Mercedes Wagner
Peruvian-austrian artist, *1984 in Germany
Currently based in Hannover, Germany
mail@mercedeswagner.com
My work is based on the photographic image and makes use of interventions and installative practices. The subjects mostly center on the gesture of displaying and hence often refer to the mediation of knowledge and culture as well as to the context of science. While media-reflexive aspects remain underlying to my inte-rest in the photographic image, I consider it’s documentary and staging qualities equal and concurrent layers in photographic representation. I’m very interested in what seems to be trivial. I‘m intrigued by the everyday, cultural practices, language and artifacts in a wider sense. And I like to ask questions. Thus, my work is rather about providing space for enquiries than trying to give answers. Dealing with mundane topics I aim to draw the line to wider contexts that refer back to historic, economic and social conditions shaping the present. Since a while I’m concerned with the relationship between the Global North and the Global South and the concepts of reality, culture and identity underlying it’s status quo unaware of the reciprocity inherent to the interdependency between the North and the South. By creating myself alternative frames of references using both still and moving images I try to question common concepts as constructs of a binary and hiera-rich system. In order to broaden but also to orchestrate those networks of connotations, I implement spatial and temporal aspects, sound, text and materials.
I like to think of my works as photographic spaces that enable the alteration of the visible and create further possibilities of reality. In this context my practice examines our relation towards the photographic image and the depicted, questioning representative functions of photography, video and objects through site-specific installations, projections and books.
Education
2013 - 2018 MA Photography Studies and Practice, Folkwang University of the Arts Essen (GER)
2015 - 2016 Research in Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Chile, Brazil
2015 Masterclass Contemporary Photography, Centro de la Imagen Lima (PE)
2006 - 2011 BA Scenography and Costume, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover (GER)
2004 - 2005 Philosophy, Gender Studies, Economic & Social Studies, Georg-August-University Goettingen (GER)
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 Folkwang Prize 2017, Nomination
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 Building, Zollverein Essen
Mantas @International Young Photographers, Daegu Photo Biennale 2018, Daeguart Factory, Daegu (KOR)
We will pick you up again Videoscreening @Rundgang 2018, Zollverein Essen
Irgend @Photoprojekte Bauschau 2007-2018, Baustelle Schaustelle Duesseldorf, Photo Duesseldorf
You there, us here, W-10 Gallery FIU Miami (USA)
2017 Before Miami, Baustelle Schaustelle Essen
Es lo que hay @Folkwang Preis 2017, Sanaa Building Zollverein, Essen
Stopover, UG im Folkwang, Museum Folkwang, Essen
2014 Kanal_A @Rundgang Fotografie, Auktionshaus Schützenbahn, Essen
Krisen des Sichtbaren, Pasinger Fabrik, Munich
2011 Darin leben, Screening @...können wir das bitte sehen?, Ballhof, Hannover
2010 Vol. 10, Seilbahn Expo Plaza, Hannover
Publication Contributions
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, Daegu (KOR)
International Young Photography Exhibition, catalogue, Daegu Photo Biennale 2018, Daegu (KOR)
2017 Stopover, brochure, UG im Folkwang, Museum Folkwang Essen
Irgend, artist's book, hand-made, Essen
2014 Schöne neue Welt, HANT Magazine for Photography, No. 04
Folkwang UdK, brochure, Photokina Academy 2014, Cologne
Texts
2020 Über weites Wasser, Flusser Studies 29 – 2020 / Centennial Three-Part Issue, flusserstudies.net
2018 Ein fotografischer Körper? Aktivität und Passivität eines theoretischen Objekts. MA thesis, Folkwang University
of the Arts Essen