Mercedes Wagner (*1984 Hann. Muenden, Germany)
visual artist currently based in Hannover, Germany
mail@mercedeswagner.com
My work is based on the photograpfic image and an installation-based practice. The subjects mostly center on gestures of displaying in the context of culture, identity and knowledge mediation. I try to reveal those concepts as constructs by creating myself frames of references which alter common ways of seeing through the recontextualization of still and moving images. Reality is just one out of a vast field of possibilities informed by more or less inconscious conventions. In this context my works examine our relation towards the photographic image and question its representative functions by involving objects and adressing issues of corporeality. Thus, material-, spatial- and temporal aspects take center stage in content and form of my works echoed through site-specific installations and projections as well as books.
I like to think of my works as photographic spaces that enable alternative meanings of the visible.
Education
2013 - 2018 MA Photography Studies and Practice, Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, Germany
2015 - 2016 Research in Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Chile, Brazil
2015 Masterclass Contemporary Photography, Centro de la Imagen Lima, Peru
2006 - 2011 BA Scenography and Costume, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover, Germany
2004 - 2005 Philosophy, Gender Studies, Economic & Social Studies, Georg-August-University Goettingen, Germany
Grants
2019 Individual Artistic Development, project funding by the Federal Land of North Rhine-Westphalia
2018 Individual Artistic Development, research grant by the Federal Land of North Rhine-Westphalia
Project Funding, The Society of Friends and Sponsors of the Folkwang University of the Arts
Deutschlandstipendium, scholarship by the Federal Government of Germany
2017 nomination Folkwang Prize 2017, Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, Germany
Solo Exhibitions
2018 Touch, Raum Z13, Essen
2017 LIQUID LAYERS même l’eau a l’air fausse, Galerie52, Essen
Group Exhibitions
2019 Made in..., Kunsthaus Essen
2018 ExExoArtefakt, Folkwang Finale, Sanaa Gebäude, Zollverein Essen
Mantas, International Young Photographers, Daegu Photo Biennale 2018, Daeguart Factory, Daegu, Korea
We will pick you up again, Videoscreening @Rundgang 2018, Zollverein Essen
Photoprojekte Bauschau 2007-2018, Baustelle Schaustelle, Photo Düsseldorf
You there, us here, W-10 Gallery FIU Miami, USA
2017 Before Miami, Baustelle Schaustelle Essen
Irgend / Fast hier, Sanaa Building Zollverein, Folkwang Preis 2017, Essen
Stopover/Zwischenhalt, UG im Folkwang, Museum Folkwang, Essen
2014 Rundgang Fotografie, Auktionshaus Schützenbahn, Essen
Krisen des Sichtbaren, Pasinger Fabrik, München
2011 ...können wir das bitte sehen?, Ballhof 2, Hannover
2010 Vol. 10, Seilbahn Expo Plaza, Hannover
Publications
2018 Encounter V History of Photography in Daegu, International Young Photographers Exhibition, Photo Artists Society of Korea:
Photography Exhibition, Fringe Photo Festival, Galleries Association of Daegu: Special Photography Exhibition, catalogue, Daegu
Photo Biennale 2018, South Korea
International Young Photography Exhibition, catalogue, Daegu Photo Biennale 2018, South Korea
2017 Stopover/Zwischenhalt, brochure, UG im Folkwang, Museum Folkwang Essen
Irgend, artist's book, hand-made, Essen
2014 Schöne neue Welt, HANT Magazine for Photography, Nr. 04, S. 108-109
Folkwang UdK, brochure, Photokina Academy 2014, Köln