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.