MUNICH.- In cooperation with the Lenbachhaus, Magnus Elias Rosengarten curates a series of personal conversations with artists. Set in the artists’ studios, their exchanges address existential concerns, including questions of belonging, identity, and migration. Woven into the artists’ creative processes, Voices Unbound: Artists in Conversation charts an emotional approach to the works and affords public audiences more intimate insights than a conventional interview situation could. All participants share a strong focus on the human body as their medium and point of reference.

The series will feature artists from France, Guadeloupe and the UK who work across disciplines (performance, film/video, drawing and painting) and are primarily active within the global African diaspora: Jimmy Robert (Germany/France/Guadeloupe), Julien Creuzet (France/Martinique) and SERAFINE1369 (UK).

The first conversation with SERAFINE1369 will be held at the Lenbachhaus (May 8, 6pm). The talk with SERAFINE1369 is free of charge, no registration necessary. Free seating, limited number of places. The talk will take place in English language at Kunstbau, Lenbachhaus (subterraneous gallery on the mezzanine level of the “Königsplatz” subway station).

The conversations with Jimmy Robert and Julien Creuzet, by contrast, will be streamed in short videos on the Lenbachhaus’s YouTube channel.

All participants of the series

Magnus Elias Rosengarten is an author and curator focusing on the complex relationships between body and space in contemporary art. Central questions of his work are: Which spaces make some bodies a political subject and others not? Who has the power to define bodies and what realities are created in this sense? Rosengarten’s work is informed by the rich knowledge archives and systems of the global African diaspora. Non-Western epistemologies are pillars and toolboxes for his work, especially when it comes to the urgent task of making visible bodies and narratives that are constantly moving in the diaspora.

SERAFINE1369 describes dance and movement as an “oracular practice” and continually works to raise awareness of the artificially shared space between performer and audience. Their creative practice is informed by their interest in the invisible systems and structures that guide our bodies in life. To create immersive atmospheres, they often employ sculptures, music, videos, storytelling, and states of trance.

Experience the conversation live on 8 May in Munich or from 15 May on the Lenbachhaus YouTube channel.

Jimmy Robert’s practice sets the body—often his own—in relation to objects made of paper or other materials to create an interface between performance and art history. The artist playfully flouts divisions of genre by superimposing structures in two and three dimensions that interfuse the most diverse media and translates the principle of collage and decollage into a contemporary visual idiom.

The conversation between Jimmy Robert and Magnus Elias Rosengarten will be published on the Lenbachhaus YouTube channel from May 21.

Julien Creuzet’s interdisciplinary approach encompasses sculpture, poetry, music, video, and animation and interrogates the multifaceted history of French colonialism. The artist complements his sculptural works with performative aspects and music/vocals, a practice that culminates in complex montages or environments.

The conversation between Julien Creuzet and Magnus Elias Rosengarten will be published on the Lenbachhaus YouTube channel from May 28.