Artist
Donja Nasseri
Donja Nasseri, born in Düsseldorf in 1990, studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Gregor Schneider and Peter Piller until 2022. She previously studied at the Kunstakademie Münster under Mariana Castillo Deball. She combines photography, objects, video and language to create a 'collaged unity'. The central aspect of Donja Nasseri's work is the negotiation of tradition and change - that of an artistic medium as well as that of a diverse society, including the examination of interwoven histories and narratives that shape our understanding of identity and trauma and the reactivation of materials from museums, archives and communities. By generating and recontextualising historical and personal memories, she aims to contribute to a nuanced understanding of the past and its impact on the present, for example to negotiate a dialogue about the impact of colonialism.
I'm going to play with it at home (and feel like a pharaoh)
Donja Nasseri‘s work often revolves around the examination of tradition and change — her approach involves reaching out to repressed communities, recognizing the importance of amplifying marginalized voices and fostering a collective dialogue on the impact of colonialism on mental health as well as our understanding of identity and trauma.
For this project she is planning on creating 3-D scans of objects that originate from Egypt (as well as other countries) which are now stored in collections in Germany, and documenting the complexity of such locations and their charged history. Finally, fragmentarily she will assemble and overlay those elements with stories appropriated by Disney (The tale of "Duckanchamun" for example). Donja Nasseri takes a look at various figures and symbols from the past, especially from ancient Egyptian history, whose emancipatory approaches she transports into a new visibility. She is interested in reactivating materials from museums, archives, and communities. By generating and recontextualizing historical and personal memories, Nasseri aims to contribute to a nuanced understanding of the past and its implications for the present. The use of archives and cultural heritage/objects is always an encounter with colonialism and its far-reaching effects, including the complete erasure of entire cultural, intellectual and artisanal practices. She is therefore focusing on acts of restitution, reparation and appropriation.
Donja Nasseri explores museum spaces and liberates secured objects from display cases by taking 3D scans of them. For her project, she will focus on the example of the figure of the ancient Egyptian king Tutankhamun, addressing questions of reparation and appropriation in the context of the restitution debate.
Malte Uchtmann, will use AI to work on an ‘Atlas of Impossibilities’, reflecting on the construction of knowledge through images. He investigates the visual transformation of assumptions, policies and worldviews into knowledge within encyclopaedias across different historical periods and geographical regions.
Verdiana Albano explores her own fragmented and mystery-laden Afro-European history in a photographic process that moves between staging and documentation. Employing the Stasi files belonging to her parents, alongside personal and institutional image archives, she delves into the implications of being born within the framework of the erstwhile German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Agata Szymanska-Medina scrutinises the contemporary challenge of a global freshwater crisis unfolding in Chile through her photographic work – a crisis which poses a threat to humanity at large. Employing a nuanced narrative approach in her documentary photography, incorporating texts, archival material, video and sound, the photographer unveils the actors entangled in this conflict and the motivations driving them.
Through a synthesis of documentation, essay, and portraiture, Lea Greub delves into the intricate dynamics of the ‘business of love’. Her exploration navigates the interplay between love, financial considerations and societal expectations within relationships, particularly in venues like wedding fairs and single-date trips, where these connections are both forged and exhibited.