VOLKER MÄRZ
VOLKER MÄRZ
(*1957, Mannheim) is an artist, sculptor, painter, filmmaker, author and performer. Studied at the Academy of Arts, Berlin. In his interdisciplinary works he combines all art forms. He builds whole room installations as a synthesis of the arts with a far-flung family of painted clay figures, with quotations, drawings and paintings, and with pop songs for which he writes the lyrics, accompanied by the music of Bernadette La Hengst. This conglomeration gives rise to a complex, multi-layered, humorous narrative with surprising lightness, but with a political aspect at the same time. Here he deals with questions about our history and our present. In museums and galleries he uses the devices of the visual arts in live stage acts with the dance and performance group UNOS UNITED, which he founded. His work is shown in Germany and abroad, e.g., in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2005), the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel, the Biennale in Poznań/Poland (2009/2010), the Wits Arts Museum, Johannesburg (2016), as well as the Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, und the Gerhard Marcks Museum, Bremen (both in 2018).
ESPEN EICHHÖFER
(*1966, Nesbyer/Norway) studied 1992–2000 communication design, focusing on photography, at Duisburg-Essen University. 2001/2002 awarded the documentary photography advancement award of the Wüstenrot Foundation, and 2005 the Körber Photo Award. A member of OSTKREUZ since 2006. 2008 Artist in Residence at the Goethe Institute Manila. 2011 and 2017 awarded the VG Photo Art Scholarship and in 2017 the scholarship of the Fritt Ord Foundation, Norway. Participated in the 2014 group exhibitions WHAT WAS AND WHAT IS in Museum Folkwang, Essen, and THE ILLEGAL IMAGE – PHOTOGRAPHY BETWEEN SELF-CENSORSHIP AND PHOTO BAN in F 3 – freiraum für fotografie, Berlin, which he co-curated.