BERLIN.- The artists Nora Schultz and Mirjam Thomann share a methodical interest in the material, architectural and cultural properties of spaces. Their sculptures do not remain external to the architecture of the monastic ruins, but rather intervene in its workings and involve the visitors in processes of positioning and re-orientation. Schultz and Thomann activate spaces and cultivate a sense of the porosity and movement in the historically resonant space of Klosterruine.
Nora Schultz often develops large installations that involve and re-code the venue’s structure and sometimes project beyond its confines. By working with temporal structures, language and recording systems, everyday objects and cultural displacements, her work extends an ordinary understanding of the sculptural process. The observation and critical activation of the space or structure in which her work takes place are not only key elements in her art-making process but additional visible dimensions of her sculptural work.
Nora Schultz earned her degree from Städelschule, Frankfurt, in 2005 and has also studied at the MFA program at Bard College, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include O-Ton and the O-Ton at O-Town House, Los Angeles, Two-Chambered Ears at Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin, (both 2021) and would you say this is the day? at Secession, Vienna (2019). She realized solo performances at The Whitney Museum, NY and at Tate Modern, London and took part in Skulptur Projekte Münster in 2017. Schultz currently lives and works in Vienna, where she teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Mirjam Thomann is interested in reflecting on and transcending architectural, social and institutional orders with the means of sculpture, installation, and text. In her works, she uses what is at hand at a certain site as an impetus, as material, space, and terrain, which she expands, supplements or comments on. This activation of what is there is combined with features such as reusability, combinability and movability of materials and fixtures.
Mirjam Thomann lives in Berlin and studied fine arts at Kingston University of London and the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Her last solo exhibition "Theory & Action" was shown in 2022 at Galerie Nagel Draxler, Cologne. She has recently taken part in group exhibitions at the University of Lüneburg's Kunstraum, Galerie Krobath, Vienna, After the Butcher, Berlin, and the North Coast Art Triennial. She received working grants from the Academy of Fine Arts, Berlin, Stiftung Kunstfond, Bonn, and was artist in residence of the MAK Schindler Scholarship Program in Los Angeles. She is the author of Texte zur Kunst and currently teaches at the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne.
