| Education |
|
| 2001 |
M.F.A., Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg |
| 1994 |
Bachelor in Fine Arts, Concordia University, Montreal |
| 1991 |
Textile Arts Diploma, Capilano College, Vancouver |
|
|
| Exhibitions/screenings |
|
| 2023 |
Flores que explotan/Bursting Flowers (screening), Scriptings, Berlin |
| |
The event of a thread, Central Tunis, Tunis |
| 2022 |
The Vibration of Things, 15th Triennial of Small Sculpture Fellbach (collaboration with Gabriel Rossell Santillán) |
| 2021 |
Qalqalah : plus d’une langue (as part of Man schenkt keinen Hund), La Kunsthalle, centre d’art contemporain Mulhouse |
| |
Picking our images of my soul’s eye: Understanding Gloria E. Anzaldúa through artistic practices. District, Berlin |
2020
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The event of a thread, NeMe Arts Centre Limassol
|
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Qalqalah : plus d’une langue (as part of Man schenkt keinen Hund), CRAC Occitanie |
| 2019 |
The event of a thread, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul |
| 2018 |
Salon World of Noon, artist talk with Tamuna Chabashvili and Christel Vesters, Air Berlin Alexanderplatz, Schiras gallery, Berlin
|
| 2017 |
The event of a thread, Kunsthaus Dresden |
|
Man schenkt keinen Hund, Arthur Boskamp-foundation, Hohenlockstedt
|
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Hilar una frase / Stringing words together, screening at SUSI, intercultural women’s center and xart splitta e.V., Berlin |
| 2016 |
Man schenkt keinen Hund, Projektraum Scriptings, Berlin
|
| 2014 |
ABLi @ Casa Azul, Arte Bienal en Lima |
|
Ein Waisenhaus in China, screening at SUSI, intercultural women’s center, and Frauenkreise, transcultural women’s center, Berlin
|
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Ein Waisenhaus in China, screening at Institut für Gender Studies und Kulturwissenschaft, Humboldt University, Berlin |
|
(solo show) Une crèche en Chine / Ein Waisenhaus in China, FRISE (artist-run center), Hamburg |
| 2012 |
Acts of voicing, performance „La Hybris del Punto Cero I“ (collaboration decolonial group Berlin & Ingrid Wildi Merino), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart |
|
An orphanage in China, trailer screening, Decolonize the city! conference at Rosa-Luxemburg foundation, Berlin |
| 2011 |
An orphanage in China, work-in-progress screening/artist talk, Haute école d’art et de design, Geneva, |
|
and seminar “Decolonizing Western universalisms”, Institute for European Ethnology, Berlin |
|
Open Studio, Atelier Scherenbergstraße, Berlin |
| 2010 |
Chile dulce & Pfeffis, The Forgotten Bar, Berlin |
| 2006 |
Travel, Showroom, Fabrikken for Kunst og Design, Copenhagen
|
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Dreißig Silberlinge, private collection Stefan Haupt, Berlin |
| 2004 |
Cloak, screening/artist talk, summer academy “gender-memory”, Oldenburg University |
| 2003 |
Embrace, screening/artist talk, Congress of Americanists, Santiago de Chile |
|
Camarín, Espace Forde, Geneva |
|
Schutzmuster (solo show), Galerie 35, Berlin |
|
Embrace, screening at Abenteuer Essayfilm, Metropolis communal cinema, Hamburg |
| 2002 |
Ökonomien der Zeit, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and
Migros Museum, Zurich |
|
Belonging, screening of Embrace as part of the film program for the exhibition, Shedhalle Zurich |
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Embrace, screening at Cinarchea, archeology & art film festival, Kiel |
| 2001 |
Transformationen,Übersetzungen, 12-18, project space Molotow, Hamburg |
|
Get that balance, K3, Kampnagel Hamburg |
| 1998/99 |
Anatomical Permutations: Ten Canadian Artists, Museo del Pueblo, Guanajuato,
and Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico, D.F. |
| 1997 |
De Lacrimae Rerum (solo show/artist talk), Articule gallery, Montreal |
| 1995 |
Mujeres de Pelo en Pecho: 46 Latinamerican Artists, Evanston Hall, Chicago |
|
Transgeographic Portraits (coll. with Dianna Frid), Dare-Dare gallery, Montreal |
|
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| Videos |
|
| 2023 |
Flores que explotan (Bursting Flowers), HD, 47 min |
| 2020/21 |
No more poems for Columbus (interview series, HD, 10 min each) |
| 2016 |
Hilar una frase / Stringing words together, HD video 33 min |
| 2014 |
Une crèche en Chine / An orphanage in China, HD video 30 min
|
| 2003/6 |
Cloak, miniDV 15 min |
| 2001 |
Embrace, miniDV 10 min |
|
|
| Awards |
|
| 2022 |
Recherchestipendium (artistic research grant), Berlin Senate Dept. for Culture and Europe |
| 2020 |
Berliner Projektfonds kulturelle Bildung, Reimagine Jetzt! Gestalte deine Geschichte selbst (with mitkollektiv)
|
| 2019 |
Travel grant, ifa gallery |
| 2017 |
Berliner Projektfonds kulturelle Bildung, Historias – Telling our own stories in other ways (with Olenka Bordo)
|
| 2003 |
Travel Grant, Congress of Americanists, Santiago de Chile |
| 2001 |
Canada Council C-Grant |
| 1999 |
Begabtenförderung (young talents award), Ditze Foundation |
| 1998 |
DAAD scholarship |
| 1997 |
DAAD scholarship |
| 1995 |
Canada Council Explorations Grant |
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| Publications |
|
| 2017 |
“Umarmung. Inka Gressel im Gespräch mit Karen Michelsen Castañón”. The event of a thread/Das Ereignis eines Fadens. Stuttgart: ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)
|
| 2005 |
“Die Videos Umarmung und Tarnkappe: Fäden und Knoten der Geschichtsschreibung”. |
|
Frauen Kunst Wissenschaft, issue 39 |
| 2004 |
“El vídeo Abrazo y su estructura textil”. Tejiendo sueños en el Cono Sur. Textiles Andinos: Pasado, Presente y
Futuro. Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona |
| 2002 |
Artist text, catalogue of the exhibition Economies of time. Hans-Christian Dany, Astrid Wege (eds.), Frankfurt am Main |
| 1998 |
A language of self. Webpage Borderlines/ContactZones: Latinamerica/Americas |
| 1996 |
Syncretic cloth, Virgins and Colonization in the Peruvian Andes. Paper presented at symposium of the Textile Society of America, Art Institute of Chicago |
|
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| Media recognition |
|
| 2002 |
Röller, Nils. “Inkaspeicher”. Tuxamoon, Magazin für Kultur, Umwelt und Soziales. http://www.tuxamoon.de/magazine/kultur/verschiedenes/2005/04/18/inkaspeicher/
Eggel, Caroline. “Ökonomien der Zeit im Migros Museum“ Kunst-Bulletin, 1 Dec
Lintl, Manuela. “Zu kopflastig in ihrem Anspruch. Ökonomien der Zeit am Hanseatenweg“ Neues Deutschland, 18 July |
| 1998 |
Ranquel, Enrique. “Examinan 10 artistas permutaciones del cuerpo humano.” Reforma 4 Oct: 4
Solórzano, Enrique. “Del cuerpo y otras razones.” Correo Oct: 19 |
| 1997 |
Aquin, Stéphan. “Karen Michelsen“ Voir no. 4, vol.11, January
Carpenter, Jessica. “Karen Michelsen: De Lacrimae Rerum” Espace summer, no. 40:42
Catchlove, Lucinda. “Ghostly Words: Karen Michelsen’s Vision and Veiled References” Hour n.4, vol. 5, January
Chimpén, Augusto. “La exploración visual de Karen Michelsen“ El Comercio August 3: C8; “Karen Michelsen” Art Nexus No. 26, Oct-Dec: 14
Kozinska, Dorota. “Unusual display could move you to tears” The Gazette January 31: C9
Interview with René Bouchard, Rádio Centre-Ville |
| 1995 |
Aquin, Stéphan. “Dianna Frid et Karen Michelsen” Voir December
“Portraits transgéographiques” Mix Winter: 29 |
|
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| Further activities |
|
| 03 & 05/2021 |
Podcasts with historian Claudia Gotta, reflecting on the exhibition The listening and the winds (commissioned by ifa gallery, Berlin) |
| 09/2020 |
Screening of video Response of the Mayan Weavers Movement to the Netflix documentary “Guatemala: Heart of the Mayan World”, Andenbuch Berlin, online Q & A with Aura Cumes and Angelina Aspuac |
| 07/2017 |
Body and cultural appropriation, workshop with Silvia Chávez Gaytán, exhibition program “Hello World”, Museum Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
|
| 10/2017 |
Die Rückreise sensibler Sammlungen, screening and discussions on returning artifacts acquired in colonial contexts to the communities they belong to; concept & organization of the event with colectivo qellcay and COMPA Berlin, Regenbogen Kino Berlin |
| 09/2017 |
Collaborative art workshop La arpillera en Dresden, with Silvia Chávez Gaytán, Kunsthaus Dresden |
| 06/2016 |
Discussion of the new German translation of Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” with translator Mirjam Nuenning, as well as Silvia Chávez and Pascal Virginie Rotter. Moderator: Iris Rajanayagam. xart splitta, Berlin |
| 2014 – present |
video and art workshops for children and youth in Berlin |
| 12/2013 |
Begegnungen mit dem Kolonialen in der Pädagogik (Encounters with the colonial sphere in education), organization of the event with decolonial group berlin, Georg-Simmel-Zentrum für Metropolen Forschung, Humboldt University, Berlin |
01/2013 – 07/2016
|
art workshops for children in collaboration with COMPA Berlin |
| 06/2010 – 07/2013 |
organization of cultural events with Memos, association for memory cultures, Berlin: The struggle of memory against forgetting (on processes of memory in three African countries) / Palabras desencadenadas (reading series on literature, political imprisonment and memory processes through the lens of four Latin American writers) |
| 2003 |
co-founded with other parents a Spanish-German, parent-run daycare in Berlin |
2001 – present
|
freelance translator of art-related texts and film subtitles
|
| 1997 |
short stay in Guatemala, exhibition project Maya Textiles: Visions of Identity (co-curated with Barbara Layne for Marsil Museum, Qc) |
|
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| Visiting lecturer (Institut für Kunst und Visuelle Kultur, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg) |
| 1/2020 |
Seminar Embodied learning? |
| 11/2018 |
Seminar Decolonizing the gaze |
| 06/2018 |
Seminar Body/Power/Video |
| 06/2017 |
Seminar Essayistic filmmaking and decolonial perspectives |