Biography
Ursula Biemann is an artist, theorist and curator who has in recent years produced a considerable body of work on migration, mobility, technology and gender. In a series of internationally exhibited video projects, as well as in several books "Geography and the Politics of Mobility" (2003), "Stuff It - The Video Essay in the Digital Age“ (2003), „The Maghreb Connection“ (2005) she has focused on the gendered dimension of migrant labour from smuggling on the Spanish-Moroccan border to migrant sex workers in the global context. Her experimental video essays connect a theoretical macro level with the micro perspective on political and cultural practices on the ground.
Insisting that location is spatially produced rather than pre-determined by governance, she made space and mobility her prime category of analysis in the curatorial project "Geography and the Politics of Mobility" (2003) at the Generali Foundation in Vienna, „The Maghreb Conncection“ on migratory systems in North Africa, Cairo/Geneva (2006) or the recent art research projects “Black Sea Files” on the Caspian oil politics at Kunstwerke Berlin (2005) and „Sahara Chronicle“ on trans-saharan mobility. Biemann's practice has long included discussions with academics and other practitioners, she has worked with anthropologists, cultural theorists, NGO members, architects, as well as scholars of sonic culture. Her video essays reach a wide and diverse audience through festival screenings, art exhibitions, activist conferences, networks and educational settings.
2007 exhibitions include: Zona B at Tapies Foundation, Barcelona; Black Sea Files at the International Biennial Istanbul; Maghreb Connection at the Centre d'art Contemporain, Geneva, a retrospective at the film festivals FID Marseille and TEK Rome, Sahara Chronicle at Arnolfini, Bristol; group exhibitions at LACE, Los Angeles; Artist Space, New York, Kunstverein Hamburg; a retrospective at the Bildmuseet Umea in Sweden.
She is a researcher at the Institute for Theory of Art and Design at HGK Zurich lectures at the CCC program of esba Geneva, and teaches seminars and workshops internationally.
Upcoming monograph on Biemann's video works "MISSION REPORTS - artistic practice in the field" including texts by a wide range of scholars will be published by the Bildmuseet Umea/Arnolfini Bristol with Cornerhouse Publishers in Fall 2008.
German
Ursula Biemann arbeitet als Künstlerin und Kuratorin zu Themen der Migration, Mobilität, Technologie und Geschlecht. In einer Reihe von Video Essays und mehreren Büchern „Been there and back to nowhere“ (2000), „Geografie und die Politik der Mobilität“ (2003), „Stuff it – the video essay in the digital age (2003), „B-Zone“ (2005) untersucht sie die Gender Dimension von Migrationsarbeit vom Schmuggel an der Spanisch-Marokkanischen Grenze bis zur globalen Sexindustrie. Ihre experimentellen Videos werden an internationalen Kunstausstellungen und Festivals gezeigt und richten sich an unterschiedliche Publika in und ausserhalb des Kunstkontexts. Biemann vertritt eine forschungsorientierte Kunstpraxis in Projekten wie die „Black Sea Files“ über die Kaspische Ölgeografie (Kunstwerke Berlin, 2005) und "Sahara Chronicle" The Maghreb Connection“ zu Mobilitätssystemen in Nordafrika (Kairo, 2006).
Sie unterrichtet an der Kunsthochschule in Genf und forscht am Institut für Theorie an der HGKZ. www.geobodies.org