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, photographer Axel Braun, artist Isabella Fürnkäs, collective sputnic, filmmaker Silke Schönfeld, media artist Vesela Stanoeva and media art fellow Ani Schulze. We are now delighted to present a new episode with artist Nieves de la Fuente Gutiérrez.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS #9: Nieves de la Fuente Gutiérrez in conversation with Thomas Spies

In the 9th episode of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, artist Nieves de la Fuente Gutiérrez talks to media scientist Thomas Spies about her creative process in digital and analogue space. In her mixed-reality works, the artist explores virtual experiences and the resulting insights for our real environment. Nieves uses virtual reality, gaming scenarios and other technologies to recreate places and enable users to experience extended worlds. She interweaves real-world and virtual experiences with human and non-human perspectives to illustrate the impact of our actions and the Anthropocene on nature and our environment. And she comments on contemporary phenomena such as the ubiquitous presence of technology in our everyday lives and the self-perception of man-made interventions in the landscape.

In conversation with Thomas, Nieves talks about her work, what role glitches play for her and where autobiographical traces can be discovered in her work.

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, photographer Axel Braun, artist Isabella Fürnkäs and collective sputnic as well as Dortmund-based filmmaker Silke Schönfeld. This spring, we had the pleasure of meeting media artist and curator Vesela Stanoeva at the exhibition she curated, Neun Sonnen (Nine Suns), at Dortmunder U.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS #7: Vesela Stanoeva in conversation with Esra Canpalat

Immersive, installative, collaborative and multisensory: the wide-ranging work of media artist, scenographer and curator Vesela Stanoeva is best experienced on site. We were all the more pleased to meet her and author Esra Canpalat in January at the exhibition Neun Sonnen – Erzählungen utopischer, digitaler Welten (Nine Suns – Narratives of Utopian, Digital Worlds) at the uzwei space at Dortmunder U. The exhibition showed 11 artistic positions, woven into a multi-sensory staging. The aim was to explore new ways of relating to our environment and to bridge the gap between human and non-human actors. In doing so, the exhibition presented itself as an immersive space in which visitors could develop new visions of the future and enter into communication with the works. In the new episode CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, you will learn more about the exhibition and her other projects in the field of media art from Vesela Stanoeva. We also find out about the title “Nine Suns” and the pink, pretzel-shaped seating landscape.

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, photographer Axel Braun, artist Isabella Fürnkäs and collective sputnic. We are now pleased to introduce the work of Dortmund-based artist Silke Schönfeld.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS #6: Silke Schönfeld in conversation with Winnie Herbstein

Artists Silke Schönfeld and Winnie Herbstein met during a residency at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam. Two years later, they came together in the Hafenkombüse, Dortmund, for the filming of the sixth episode CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, to talk about Silke Schönfeld’s works and installative settings. In her cinematic work, which borders on the documentary, the Dortmund filmmaker examines, among other things, cultural traditions and customs that take place “on the doorstep.” Be it the “historical monk processions” for which club members still meet in Oybin, Saxony, or the May Day customs in the Lower Rhine region, which consists of a symbolic “auction” of all the single women in the village. The relationships that develop with the protagonists in the process and the resulting questions about responsibility as a filmmaker are central themes in the conversation between the two.

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, photographer Axel Braun and artist Isabella Fürnkäs. We are now very pleased to present a collective from Krefeld that explores a special genre of the performing arts.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS #5: sputnic

For the new episode CLOSE ENCOUNTERS we climbed over the rooftops of Krefeld, into the beautiful workshop of sputnic. The collective, founded in 2004 and consisting of media artists and designers Malte Jehmlich, Nicolai Krahwinkel and Nils Voges, has made the genre of Live Animation Cinema its own and developed numerous productions such as IOTA.KI or Die Möglichkeit einer Insel. In sputnic’s works, analogue and digital technologies are used and deployed both scenographically and performatively to create new visual worlds and narratives before the eyes of the audience. Instead of hiding the necessary props and technology behind the stage, the technical processes are revealed and brought to the front. To find out more, Klaas Werner (Office medienwerk.nrw) talked to Nils and Malte about their futuristic narratives, installations and creative use of artificial intelligence.

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.

The web series CLOSE ENCOUNTERS makes the wide range of media art in NRW visible. For many years and decades, the region has been home to outstanding artistic positions in this field, and it is a great pleasure for us to meet and present the artists in our video portraits. Step by step, this will provide an overview of the diversity of media art that is characteristic of NRW. In May, we joined the artist duo Jana Kerima Stolzer and Lex Rütten to a special filming location near the Hambach Forest. Now Office medienwerk.nrw presents two new episodes of the series with the artists Nico Joana Weber and Vanja Smiljanić. With curators Kerstin Meincke and Nada Schroer, the two fellows of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for Media Art (2018 and 2019) talk about selected projects from recent years and what moves their work.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS #2.1: Nico Joana Weber

Artist Nico Joana Weber and curator and scientist Kerstin Meincke recall their joint research trip to Nigeria, during which the artist investigated traces of colonial history in architecture. The legibility of such structures and their transformative significance in urban space in cities such as Paris, Lagos or Ibadan is a recurring theme in the works of Nico Joana Weber. The conversation focuses on her work Tropic Telecom, in which one explores a Parisian suburb alongside an extraordinary protagonist on the threshold between documentary and fiction.

The web series CLOSE ENCOUNTERS makes the wide range of media art in NRW visible. For many years and decades, the region has been home to outstanding artistic positions in this field, and it is a great pleasure for us to meet and present the artists in our video portraits. Step by step, this will provide an overview of the diversity of media art that is characteristic of NRW. In May, we joined the artist duo Jana Kerima Stolzer and Lex Rütten to a special filming location near the Hambach Forest. Now Office medienwerk.nrw presents two new episodes of the series with the artists Nico Joana Weber and Vanja Smiljanić. With curators Kerstin Meincke and Nada Schroer, the two fellows of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for Media Art (2018 and 2019) talk about selected projects from recent years and what moves their work.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS #2.2: Vanja Smiljanić

At the artist’s invitation, the conversation between Vanja Smiljanić and curator Nada Schroer took place in Vanja’s Cologne studio. Together they reflect – in a creative environment – on the artist’s way of working, which often revolves around spiritual movements and historical practices as well as the transfer of these practices into a contemporary context. In the process, Vanja Smiljanić takes the audience on a journey in films, installations and performances. In the interview, she shares thoughts on her own experiences in the field of Past-Life Therapy and talks to Nada Schroer about what she takes away from her work with different communities.

The new web series CLOSE ENCOUNTERS aims to visualize the wide range of media arts in NRW. For many years and decades, the region has been home to outstanding positions in this field. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS presents video portraits of the artists behind the projects – with their practices, thoughts, and questions. Four times a year, this dialogical space opens up, in which artists share their ideas with the audience at different locations and with changing conversation partners. The result is a mosaic-like overview of the diversity of media art that characterizes NRW.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS #1: Jana Kerima Stolzer and Lex Rütten

In spring 2021, for the first episode of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, we will accompany the two artists Jana Kerima Stolzer and Lex Rütten to the surface mine surrounding Hambacher Forst: an environment that forms the foundation of the work Pawāaraibu-filling the vacuum. Curator Marijke Lukowicz (Emscherkunstweg) spoke with the duo from Dortmund about their artistic work.