Siglinde Kallnbach
Encyclopedia
Siglinde Kallnbach is an internationally active German artist. Her work includes performance art
, installation art
, multimedia art, photography
, and art intervention
.
and attended the classes of Harry Kramer, Karl Oskar Blase, Georg Bussmann and Heiner Georgsdorf. She received a scholarship by the Evangelische Studienwerk Villigst. In 1977, Kallnbach spent an academic year in Auckland
, New Zealand
. In 1983, she graduated in fine arts, partly with the performance Examensperformance L(e)ine, and passed her Staatsexamen (Teacher Certificate Examination) in art education and English studies. Since that time, she has pursued her career as an international artist. In 1985, she was awarded a prize by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Several trips led her to Oceania
and South-East Asia in order to study, exhibit her work, or do art projects. Kallnbach held teaching positions at the Musahi University Tokyo, at the WAKO University Tokyo, at the Fachhochschule Bochum and the Kunstakademie Bad Reichenhall. In 2002, she finished training for multi-media design. Siglinde Kallnbach lives and works in Cologne
, Germany
.
, racism
, war
, and injustice
. Through her frequent travels, she is concerned with transcultural aspects, e.g. basic human needs and rituals, which she cross-culturally compares to facilitate dialogue
beyond cultural borders. In doing so, using her own body as an instrument of physical perception
is of central relevance. Until today, Siglinde Kallnbach realizes the impact of social conditions and predicaments through her own body. In her early work, this often implied carrying herself to physical extremes.
Kallnbach comprehensively includes photography
, various objects and materials in her performances and installations
and conveys complex cultural meanings by her highly symbolic acts. These do not only refer to an individually defined myth, but transfer her very own existential experience into a wider social context. Moreover, an important aspect of her artistic work is the active involvement of others. For example, in the second part of her Trilogy Kleinsassen (1985), she was able to unite 360 participations from 39 countries in her exhibition. For her project Wunschspur-Wishingtrack (1999-2001), she collected more than 4000 wishes for the future from all over the world and transformed them into a 460 m abstract track, which she presented in a maintenance tunnel underneath the Rhine on New Year’s Eve 2000 and 2001.
Siglinde Kallnbach’s artistic work is closely related to life and the everyday. Since she was diagnosed with cancer
for the first time in 2000, she started to address the disease and its impact also in her art, while she places the individual suffering into a wider social context. With her interactive project a performancelife (since 2001) that serves to express empathy with cancer patients, Kallnbach creates options to release creative energy so as to convey its transformative power for the benefit of patients, their relatives, and the medical staff. For her social commitment, she was called she who loves fire in Japan
as early as the 1980s.
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, installation art
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, multimedia art, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, and art intervention
Art intervention
Art intervention is an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience or venue/space. It has the auspice of conceptual art and is commonly a form of performance art. It is associated with the Viennese Actionists, the Dada movement and Neo-Dadaists...
.
Biography
From 1976-83, Kallnbach studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in KasselKassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
and attended the classes of Harry Kramer, Karl Oskar Blase, Georg Bussmann and Heiner Georgsdorf. She received a scholarship by the Evangelische Studienwerk Villigst. In 1977, Kallnbach spent an academic year in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. In 1983, she graduated in fine arts, partly with the performance Examensperformance L(e)ine, and passed her Staatsexamen (Teacher Certificate Examination) in art education and English studies. Since that time, she has pursued her career as an international artist. In 1985, she was awarded a prize by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Several trips led her to Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
and South-East Asia in order to study, exhibit her work, or do art projects. Kallnbach held teaching positions at the Musahi University Tokyo, at the WAKO University Tokyo, at the Fachhochschule Bochum and the Kunstakademie Bad Reichenhall. In 2002, she finished training for multi-media design. Siglinde Kallnbach lives and works in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Life and work
Since the end of the 1970s, Siglinde Kallnbach deals with socially and politically relevant subjects in her performances and interventions such as discriminationDiscrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, and injustice
Injustice
Injustice is the lack of or opposition to justice, either in reference to a particular event or act, or as a larger status quo. The term generally refers to misuse, abuse, neglect, or malfeasance that is uncorrected or else sanctioned by a legal system. Misuse and abuse with regard to a particular...
. Through her frequent travels, she is concerned with transcultural aspects, e.g. basic human needs and rituals, which she cross-culturally compares to facilitate dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
beyond cultural borders. In doing so, using her own body as an instrument of physical perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
is of central relevance. Until today, Siglinde Kallnbach realizes the impact of social conditions and predicaments through her own body. In her early work, this often implied carrying herself to physical extremes.
Kallnbach comprehensively includes photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, various objects and materials in her performances and installations
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
and conveys complex cultural meanings by her highly symbolic acts. These do not only refer to an individually defined myth, but transfer her very own existential experience into a wider social context. Moreover, an important aspect of her artistic work is the active involvement of others. For example, in the second part of her Trilogy Kleinsassen (1985), she was able to unite 360 participations from 39 countries in her exhibition. For her project Wunschspur-Wishingtrack (1999-2001), she collected more than 4000 wishes for the future from all over the world and transformed them into a 460 m abstract track, which she presented in a maintenance tunnel underneath the Rhine on New Year’s Eve 2000 and 2001.
Siglinde Kallnbach’s artistic work is closely related to life and the everyday. Since she was diagnosed with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
for the first time in 2000, she started to address the disease and its impact also in her art, while she places the individual suffering into a wider social context. With her interactive project a performancelife (since 2001) that serves to express empathy with cancer patients, Kallnbach creates options to release creative energy so as to convey its transformative power for the benefit of patients, their relatives, and the medical staff. For her social commitment, she was called she who loves fire in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as early as the 1980s.
Solo performances and solo exhibitions (selection)
- 1978 first performances in New Zealand und Australia
- 1984-86 process art trilogy (Feuertor etc.), Kleinsassen/Hessen
- 1987 Judicium Ignis - 500 Jahre Hexenhammer, Exhibition at the Hochschulgalerie Kausch and women’s procession, Kassel
- 1990 When will Mr. Saito buy van Gogh's ear?, performance, installation and documentation, Heineken Village Gallery, Tokyo
- 1992 Ei des Phönix, three performances, Theater im Fridericianum, Kassel
- 1993 Fremdenfreude II, performance and installation, Schaufenstergalerie Kassel
- 1994 Die Rose von Jericho, performance festival, Oldenburg
- 1997 Rheinspur, art intervention , GEW Tunnel underneath the Rhine, exhibition Rheinspur/performance taubenrot, Antoniterkirche Cologne
- 2000 Wunschspur, exhibition, Vonderau Museum Fulda
- since 2001 art project a performancelife
- 2002 Van Gogh's Dream, performance, Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Aomori/Japan
- 2005 Rheingold – Shinkansen, exhibition, Kita Gallery, Yamatokooriyama-City / Nara-Ken
- 2007 HC – BC, exhibition and performance, KunstWerk Köln
- 2008/09 Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen
Works in public collections
- Art Collection Deutsche Bank
- Kölnisches Stadtmuseum
- Vonderau Museum Fulda
- Stadtmuseum Siegburg
- Stadt Kölnischer Kunstbesitz
- Muzej i galerija Ijentnikovca Buca/Centar za kulturu Tivat
- Staatliche Kunstsammlungen – Neue Galerie Kassel
- documenta Archiv Kassel
- Kunststation Kleinsassen
- Stadtsparkasse Wuppertal
Solo exhibitions (selection)
- Rheingold - Shinkansen, Salon Verlag Köln, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89770-255-4
- Wunschspur - Wishingtrack, Salon Verlag Köln, 2002, ISBN 3-89770-166-9
- Rheinspur, Salon Verlag Köln 1999, ISBN 3-932189-51-5
- Siglinde Kallnbach - Performance, dalebo Verlag, Köln 1995, ISBN 3-9804380-1-5
- Siglinde Kallnbach: Todesmasken für van Gogh/Japan 1990, Kunststation Kleinsassen 1991
- Verbindungen, Kunststation Kleinsassen 1985
- Feuertor, Kunststation Kleinsassen 1984
Group exhibitions (selection)
- Alles Prophetinnen, Frauenmuseum Bonn, 2006, ISBN 3-928239-46-5
- Performa 04 - FestiwalSztukj Zywej/Live Art Festival - Private Impact, Szczecin/Polen, 2004
- Kunst auf Rezept, Salon Verlag Köln 2001, Museum Ratingen 2001 und andere Orte, 2002/2003, ISBN 3-89770-143-X
- Shozo Shimamoto – Siglinde Kallnbach, Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln, Köln 2000
- Gabriele Münter Preis 1997, Frauen Museum Bonn/Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche Osnabrück/Galerie am *Fischmarkt Erfurt, ISBN 3-928239-35-X
- Stadt der Frauen, Frauenmuseum Bonn 1995
- Multimedialistinnen: Performerinnen-Woche Erfurt, Kunsthaus Erfurt 1992
- InterAzioni- Laboratorio Internationale delle Performances et Installazioni,Cagliari/Sardinien 1990
Publications (selection)
- Siglinde Kallnbach: "Performance - der perforierte Begriff - ein Plädoyer gegen die Lehrbarkeit von Performance", in: Marie-Luise Lange (Hrsg.): Performativität erfahren. Aktionskunst lehren - Aktionskunst lernen. Schibri Verlag, Berlin/Milow/Strasburg, 2006, ISBN 3-937895-42-6
- Siglinde Kallnbach: "Judicium Ignis: 500 Jahre Hexenhammer – Frauenprozession durch die Kasseler Innenstadt", in: Feministische Kulturpädagogik: Projekte und Konzepte, Akademie Remscheid 1989, ISBN 3-923128-05-3
External links
- http://www.siglinde.kallnbach.de/Siglinde%20Kallnbach%20English.htm
- http://www.wishingtrack.com
- http://www.a.performancelife.com
- http://www.verein-a.performancelife.com
- http://www.nebutamatsuricolognecarnival.kallnbach.de/Prof.%20Quander%20English.htm