The web series CLOSE ENCOUNTERS makes the wide range of media artistic work in NRW (North Rhine-Westfalia) visible. For many years and decades, outstanding positions in this field have been located in the region, and it is a great pleasure for us to meet some of these artists and present them in video portraits. Step by step, this provides an overview of the diversity of media art that is characteristic of NRW. In previous episodes, we had the pleasure of meeting the artist duo Jana Kerima Stolzer and Lex Rütten, video artist and photographer Nico Joana Weber, performance artist Vanja Smiljanić and photographer Axel Braun. Now the medienwerk.nrw office presents a new episode with artist Isabella Fürnkäs.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS #4: Isabella Fürnkäs

In a brand-new episode of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, we had the pleasure of meeting the artist Isabella Fürnkäs at her parents’ house in Cologne. Isabella’s work consists of equal parts videos, multimedia installations, performances and drawings. Her works have been exhibited at the Folkwang Museum, the Kunsthalle Wien, the Sprengel Museum, the 13th Biennale of Contemporary Art Dakar and the project space of the Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf, among others.

On a walk with journalist Beate Scheder, she discusses recurring motifs in her artistic works. Together they explore, among other things, the meaning of objects such as the Go game or the bed as a symbol of private space and, based on this, develop questions about intimacy, interpersonal relationships and the influence of modern communication technologies.