Manuela Hartel
digital media art & performance – Germany
In her artistic practice Manuela Hartel interweaves elements of performance, video, installation and music with space. Her focus is on transformative processes, synergetic concepts, perception in the field of tension between nature and the supernatural, as well as the meaningfulness of our existence in the context of faith, religion and ritual. She deals with tendencies of demarcation as well as aesthetic commonalities between the natural and the artificial and explores the possibility of establishing contact with our own inner constitution through them. Her video, spatial and sound installations form spaces of reflection and association with a challenging, visual quality.
The versatile digital artist studied media art at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, voice and performance at the American Institute Vienna and at the CentroProfessione Musica in Milan. Her works have been shown at the Pinakothek der Moderne Munich, MoCA Shanghai, the Venice Biennale, MUTEK Montreal, ZKM Karlsruhe and Haus der Kunst Munich. She realizes video installations for theater, opera and concert: Bavarian State Opera, Stuttgart State Opera, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and in collaboration with an international contemporary dance and theater scene.
With performative video projections she transforms churches, forests, ruins and backdrops into illusionistic places and conceives performances and large-scale audiovisual installations in indoor and outdoor spaces. In her video and light productions she works as a performer with voice and text, integrated in stage design and video mapping. She is supported by musicians and composers of new and electronic music: Stavros Gasparatos, Mark Andre, Konstantia Gourzi, Felix Leuschner.
During documenta14 in Athens in 2017 she developed BELOVED! and in 2019 for the LebanonBiennale DO ENTER DO EXIT, in collaboration with Lebanese music producer Fadi Tabbal. Waldrand Attitüde (2020) illuminated the symbiotic proximity of trees,humans and animals on 160 m of forest edge with a nightlyPerformance, light installation and headphone concert (Stiftung Kunst und Natur Nantesbuch). In her short film schlafenszeit (2021)she edited a Tarquinio Merula madrigal for the Stuttgart State Opera. In 2021 she participated as Artist in Residence at the Bari Biennale. In November 2021, Bavarian Television showed a portrait of the artist and the immersive-performative spatial projection UMBRUCH in the monastery church of Schlehdorf. This was followed in 2022 by collaborations with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Pinakothek der Moderne. Currently, with the support of the Curt Wills Foundation, she is working on RUACH, a hybrid format on the theme of inspiration with artists from the fields of opera, dance, photography, performance and music.
The artist was an artistic associate at the Munich Art Academy and receives regular institutional funding (Stiftung Kunstfonds, Kulturreferat München). She has been working in Munich and in her studio at Lake Starnberg for many years.
Exhibitions & Performances:
2023 MOMENTUM, Neues Museum Nürnberg
2022 Pinakothek der Moderne München
2022 Münchner Philharmoniker, Muffathalle München
2022 Gaswerk Augsburg
2021 Kunstwettbewerb, ELK Bayern
2021 Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover
2021 Kunstverein Celle, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Kunstverein Braunschweig
2021 Biennale, Bari
2021 Kunst hält Wache, Landsberg
2021 Staatsoper Stuttgart
2021 Fünf Seen Filmfestival Starnberg
2020 MUTEK – Festival, Montrèal
2020 Stiftung Kunst und Natur, Nantesbuch
2020 Villa Mussinan, Starnberg
2020 Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst e.V. – Publikation
2020 Altonaer Theater Hamburg
2019 Kreiskulturtage Landsberg
2019 ECHOLOT Festival, Schloss Kempfenhausen
2019 AV Experimental | ANALOG ROOM | DUBAI
2019 MACAM Biennale, Beirut
2019 Kunstwerk des Monats, Berg
2018 ETA Hoffmann Theater Bamberg
2017 Schloss Elmau & Hotel Orania Berlin
2017 Kunsthaus Zofingen, Schweiz
2017 Theatro Technis, Athen
2017 Venedig Biennale
2017 Deutsch-Tschechischer Kulturfrühling
2016 RODEO FESTIVAL, München
2016 ECHOLOT Festival, Schloss Kempfenhausen
2016 UNPAINTED lab 3.0 MMA München
2015 Opernfestspiele der Bayerischen Staatsoper
2014 Bayerisches Staatsballett
2013 MandarinArte Palermo
2012 Cambusateatro Locarno
2012 Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen
2011 Haus der Kunst München
2011 Militärhistorisches Museum in Dresden, permanente Ausstellung
2009 Performance Art Depot Mainz
2008 Art Museum Guangzhou,
2008 Sommerakademie Salzburg
2007 Jamart Mallorca
2006 Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai
2005 Film Biennale Ludwigsburg
2005 ZKM Karlsruhe
2003 Münchner Filmfest
2003 digital/analog festival München
2003 Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje
SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2023 Curt Wills Stiftung Mallorca
Artist in Residence, Projektförderung
2022 Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Bildung und Kultus, Wissenschaft und Kunst
„Verbindungslinien“, BBK Bayern Projektförderung RUACH
2022 Stiftung Kunstfonds
Neustart Stipendium
2022 digital art space München
Artist in Residence, Projektentwicklung RUACH, Ausstellung HAUCH
2022 Erwin und Gisela von Steiner Stiftung
Projektförderung RUACH
2021 Kunststipendium Bezirk Oberbayern
Artist in Residence, Vallisa Cultura Onlus, Bari, Italien
2020 Stiftung Kunst und Natur, Nantesbuch
Artist in Residence, „Waldrand Attitüde“
2019 Evangelische Stadtakademie München, Kirche in Bayern Kunstpastoral
Artist in Residence, Eschenau
2018 Inthega Theaterpreis
theaterlust productions GmbH
2018 Biehler von Dorrer Stiftung München
Projektförderung „BELOVED!“, Documenta11 in Athen
Kulturförderungen des Kulturreferats der Landeshauptstadt München
2022 Internationale Kooperationsförderung, Artist in Residence Mallorca
2019 Internationale Kooperationsförderung, MACAM Biennale Libanon
2018 Kooperationsförderung, Ausstellung Theater HochX / Galerie Françoise Heitsch
2017 Projektförderung „BELOVED“, Teatro Technis Karolos Koun, Athen
2012 Internationale Kooperationsförderung, Palermo
2012 Projektförderung “Rites de passage”
2010 Wiederaufnahmeförderung, Gasteig München, “Es ist kein’ Zeit”,
2009 Gastspielförderung, Schiffbau Zürich, “Es ist kein’ Zeit”
2009 Projektförderung “Es ist kein’ Zeit”
Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München
2005 Arbeitsstipendium „Digitale Kulturen“
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Bildung und Kultus, Wissenschaft und Kunst
2003 Gaststipendium, Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, ZKM
pics © Maren Martell / CPK