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