Ivonne Thein

Statement

Lives and work in Berlin (GER)

In my multidisciplinary practice, I focus on our social and political perception of the human body. In our performance-oriented society, there is a growing tendency towards objectification, which encodes the body as an arbitrarily manipulable mass. We can do something with our body, shape it or manipulate it. Today it seems omnipresent, permeable and somehow surmountable and increasingly resembles a number of possibilities. In my cross-media work, I no longer understand the body as a whole, but fragmented or manipulated. Many of my projects deal with the fragmentary body, transience, gender, posthumanism and the traditional idea of our body image in the digital age. For this I use various media such as installations, videos, photographs, sculptures or computer-controlled technologies.

GlogauAIR Project

In my artistic work, the change in our contemporary body image in the digital age is a central theme. Last year I started to integrate computer-controlled techniques into my work process. In the mixed media work “How not to be seen as a body I”, for example, body objects were created on the basis of real photographs using 3D technology. In the course of this work process, the question arose for me to what extent digital technologies or the use of artificial intelligence change the view of the human body. That was the decisive factor for me to deal artistically with image synthesis through AI systems. This year I already started to work with an AI for two works (untitled body, human). For this purpose, the AI ​​was first trained with pictures of me, and then independently generated body images based on an image analysis and specifications for color and structure. I will continue to work with the AI ​​for the duration of the residency. In addition to generating new images, this time I want to make the learning process of the AI ​​visible. For this I continue the training with the AI ​​with further images. In process-based collaboration between me and the AI, artistic works are created that combine the symbiosis of the computer process based on a binary system with my intuitive way of working as an artist. I will also work on video works in connection with AR elements (Augmented Reality) beside the image synthesis. The resulting works are brought together again in a room installation, thus enabling the viewer to critically examine the limits of the visual reinterpretation of the human body in the context of digital image techniques.

CV Summary

• Exhibitions
  • 2019 DEW21 Art Prize, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund (GER)
  • 2017 Gesichter, Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden (GER)
  • 2015 Love & Loss, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz (AUT)
  • 2014 Body Conscious, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, NY (USA)
  • 2013 boys ,n‘ girls – immer wieder anders, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (GER)
  • 2009 Dark Side II, Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH)
  • 2008 C|O Talents 10 / Zweiunddreißig Kilo, C/O Berlin (DE), Solo
• Fundings
  • 2021 VG Bildkunst Bonn (GER)
  • 2020 Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn (GER)
  • 2019 working grant for 1 Year, Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn (GER)
  • 2010 Ifa for exhibition in Chile and Latvia (GER)
  • 2008 C/O Berlin Talent Award

Gallery