Mischa Kuball

Since 1984,  Mischa Kuball (* 1959 in Düsseldorf) has been working in public and institutional spaces. He received notable awards and scholarships and since 1991 he has been teaching at various universities and art schools. 1999/2000 he was visiting professor at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, working on the subject of “light and space,” from 2004 to 2008 he taught media art at the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe. Since October 2007 he has been professor for media art at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and founded the MinusEins Experimentallabor there.

Using the medium of light – in installations and photography – he explores architectural spaces and contributes to social and political discourses. He reflects the varying facets of cultural social structures to the point of architectural interventions that either highlight or reprogram the character and architectural context.

In politically motivated and participatory projects the public and private space are crossed over. They make possible a communication between participants, the artist, the art work, and the public space.

For the São Paulo Biennial in 1998 Kuball worked with private lamps. In later years, architectures such as the Mannesmann-tower in Düsseldorf (1990) or the Stommeln synagogue (1994) were transformed into individual bodies of light.

During his project ...a window in the Johanneskirche in Düsseldorf (2001), he also worked with natural light. He realized further pieces in well-known institutions in Germany and abroad: at Bauhaus Dessau (1992), Jewish Museum, New York (2002), Hamburger Kunsthalle (2007), NTT-Intercommunication Center Tokyo (2008). Temporary installations were exhibited at Kunstsammlung NRW Düsseldorf (2005), Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (1999), ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (2005) and Centre Pompidou-Metz (2010).

Additionally, since 2009, Mischa Kuball has developed a series of sitespecific installations entitled public preposition that were shown at Caserma Cornoldi, Venedig (2009), Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas (2009), in Toronto, Canada (2011) as well as in the context of the Bone14-Performance Festivals, Bern (2011). In 2010, on the occasion of RUHR.2010 and the European City of Culture, Mischa Kuball organized New Pott, a participatory project with one hundred families from one hundred countries. Since the beginning of 2011 his complex project platon’s mirror was exhibited at ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art Karlsruhe, Artspace Visual Arts Centre Sydney, MNAC in Bucarest, Central St. Martin School London, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, and other places.

Numerous publications accompany the ephemeral, mostly time based projects, among these are Florian Matzner (ed.), Mischa Kuball‚ ... in progress 1980–2007 (2007), New Pott – neue Heimat im Revier (2010), platon´s mirror and the actuality of the cave allegory (2012).

Further on there are several permanent installtions realized: to be mentioned as example of this: since 2010 ‚Catch as Catch Can’ in cooperation with Lawrence Weiner for Emscherkunst. 2010, at Bernepark Bottrop-Ebel (DE) and since october 2012: ‚MetaLicht’ at the ‚Bergische Universität Wuppertal’ (DE).

Arena/Agora is part of a series of site-specific installations that bear the collective title Public Preposition, realized with Caserma Cornoldi, Venice (2009), Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas (2009), in Toronto, Canada (2011) and as part of  the Bone14-Performance Festivals, Bern (2011). 

www.mischakuball.com

Productions