Leonie Kellein (b. Switzerland) is a visual artist and filmmaker. She studied at HFBK University of Fine Arts Hamburg and Goldsmiths, University of London. In her current work she reflects on terms of memory, trauma and our expectations of matter and materiality. She has won several awards and scholarships including the Deutschland stipend by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the DAAD study scholarship and the Art School Alliance stipend by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. and the Karl H. Ditze Stiftung. For her short film Dream City she won the Jury Prize during the participation at the exhibition 'Urban Ecologies' at Weltkunstzimmer Düsseldorf. Her works have been shown internationally at film festivals and galleries such Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis, International Filmfestival Visions du Reél and Kunstverein Schwerin. Alongside her artistic work she has also created videos for theatre productions at Kampnagel, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg and Thalia Theater in Hamburg. For 2021/22 she receives the Advancement Prize by the Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung IN:VISIBILITIES that focuses on the social and political dimensions of a long-digitalized everyday life that also encompass material and physical processes. June 2021
@lon_secle
@lon_secle
A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat! (2022)
Single-channel video installation. 7 mins 42 secs Looped.
What happens when we see an animal’s point of view through a camera technology? Where are the transitions between object and subject, passive carrier material and action? Leonie Kellein's multimedia installation "A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat!" consists of a video and the installation of a curved wall, sculpture and sound. Parts of the video are camera recordings of a carrier pigeon functioning like a drone. The gazes of the bird are combined with glimpses of the dovecote, the animal's dwelling, and animated footage of the pigeon's wings. While the animal’s movements appear central in the video, the sounds composed with the help of the bird subtly spread through the exhibition space. The video also features recordings of a former German military camp environment, Lockstedter Lager, whereas the installation addresses the pigeon’s body, including attempts to control and to capture it.
With "A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat!" Kellein creates an echo chamber between the camera views, pictures shot by an animal and objects installed in space. An in-between world appears, which is neither technical, nor human, nor animalistic. The plot moves in different directions to create an imprint or sign of an absent body, for example through the sculpture of a pigeon holder as used in farm animal husbandry. The elements arranged in space present the functional objects as if they were autonomous. They challenge the idea of serving technologies and supply. Message transmitter, carrier material, and sheath seem to become independent actors corresponding with each other. "A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat!" creates a field of different points of view - where each of the elements seems to be self-sufficient.
Single-channel video installation. 7 mins 42 secs Looped.
What happens when we see an animal’s point of view through a camera technology? Where are the transitions between object and subject, passive carrier material and action? Leonie Kellein's multimedia installation "A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat!" consists of a video and the installation of a curved wall, sculpture and sound. Parts of the video are camera recordings of a carrier pigeon functioning like a drone. The gazes of the bird are combined with glimpses of the dovecote, the animal's dwelling, and animated footage of the pigeon's wings. While the animal’s movements appear central in the video, the sounds composed with the help of the bird subtly spread through the exhibition space. The video also features recordings of a former German military camp environment, Lockstedter Lager, whereas the installation addresses the pigeon’s body, including attempts to control and to capture it.
With "A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat!" Kellein creates an echo chamber between the camera views, pictures shot by an animal and objects installed in space. An in-between world appears, which is neither technical, nor human, nor animalistic. The plot moves in different directions to create an imprint or sign of an absent body, for example through the sculpture of a pigeon holder as used in farm animal husbandry. The elements arranged in space present the functional objects as if they were autonomous. They challenge the idea of serving technologies and supply. Message transmitter, carrier material, and sheath seem to become independent actors corresponding with each other. "A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat!" creates a field of different points of view - where each of the elements seems to be self-sufficient.
Training Set (screen memory II) (2021)
Two-channel video installation, colour, sound, duration: 6 min looped.
The video installation Training Set (screen memory II) explores the ways we deal with plastic and (ecological) trauma - both in confronting the issue of duration and the very idea of infinite transformation. The work consists of a system of video monitors, headphones, wall paint and a plastic object laying on the floor. The monitors play two videos that combine footage of a playful, childlike imagery with scenes that were shot with the plastic object on a scrapyard. The soundtrack of the work is a compilation of a talkshow about a young girl remembering dying in a previous life.
Within the videos different spheres of consciousness and time are created and the idea of the plastic object becoming a shapeshifter comes into play; from one second to the next it is becoming a surfboard, becoming a body, becoming the water. Viewers of the work are invited into the same vulnerable and exposed relationship as the plastic protagonist has with the created environment; it is shape shifting and almost not being in one's one body. It becomes less a thing than a trace of its movement. However, the plastic protagonist presents itself as a frightening, deathly body it seems to be dependent on protection and care at the same time.
Two-channel video installation, colour, sound, duration: 6 min looped.
The video installation Training Set (screen memory II) explores the ways we deal with plastic and (ecological) trauma - both in confronting the issue of duration and the very idea of infinite transformation. The work consists of a system of video monitors, headphones, wall paint and a plastic object laying on the floor. The monitors play two videos that combine footage of a playful, childlike imagery with scenes that were shot with the plastic object on a scrapyard. The soundtrack of the work is a compilation of a talkshow about a young girl remembering dying in a previous life.
Within the videos different spheres of consciousness and time are created and the idea of the plastic object becoming a shapeshifter comes into play; from one second to the next it is becoming a surfboard, becoming a body, becoming the water. Viewers of the work are invited into the same vulnerable and exposed relationship as the plastic protagonist has with the created environment; it is shape shifting and almost not being in one's one body. It becomes less a thing than a trace of its movement. However, the plastic protagonist presents itself as a frightening, deathly body it seems to be dependent on protection and care at the same time.
The Second Body Exhibition at A.P.T Gallery 17-20 June 2021
Online Screening: 19-30 June 2021
Online Panel Discussion: 19-June 2021, 2pm
Postgraduate Degree Shows: Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross SE14, 21-26 July 2022
Online Screening: 19-30 June 2021
Online Panel Discussion: 19-June 2021, 2pm
Postgraduate Degree Shows: Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross SE14, 21-26 July 2022