wall between me and the audience left the words I spoke mute, so that they perceived only the movements of my mouth and body. The performance consisted of quiet to very violent movements; of feelings between sadness, pain but also security and break-out.
photos: Andreas L. Berg
photos: Dave Schmidt
photo 1: Mounira Al Solh, photo 2: Dave Schmidt
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Second day: I sat in the glass vitrine for 4 hours and continued painting my oil portrait and showed photos of the performance before.
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2021
BODYSSEY
My current project BODYSSEY was created in confrontation with my body and opens up an intermediary space of an inner and outer world, which can be explored through
artistic media such as performances, installations, painting, drawings, video and sound. This bodily approach serves as a starting point for artistic self and world questioning.
BODYSSEY moves along the membrane of the in-between, in a continuum of mutual intermingling of isolation and captivity, fusion and dissolution.
In the process, approaches of embodiment and kinaesthesia, as well as phenomenological theories of perception, are integrated into my artistic practice and taken further.
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BODYSSEY, video: 5:27 minutes, 2020/21
The video BODYSSEY is my first exploration of this project. I want to connect the intermediate space of an inner and outer world. Physically and
and linguistically I merge with these levels and work with a video/sound collage.
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What awaits you? An eternal search for the invisible. Days, months, years. A tugging, a twinge, a pull into the dark nothingness. Loud, warm, cold. Relaxation, stress, a coming and going of renunciation. A finding of the hidden perseverance. Leaving it to time. Flowing.
Was erwartet dich? Ein ewiges Suchen nach dem Unsichtbaren. Tage, Monate, Jahre. Ein Ziehen, ein Stechen, ein Sog ins dunkle Nichts. Laut, warm, kalt. Entspannung, Stress, ein Kommen und Gehen des Verzichts. Ein Finden des versteckten Durchhaltens. Es der Zeit überlassen. Fließend.
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The poppy talks to you, video 1:12 minutes, 2021
This video was made during a group work called RITUALS. *Walk or drive for 15 minutes and then see what happens on this place.*
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2020
BOUNDARIES, cooperation with Franziska Ullrich
Wo ist der Körper / Wo bist du / Was ist Zuhause / Wo ist dein Zuhause / Schau auf die Straße / Was ist, wenn du kein Zuhause hast / Wo sind die Grenzen / Schau nach draußen / Sie sind zu / Halte dich fest / Du bist so fern / Du kannst mich sehen / Nimm was du brauchst
where is the body / where are you / what is home / where is your home / look at the street / what if you don’t have a home / where are the borders / look outside / they are closed / hold on tight / you’re so far away / you can see me / take what you need
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Boundaries, video performance, 9:39 minutes, Kassel
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Boundaries, performance ca. 10 minutes, Kassel Königsplatz 2020
photos: Fabian Schäfer
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Boundaries, performance, ca. 9 minutes, Amsterdam 2020
„About Long Distances on Saturday“
an exhibition by the Performance Class, Kunsthochschule Kassel
“What? Amsterdam? Is it about the Red Light? The historical? Selfies? Cyborgs? About global warming threats and flooding of the sea? An alleged China Town? Deep Listening? Is it about personnal stories? The Body? Perception? Languages? Dutch Masters? Family complications and traumas? Prejudices? Is it about temporality?”
After a prompt study trip to Amsterdam, we students from the Kunsthochschule Kassel presented short performances and interventions stretching from VrijPaleis up until Rongwrong, going through San Serriffe, Radio Jajaja Nenene, Café de Waag and other public locations.
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2018
Mirror of illutions, performance 8 minutes (Between lines), 2018
On the occasion of the „Stories“ collected by André van Hope on the typewriter, 12 young artists from different cities in Germany came together as a collective in the Stellwerk Kassel. The exhibition „Between lines“ shows their personal interpretation of a story in the positions of painting,
My selected story:
Kleine Kartoffeln
250g Quark
Milch
Frühlingszwiebeln
Kräuter (Petersilie, Lauch, Kresse)
photos: Manfred Schäfer
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2016
Nasen, performance over several days, 2016
In my works, I have long been concerned with human bodies in art, ideals of beauty and their alienation. With my project Nasen I tried to look critically at the ideals of beauty and approach them thematically with performances and video installations.With this performance, I wanted to make people a little more sensitive to the topic of beauty ideals and one’s own body and collected many plaster noses from different people and exhibited them while I was at it. During my performance, people started comparing their own noses with others and fell straight into this beauty illusion.
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photos: Kim Vishnoir
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Nasen, video 5:14 minutes, 2016
In the video art work Nasen, I started to express with my own thoughts on the ideals of beauty and put on various plaster casts of the noses, I had collected them earlier, and looked at them individually in the mirror. I commented on them with a reduced expression on my face and finished the process again with my own nose and own satisfaction.
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Schöppe-Stiels-Kallchen & sein Meister, video 5:03 minutes, 2018
In the video art work Schöppe-Stiels-Kallchen & sein Meister, a day at the construction site is shown. With the lifting block, the employee hands on objects one after the other. The master tries to finish building his planned wall with the increasingly strange things. I made masks with grotesque faces to exaggerate the expressionless people through the rutinised working day. I exaggerated the absurdities of everyday life and played with them.
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