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Staff Profile

Professor Uta Kogelsberger

Professor of Practice

Background

Uta Kögelsberger is an artist based in London, and co-director of FILET, a space for experimental art production.

Kögelsberger's artistic practice articulates and engages with social and political concerns through the languages of photography, video, sculpture and sound. Recent projects have included Fire Complex, a series of billboards and video works in response to the impact of the SQF fire complex, Uncertain Subjects, a durational billboard performance in the public realm in response to the political landscape in the UK in the run up to Brexit (2017-2019), the spatial installation combining sculpture, sound and live performances, Orchestra of Rocks a visceral response to the impact of climate change (2016-2019), Playing the Cave, a New Expressions Commission in collaboration with the Cumbria Museum Consortium (2015); Waiting for Los Angeles, a portrait of the City of Los Angeles (2015); Off Road an investigation of the notion of freedom in the USA (2008-2014).

Kögelsberger’s work has been exhibited as part of the Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton as part of Art Night, London, at Bluecoat, Liverpool, Spacex Exeter, CPG, London, Danielle Arnaud London, the Architectural Association, London, the Barbican, London, Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC and the Glassell Project Space MFAH, Houston. She has been awarded the Stanley Picker Fellowship, the Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship, the EAA Award for Art in Architecture and the SPD silver medal for editorial photography. Her photographic essays have been published in Wired, Esquire, GQ and American Photography.

Her work is held in public and private collections including the MFAH (Museum of Modern Art Houston) and the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum).

Link to personal website

Link to Fire Complex website

Link to FILET gallery website

Link to the Producers: Art Monthly


CLICK BELOW FOR RECENT WORKS

Uncertain Subjects

Rock Concert

Playing the Cave

Waiting for Los Angeles

2008-2014 Off Road

2014 Interview with Uta Kogelsberger and Tom Leeser


2014 Antipodes

2010 Mystery Spots




Research

Uta Kögelsberger is an artist based in London, and co-director of FILET, a space for experimental art production. Her practice articulates and engages with social and political concerns through the languages of photography, video, sculpture and sound. Recent projects have included Uncertain Subjects, a durational billboard performance in the public space in response to the political landscape in the UK in the run up to Brexit (2017-2019), the spatial installation combining sculpture, sound and live performances, Orchestra of Rocks a visceral response to the impact of climate change (2016-2019), Playing the Cave,a New Expressions Commission in collaboration with the Cumbria Museum Consortium (2015); Waiting for Los Angeles, a portrait of the City of Los Angeles (2015); Off Road an investigation of the notion of freedom in the USA (2008-2014).

Kögelsberger’s work has been exhibited as part of the Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton as part of Art Night, London, at Bluecoat, Liverpool, Spacex Exeter, CPG, London, Danielle Arnaud London, the Architectural Association, London, the Barbican, London, Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC and the Glassell Project Space MFAH, Houston. She has been awarded the Stanley Picker Fellowship, the Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship, the EAA Award for Art in Architecture and the SPD silver medal for editorial photography. Her photographic essays have been published in Wired, Esquire, GQ and American Photography. Her work is held in public and private collections including the MFAH (Museum of Modern Art Houston) and the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum).


Recent Projects:

Uncertain Subjects situates itself between the photograph as historic document, performance and a work of activism. In a series of durational performances large scale 48 sheet billboards were constantly covered and recovered with new billboards: Each billboard a head and bare shoulder portrait of people who – in the face of Brexit – feel this country no longer represents their best interest, people who feel like they have become alienated within their own country and many whom have decided to move out of the UK. The work gives a voice to those who feel they have been silenced by the failing democratic processes. It brings a personal lived experience back into the conversations surrounding Brexit.

Orchestra of Rocks: Not Rock Concert, Rock Concert andCave Music are a playful evocation of ancient rituals, myth and man's desire, often futile, to gain control over nature. Each exhibition was different versions of an installation combining sculpture, experimental sound and live-performance and included collaborative contributions by experimental sounds artists and life performers including Atau Tanaka , Dane Law (Adam Parkinson), xname (Eleonora Oreggia), Shelly Parker , Chooc Ly Tan, Marv Radio,The Noize Choir, Mariam Rezaei, Will Edmondes, and Tom Richards. It was first exhibited as part of the Whitechapel Art Night Associate Programme and transformed St Olave’s Church on Hart Street, then as part of the GETN at the Boiler House, and finally in the Hub, Lonodn. An immersive environment of sculptural installation and sound, based on Kögelsberger’s recordings of individual raindrops, captured with experimental recording techniques, experimental sounds artists and performers created improvisations of trancelike, rhythmic and ritualistic soundscapes hovering between abstraction and dance track referencing the increase of rainfall due to climate change in the lake district. 

The Antipode Series The Antipode project seeks to make complex global relations palpable through a set of photographic diptychs that collapse geographical space by joining two exactly opposite points of the globe in a single image. At the core of the inquiry are the political implications of the redefinition of geographical space. In our one world society invisible international networks of, primarily, but not exclusively economical, cultural, and ecological systems supersede national boundaries. The resulting collapse of geographical space is arguably the most significant change impacting on the current political landscape. By drawing seemingly unrelated spaces together through a set of geographical co-ordinates the series seeks to create unexpected connections to draw attention to the fact that in spite of differences our worlds are inextricably connected. 

Pockets of Freedom; Off Road is the second installment of a Trilogy of works that looks at controlled pockets of freedom in the United States and how these notions are manifested in a unique relationship to the American landscape. It explores freedom as a construct that is instrumental in sustaining the political system that houses it. Off Road was developed out of an intense and sustained over a five-year period at a State vehicular Recreation Area in California. The location consists of a very large area of sand dunes, the south side of which borders on a nature reserve. In the work this close proximity of two contrasting sites acts as a metaphor for two very different interpretations of freedom. These contradictions are materialised by juxtaposing visual languages. The work seeks to redefine ways in which video and photography can be combined in contemporary art. Central to this is the way that time is represented, and an exploration of the boundaries documentary and fictional filmic languages. Off Road has been exhibited in a one-person show at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London in January 2014 and reviewed on viral net, a curatorial project of Tom Leeser (Cal Arts), screened at the California International Arts Foundation and exhibited in Brussels and acquired for the permanent collection at LACMA. 

The American book project: This project brings together 10 years of previously unpublished photographs, drawing on a collection of approximately 10000 medium and large format negatives to edit them down to a large-scale, limited-edition book project of 184 photographs. Instead of focusing on a coherent narrative, topicality or subject matter it specifically seeks to disrupt narrative, coherent representation or meaning to focus on the medium of photography as such. It is a reflection on the changing nature of how we receive and disseminate photographic images.

Solo-Exhibitions:

2020    

2019    Cave Music, The Hub, London, a sculptural installation with sound including contributions by experimental sound artists: Atau Tanaka, Chooc Ly Tan, Marv Radio Dane Law, and Shelley Parker, 

2019    Uncertain Subjects revisited, Grainger Market, Newcastle Upon Tyne

2019    Rock Concert,The Boiler House, Newcastle Upon Tyne a sculptural installation with sound including contributions by experimental sound artists: Atau Tanaka, Chooc Ly Tan, Marv Radio Dane Law, and Shelley Parker, 

2018    Uncertain Subjects Part III: A current ongoing exhibition as part of the Brighton Photo Biennial, A billboard performances that develops on from Uncertain Subjects Part (2017)

2018    Uncertain Subjects Part II:Billboard project including performance for Art Night in collaboration with the Hayward Gallery

2017    Uncertain Subjects; EU citizen project, Mail-art project launched at 4Cose, London

2017    Orchestra of Rocks: Not a Rock Concert,Art Night in collaboration with Whitechapel Art Gallery, curated by Fatos Ustek, a sculptural installation with sound including contributions by experimental sound artists and DJ’s: Atau Tanaka, Shelley Parker, Tom Richards, Nathalia, Dane Law, xname

2015    Playing the Cave, Tullie House, video installation as part of New Expressions Commission, Carlisle

2015    South By Southwest, solo exhibition, 2 video installations and a series of photographs, Abbot Hall, Kendal

2015    Cinema IV,artwork in public space, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere

2015    Waiting for Los Angeles, video installation, Ex-Libris Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

2014    Off Road, solo exhibition including a video installation, sculpture, photography and sound, Danielle Arnaud, London

2008    Bunker Series, solo exhibition, photography, Photofusion, London

2007    Flares, Roads and Paradise,solo exhibition of photographs, Aenaon Gallery, Athens, Greece

2005    Dark Light, Glassell project Space, solo exhibition of photographs, curated by Francesca Fuchs, The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2004    Uta Kogelsberger,solo exhibition of sculptural photographs, Queens Hall, Hexham

2003    Gegenlicht, solo exhibition of photographs, Art Lab, London

2003    Retreat, CGP, London, solo exhibition of photographs

2002    Moon Struck, Berwick Gymnasium, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, solo exhibition of photographs

2000    Out so late Miss, solo exhibition of photographic installation including sculptural objects, Art-tank, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

2000    Samsa Nella Citta, solo exhibition including video installation, wall painting, photography and sound, Interio, Bologna, Italy

1999    More and Less, solo exhibition of photography, Art Tank, Belfast

1997    Twelve months, solo exhibition of two site specific installations and photography, Sculpture House, Kingston Upon Thames

 

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2019:   Britain Now, A series of images from the Uncertain subjects series and a time lapse video,as part of a group exhibition including works by Catherine Opie, Martin Parr and Sam Durant curated by the Contemporary Art Society, for CPF, London

2019:   Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, curated by Jane and Louise Wilson, diptych from Uncertain Subjects Performance 

2018:   The Nature of Things, exhibited in Les Nuits the L’annee, Les Recontres, Arles, France

2018:   The Nature of Things, exhibited in The Tiblis Photo Fesitval, Tiblis, Georgia

2018    The Ashtray Show West, group show including works by Fiona Banner, Francis Upritchard, Karin Rugabber, Simon English and Cullinan and Richards amongst others

2016    Foreign Encounter, group-show including works by Anthony Gormley, Richard Grayson and Wolfgang Weileder amongst others, Munich, Germany                                           

2015    Slash Seconds, group-show curated by Peter Lewis, including works by Melanie Manchot, Carey Young, Rut Blees Luxemburg and Uriel Orlow amongst others Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah

2012    Topophobia, a touring exhibition curated by Polly Gould and Anne Eggebert, including works by Emily Speed, Louise K Wilson and David Ferrando Giraut

·           Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London

·           Bluecoat, Liverpool

·           Spaces, Exeter

2012    If You Look Like your Passport Photo, group show including work by Hand and Morley Special Projects, Walker and Bromwich and Duncan Swann, Sheffield Institute for the Arts 

2012    Concrete Geometries, Group Show, Architectural Association, London

2011    'Elusive',group show curated by Sian Bonnell, including works by David Spero, Eva Stenram, Suky Best and Anthony Luvera amongst others, Camberwell Space, London

2011    Trajector Art Fair, group show with Ersatz Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2010    ‘Reading Landscape’, group show including work by Eva Stenram and BledayRosa, Architectural Association, London 

2010    ‘European Sovereign Art Prize’, Barbican, London

2010    Appropriate Modernism, group show including work by Carla Arocha and Stephane Scharaenen, Hotel Bloom, Brussels

2010    Architectural Fictions, Group show including works by Mary Maclean and Fiona Crisp, Bracknell Park

2010    SPD Prize, Cipriani’s, NYC

2009    Three by Three, Yinka Shonibare Gallery, London, England

2009    Incubator 2,Durham Military Museum, England

2007    A Private Paradise, Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London

2007    Yee Haw!, Vegas Gallery, London

2007    Celebrations, Stanley Picker Gallery, London

2006    Festival-Off, les Rencontres, Arles, France

2006    Visual Arts Futures, Bloomberg Space, London, UK

2004    Arts Futures, Contemporary Arts Society, London, UK

2003    Oases, Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC, USA

2003    A Taste of Honey, Buckfastleigh Festival, Devon

2003    The Connecting Principle, Newcastle University, Newcastle

2000    Seventy over Two Thousand, touring group exhibition, Stanley Picker Gallery, Edinburgh City Arts Centre, The National Arts Centre of Malta, John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago

 

Publications

Artist Monographs

2005    ‘Uta Kogelsberger’, 2005, artist monograph with a text by Jean Paul Curnier, published by Photo North, UK, 76pp

Selected Edited books:

2015    American Photographers, 2015 published by American Photography, a publication presenting the work of the top 100 photographers of the USA, 310pp

2012:   Topophobia, edited by Eggebert and Gould, 2012, published by Eggebert and Gould, London, pp. 8-14 and pp.116

2010    American Photographers, 2010, published by American Photography, a publication presenting the work of the top 100 photographers of the USA, 310pp

2008    Berwick Gymnasium Fellowships, anthology of previous Berwick Gymnasium Fellows, published by English Heritage, 160pp

2007    14th International Month of Photography Athens, exhibition catalogue, published by Hellenic Center for Photography, 142pp

 

Photo Essays:

2014    The Ends of The World, six-page double spread Photo essay about Antipodes two exactly opposite sides of the world, published in six-page double spread in Wired USA and Wired UK

2010    My favorite shot, The Guardian, UK

2010    Urban Myths, photo essay, TAG Magazine, USA 

2010    Mystery Spots, ten-page photo essay, Esquire Magazine, Spain ‘Mystery Spots’ Quo Magazine, Spain, Quo Magazine, Mexico

2009    Mystery Spots, ten-page double spread photo essay, Wired Magazine, UK, Wired Magazine, Italy, GQ, South Africa

2008    Paradise Now, six page double spread photo essay, Wound Magazine

 

Selected Articles and Interviews about my Research:

2018: Exploring a New Europe at Brighton Photo Biennial, Shoair Mavlian, 

2018: How Wolfgang Tillmans is rebranding Europe, by Rob La Frenais, The Makery

2018: My Night in the Artworld, Fad Magazine, Giulia Trojano

2017    From Photos to Posters and the Press, by Hettie Judah, Artnet

2015    New Expressions, Axis-web Films

2015    New Expressions, Lakes Culture

2014    Uta Kogelsberger, Photogrist Magazine

2014    Uta kogelsberger, Off Road, Wall Street International

2014    Off Road,Modern Painters

2014    Pockets of Freedom, Interview, Yale University Radio

2013    Off Road, Interview, Viralnet

2012    Topophobia, review by Colin Glen, Frieze Magazine

2012    Topophobia, review by Laura Davis, Liverpool Arts and Culture

2012    Topophobia, review by Mark Sherin, Culutre 24

2012    Topophobia, review by Denis Joe, Manchester Salon 

2012    Topophobia, review, Sevenstreets

2012    Topophobia, review by C James Fagan, Double Negative

2012    Topophobiatop picks, the Guardian

2012    Topophobia, review by Stephen Clarke, Redeye

2012    Topophobia, Artists Newsletter, review by Anneka French

2011    Concrete Ambivalence,by John Beck, Duke University Press

2003    Oases, Time Out, New York 

2003    Oases, The New Yorker, New York

2003    Uta Kogelsberger, Art Monthly, October

2003    Uta Kogelsberger, Time out, issue 1724 

2003    Lookout,ITV Borders 2000

2003    Belgian With an eye for Northumbria, Scotsman, 23/04/02

2001    Uta Kogelsberger, Tema Celeste, issue 85 

2000    Samsa Nella Citta, Bologna, November 2000

2000    Things That might Just go Bump in the Night, Ian Hill, Newsletter

1999    Interview for BBC Choice

1999    Demarco European Art Foundation, The List, issue 341

1999    Hit-list, The List, Issue 339

1998    A Dazzling Finale, Elizabeth Mahoney

1997    Artist in Revolt, Ian Gale, Spectrum

1996    An Artwork that is really that, Artwork, issue 84

 

Awards:

2015    The Ends of the Earth, selected for American Photography

2010    Mystery Spots, selected for American Photography

2010    Mystery Spots, SPD silver Medal for editorial photography

2010    Urban Myths, shortlisted for Sovereign European Art Prize

2005    Uta Kogelsberger, publication shortlisted for artist book of the year award

2001    EAA- Award for Art in Architecturefor outstanding achievement with a public art work for my site specific installation ‘time line’; a permanent commission for the New Dancebase Centre in Edinburgh Designed by Malcolm Fraser Architects. 

 

Fellowships and residencies:

2013    Artist Residency, California International Arts Foundation

2008    CRIR- residency, Copenhagen

2006    Artist-Residency, Center for Land Use and Interpretation

2003    Full-Fellowship, VSC, USA 

02-03   Art and Architecture residency, Kielder, UK

01/02  Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship, UK

95/96  Stanley Picker Fellowship, Kingston University, UK 

 

Commissions and Collaborative Projects:

2015    New Expressions Commission, Arts Council 

2015    The Ends of the Earth, WIRED, USA

2014    Waiting for Los Angeles, Artist International development Fund, Arts Council London, developed in collaboration with California Institute for the Arts 

14/15 New Expressions, a series of commissions developed in collaboration with the Cumbria Museum Consortium, funded by the Arts Council England

2014    The Ends of The Earth, Wired Magazine, USA

2009    Mystery-Spots, Wired Magazine, USA

2004    Hidden States, Backdrop for Opera staged at Baltic Center for Contemporary Arts

01/02  Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship, UK

95/96  Stanley Picker Fellowship, Kingston University, UK 

1999    Timeline, Public Art Commission for new Dance-base Centre Edinburgh

 

Selected Grants and Funding 

2015    New Expressions Commission, Arts Council (£12,000 £8,000 in kind)

2015    The Ends of the Earth, WIRED, USA ($50,000)

2014    Waiting for Los Angeles, Artist International development Fund, Arts Council London, developed in collaboration with California Institute for the Arts (£5000 3000 in kind)

2013    Material Matters, Large Bid preparation fund, University of Newcastle (£97828)

2012    Off Road, FRF grant, Newcastle University (3,800)

2008    Dark Light, AHRC, Small Grant to the Creative and Performing Arts (£19,986)

06-07   Dark Light, IFRF grant, Newcastle University (£3,600)

2007    Picturing-Paradise, AHRC, Small Grant to the Creative and Performing Arts (£19,890)

2004    Picturing Paradise, FRF grant, Newcastle University (£2,383)

2003    Night Vision, Arts Council Project grant (£5,000)

2003    Retreat,AHRC, Small Grant to the Creative and Performing Arts (£5,000)

1999    Out so late Miss, Arts Council of Northern Ireland Project Grant (£1,000)

 

Curatorial Project (FILET, a space for experimental art production co-directed with Rut Blees_Luxenburg)

2015    Solo exhibition, photographic installation, Eva Sternram, with an introduction by Margarita Glutzburg (RCA)

2015    Douglas Park Reading, sponsored by Gallery KIMKIM, Seoul, South Korea, with an introduction by Bob and Roberta Smith

2015    Performance by Keith Winter ‘The Handyman’

2015    Solo exhibition, painting, Sarah Statton, with an introduction by Hilary Koob Sassen

  1. Art and Reason, How art thinks, Symposium chaired by Suhail MalikIncluding Basam el Baroni, Amanda Beech, Diann Bauer and Robin MacKay, Newcastle Univeristy, streamed to New Centre for Theory, NYC, USA and FILET, London

2015    Solo exhibition Simon Popper

2016    Two person show Dallas Seitz and Abigail Fletcher, with an introduction by David Campany

2016    Book Launch, Milly Thompson and Alison Johnes, 21stcentury st, book launch with an introduction by Michael Archer

2016    Solo exhibition, Liam Tickner, the Good the bad nad the Algae, Introduced by Gareth Bell Jones

2016    Solo exhibition, Sarah Dobai, The Principles of Deception Reviewed in Pylot Magazine

2016    Two person show, Phillip Dorl and Ryan L Moule, Introduced by Catherine Yass

2017    Solo Exhibition, Marianne Mueller, Curtain Close, Introduced by Melanie Manchot

2017    Solo exhibition of drawings, Simon English, Argy Bargy, introduced by Katryn Kysostal

2017    Solo exhibition, Jude Crilly, Big Naturals, sculptural installation, 

2017    Solo Exhibition, Pollytropos, Nick Waplington

2017    Solo exhibition, Frocibly Bewitched Version2, Cullinan and Richards, introduced by Jon Slyce

2017    Solo exhibition, video installation, Dat Likwid Land, Jacob Dwyer

2017    Solo exhibition Chooc Ly Tan, installation and performance, Accidualted Stellar Mix

2018    Solo Exhibition, For Children, Not For Children, drawings, Margarita Gluzberg

2018    Solo Exhibition, Local Colour, Georgie Hopton

2018    Two person Show, Adam Gilbery and Joshua Leon, performance, Inhale

2018    Solo exhibition, Tennis and What it means to be modern, sculptural installation and photographs, Dan Mitchell

2018    Solo Exhibition, Monkey Business, Brigitte Jurack, sculptural installation

 


Teaching

My educational background was in sculpture, but I have mainly been working with photography and video since 2002. These are also the main areas on inquiry I supervise.

I have taught into all years of the BA and the MFA. I supervise PhD students.

I devise and co-ordinated the Visiting speaker Program as well as the Producers Series:

The Producers Part II 

Visiting Speaker Programme

Publications