A German-Austrian artist, Barbara Breitenfellner developed during the last twenty five years a double practice. She builds large scale installations based on her own dream diary while using the privacy of her Berlin studio to do collages, prints and artist’s books.
If her installations require time for research and interpretation of her nightly recordings - making those projects long-term ones, the every day production of collages proposes a direct, twisted or oneiric approach without ever being repetitive in their topics or compositions.
She has had solo exhibitions at CPIF (Pontault-Combault), HMKV (Dortmund), or Le Confort Moderne (Poitiers) and participated in many group shows like at Kunsthalle (Tübingen), Deutsches Hygiene-Museum (Dresden), Rencontres de la Photographie (Arles), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris), Marianne-Werefkin-Prize at Haus am Kleistpark (Berlin).
If her installations require time for research and interpretation of her nightly recordings - making those projects long-term ones, the every day production of collages proposes a direct, twisted or oneiric approach without ever being repetitive in their topics or compositions.
She has had solo exhibitions at CPIF (Pontault-Combault), HMKV (Dortmund), or Le Confort Moderne (Poitiers) and participated in many group shows like at Kunsthalle (Tübingen), Deutsches Hygiene-Museum (Dresden), Rencontres de la Photographie (Arles), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris), Marianne-Werefkin-Prize at Haus am Kleistpark (Berlin).
1969 born in Kufstein, lives and works in Berlin
1998 Master of Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 »Oneiroi«, galerie Rond Point, Paris
2023 »Suite Mentale«, salon a ppr oc he, Paris
2019 »Dream: The works still have to be defined in their materiality (collage? photography? painting?). Everything is tripled. Not yet quite clear how the works are to be transferred from the virtual to the real, especially with regard to glitch and authorship. – Then a film. A snowy landscape. We walk through the snow (-storm). A girl lies down with her braid going into her back (it is digitally transformed). Then the back falls apart digitally. A liquid (blood) runs from a table and somebody else drinks it. It transforms through the body into a (liquid) drug.«, Centre Photographique d’Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault
2019 » – Then a film«, Rien à voir, Instants Chavirés, Montreuil
2018 »La Chambre #18«, La Chambre, Aubervilliers
2017 »Dream of an installation of a dog and various inclined surfaces. I was looking through a glass pane into a room. Brown-pink wallpaper + carpet. A strangely illuminated cube, which I saw as a photograph. Then we left the empty house. « Jordan/Seydoux, Berlin
2016 »Fake Territories«, Austrian Cultural Forum, Berlin
2015 »Dream: I have an exhibition with a class photo from my primary school days. I am in the picture twice. Still hanging on the walls are the works from the last exhibition (this is part of my concept). Green geometric-abstract prints. In the room tables with installations made of different materials. At 1/2 past 3 there is 1 reception. Someone tells me it’s important to be there to shake Jan Hoet’s hand. I do want to put on 1 special outfit in the colors of my installation. Therefore one has to moisten small bright adhesive pads + apply them to the skin. Once well rubbed in, the color of the face changes.« Clemens-Sels-Museum, Neuss
2012 »Fake shooting«, Galerie Manzoni Schäper, Berlin
2011 »Trauma«, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers
2011 »Traum einer Ausstellung«, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund
2009 »An Exhibition. I made a piece for someone«, Café au lit, Paris
2008 »Dream of a big exhibition. I had a huge and rather silly drawing (of a clown) and was very ashamed. Two girls performed on roller skates. That wasn‘t good either.«, Autocenter, Berlin
2008 »We should have occupied every place«, West Germany, Berlin
2006 »Barbara Breitenfellner«, Space Invasion, Wien
2006 »Schöne Logik«, Capri, Berlin
2006 »Opinions informes«, Bétonsalon, Paris
2006 »We should have occupied every place«, 9 bis, Saint-Étienne
2005 »Instruments of Attraction«, Galerie 5020, Salzburg
2004 »Schemablock: Recording Blanks«, Flur, Berlin
2003 »Film (non-réalisé)«, Bureau d’Art et de Recherche, Roubaix
2002 »The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes«, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska
2001 »Protect me Demon«, Visual Art Projects, Glasgow
2000 »MU45«, Overgaden - Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen
1999 »Well? Zero.«, Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 »Humor, my love, Humor«, roam projects, Berlin
2024 »We don’t talk to strangers«, Kulturankerzentrum Schlingermarkt, Wien
2024 »Meike 9«, Atelierhof Kreuzberg / Schau Fenster, Berlin
2023 »Inner Worlds, Sigmund Freud and Art«, Kunsthalle Tübingen
2023 »Not My Cirucs, Not My Monkeys«, Kunstmuseum Thun
2023 »Quand on s'est perdus, Quand on s'est retrouvés, Pourquoi se séparer ?« Surface Active, Fontevraud-l'Abbaye
2023 »Collages«, Cowgirl Galerie, Malmö
2022 »Guilty, guilty, guilty! Towards a Feminist Criminology«, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin
2022 »Les Bonbons d’Arsenic«, Galerie Arsenic, Paris
2022 »Feel Free«, Scotty, Berlin
2022 »Forcierte Relikte«, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin
2021 »Kunst im Traum«, HilbertRaum, Berlin
2021 »The Fine Hands Show«, Krasnoyarsk Biennale, Museum Ploshad Mira, Krasnoyarsk
2021 »Das Funkeln«, Inter Art + Seidel Contemporary, Berlin
2021 »Behind the scenes of hidden tracks«, Schaufenster, Berlin
2021 »The Human Adventure«, permanent exhibition, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden
2020 »The Age of Collage«, The Curve - in cooperation with Gestalten Verlag, Berlin
2020 »Kunst im Traum«, HilbertRaum, Berlin
2020 »disturbance: witch«, ZAK - Zentrum für Aktuelle Kunst, Berlin
2020 »I've Never Seen The Sky Like This Before«, Southwest Contemporary, Adelaide
2020 »Sleep Disorders # 21«, L'ahah, Paris
2020 »Marianne Werefkin-Preis«, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
2020 »We are Sitting in Different Rooms«, New Viewings, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
2019 »Überdruck / Blue Monday«, Druckwerkstatt / bbk, Berlin
2019 »Karavane (verschollene Collagen von Hannah Höch)«, MEWO Kunsthalle, Memmingen
2019 »Lapin-Canard #40«, Less Playboy is More Cowboy«, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers
2019 »26 x BAUHAUS«, Institut français, Berlin
2018 »Les tableaux fantômes de Bailleul«, Musée la Piscine, Roubaix
2018 »3ZKBBLK«, c/o Spreckelmeyer, Berlin
2018 »Less is more«, B.A.R. - Bureau d’Art et de Recherche, Roubaix
2018 »Shine on Me - The Sun and Us«, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden
2018 »Austria Contemporary«, European Union, Brussels
2018 »Sleep Disorders #17«, Galerie Under Construction, Paris / Bar Babette, Berlin
2018 »Where is Philadelphia?«, Gutshaus Philadelphia, Storkow
2018 »The NSK State Folk Art Biennale«, Retropolis Trbovlje
2018 »International Weird Collage Show«, Jealous East, London
2017 »Bin überfordert«, Maria & Vadim Zakharov, FREEHOME, Berlin
2017 »Ende Neu«, Lage Egal, Berlin
2017 »Der Garten der Lüste«, Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt, Halle
2017 »Chemin de fer«, CRP, Douchy-les-Mines
2017 »MAD#3«, La maison rouge, Paris
2017 »Inner Landscapes«, Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn, NY
2017 »Pissing in a river«, Bar Babette, Berlin
2016 »A gallery is a supermarket«, Apartment Vadim Zakharov, Berlin
2016 »La chambre # 14«, La Chambre, Paris
2016 »L’œil du collectionneur«, Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg
2016 »MAD«, La maison rouge, Paris
2016 »Il y a de l'autre«, Rencontres Photographiques, Arles
2016 »Cut & Paste«, Galerie Maïa Muller, Paris
2016 »Evil Clowns - Reloaded«, Kunstpalais, Erlangen
2015 »Blue Moon. The Feeling of Light«, Kunsthalle HGN, Duderstadt
2015 »Imagine Reality«, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main
2015 »L'Heure du Loup«, La Box, Bourges
2014 »Des-collages«, Villa du Parc, Annemasse
2014 »Böse Clowns«, HMKV, Dortmund
2014 »Schneeweißchen fühlt sich rosarot«, One Gallery, Wien
2014 »Solos III«, Ozean, Berlin
2014 »Nacht der Philosophie«, Institut français, Berlin
2014 »Kentucky Karaoke«, DMNDKT, Berlin
2014 »Ssiiee Four«, SSIIEE, Berlin
2013 »Friends & Family«, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris
2013 »The End is the Beginning«, The Wand, Berlin
2013 »Black Out«, Galerie Jordan/Seydoux, Berlin
2013 »Sleep disorders VI«, DMNDKT, Berlin
2013 »Je ne sais quoi«, Studio Alexandra Baumgartner, Berlin
2013 »Collages«, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
2013 »The Legend of the Shelves«, Autocenter, Berlin
2013 »There is something between me and the world outside«, Galerie Manzoni Schäper, Berlin
2012 »Herberge, Wüste, Heimat«, Grauer Hof, Aschersleben
2012 »Only parts of us will ever touch parts of others«, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
2012 »Liebe, Tod und Teufel«, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal
2012 »KM 500.5«, Kunsthalle Mainz
2012 »Wszyscy jestesmy Marco Polo«, Zoo, Gdansk
2012 »Collages«, Espace de l‘Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux
2012 »Sneak Peek«, Galerie Manzoni Schäper, Berlin
2012 »Ghosts Off The Shelf«, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin
2011 »Die Ungarische Methode«, Kunstverein Grauer Hof, Aschersleben
2011 »Living on the edge of a silver future«, Galerie 5020, Salzburg
2011 »Erika Mustermann Collection«, Der Strich / Pavillon vor der Volksbühne, Berlin
2011 »36 Girls«, Kosmetiksalon Babette, Berlin
2010 »Re-Mollusk«, Bongout Gallery, Berlin
2010 »Previously on Optical Sound«, Galerie Frédéric Giroux, Paris
2010 »Cut – collages contemporains«, Galerie van der Stegen, Paris
2009 »Family Jewels«, Villa Merkel / Bahnwärterhaus, Esslingen
2009 »Zeigen«, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin
2009 »Autopoiesis«, Bongout Gallery, Berlin
2007 »Nur den Pferden gibt man den Gnadenschuss«, Pferdeställe im Postfuhramt, Berlin
2007 »Lucid Fairytale«, Transpalette, Bourges
2006 »Eléonore de Montesquiou / Barbara Breitenfellner«, Galerie Zürcher, Paris
2006 »Investigating EVP«, Resonance 104.4 fm, London
2004 »Goldrausch«, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin
2003 »Women Men Children«, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow
2001 »Exit«, The Cable Factory, Helsinki
2001 »European Forum«, Les Subsistances, Lyon
2000 »The Realm of the Senses«, Titanik Gallery, Turku
1999 »There is no sexual relation«, Centre for Freudian Research, London
1998 »Streetworks«, Streetlevel Gallery, Glasgow
1998 »Lapland«, The British Council, Edinburgh
1998 »MFA Glasgow«, Tramway, Glasgow
1996 »Fürmichneu«, Kunsthalle, Mannheim
CATALOGUES / ARTIST’S BOOKS / MONOGRAPHIES
2024 »Dream Recordings«, artist book, Fondazione Arthur Cravan, Milano
2021 »ZIRKUS«, artist book, Berlin
2021 »Hunde«, artist book, Berlin
2020 »Katzen«, artist book, Marianne-Werefkin-Prize, Berlin
2019 »Rêve / Dream / Traum / Installation«, Pontault-Combault
2018 »WVZ 001-509, catalogue raisonné«, artist book, Berlin
2016 »Fake Territories«, Verbrecher Verlag, Berlin
2012 »Zwierzyniec«, Wszyscy jesteśmy Marco Polo, Gdansk
2011 »Traum einer Ausstellung«, HMKV & Revolver Publishing, Dortmund & Berlin
2011 »Coded Sleep«, Bongoût Editions, Berlin
AWARDS / PRIZES
2023 AWARE prize – Nouveau Regard (nominee), Paris
2022 Artist Scholarship, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
2020 Marianne-Werefkin-Preis (prize winner), Verein Berliner Künstlerinnen 1867 e.V.
2020 GASAG Kunstpreis (nominee), Berlin
2020 Deutsche Börse Foundation Photography Prize (nominee, long list), London
2017/18 project grant f/12.2 - DZ Bank (nominee), Frankfurt
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
2022 Fondazione Arthur Cravan / Cose Cosmiche, Milano
2018 Centre Photographique d'Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault / Cité internationale des arts, Paris
2016 Goethe-Institut Irland / Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2011 Cité internationale des arts, Paris
2008 Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
2004 Künstlerstätte Schloss Bleckede, Bleckede
2002 Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha
2001 Visual Art Projects / Year of the artist, Glasgow
1999 Kulturfabrikken / Pépinières Européennes, Copenhagen
COLLECTIONS
Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Modern Art (Berlin), Clemens Sels Museum (Neuss), Artothek des Bundes im 21er Haus (Vienna), Department of culture of the City Vienna (Vienna), Collection of the Tyrolean State Museums (Innsbruck), Fonds national d'art contemporain FNAC (Paris), Le Fonds d’art contemporain – Paris Collections (Paris), and various private collections (a.o. New York, São Paulo, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Vienna, Salzburg, Geneva, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Bordeaux, Aigues-Mortes)
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 »Rêver, ou créer ? Les objets du rêve dans la création artistique« (text: Frédéric Verry), Traum - Wissen - Erzählen, Volume 18, Paderborn
2023 »In einem chaotischen Dunkel« (text: Jens Emil Sennewald), Rhinozeros. Europa im Übergang, #3 | träumen, Matthes und Seitz, Berlin
2023 »추상, 가치, 이미지« (text: Dongjin Seo), Public Art, Art in the Age of Generative AI, no. 204, Seoul
2023 »Hannah Höch: History of Collage«, Contemporary Collage Magazine, Issue 23, Audlem
2023 »Barbara Breitenfellner« (interview: Les Jones), Contemporary Collage Magazine, Issue 22, Audlem
2023 »Wenn Bilder träumen« (text: Jens Emil Sennewald)«, Parnass, 02/2023, Wien
2023 »À Malmö, trois femmes collagistes à découvrir« (text: Julie Amo)«, www.thesteidz.com, Paris
2020 »30 Jahre Werefkin-Preis - Preisträgerin Barbara Breitenfellner« (interview: Michaela Gericke), May 10, rbb Kulturradio, Berlin
2019 »Actualités: Barbara Breitenfellner« (text: Michèle Cohen Hadria), Ciel Variable, Trans-Identities, no. 113, Montreal
2019 »Le journal des songes de Barbara Breitenfellner« (text: Emmanuelle Lequeux), Beaux Arts Magazine, no. 420, Paris
2019 »Barbara Breitenfellner« (text: Jens Emil Sennewald), Kunstbulletin, no. 6/2019, Zurich
2019 »Barbara Breitenfellner« (text: Thomas Ancona-Léger), www.mouvement.net, Paris
2019 »The interpretation of dreams« (text: Étienne Hatt), Art Press, no. 466, Paris
2018 »Portfolio«, Mouvement, no. 98, Paris
2018 »Le récit et la vie : l’interrogation de la réalité à travers le rêve. À propos des collages de Barbara Breitenfellner« (text: Daglind Sonolet), Eidôlon, no. 124 - Presses universitaires de Bordeaux
2016 »Träume und Räume« (text: Beate Tröger), no. 2/2016, Literaturblatt für Baden-Württemberg
2015 »Interview mit Barbara Breitenfellner« (interview: Dorothee Maas und Julia Quedzuweit), MMK Notes, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main
2014 »Portfolio« (text: Ariane Fairlie) Kolaj magazine - Issue 10, Montreal
2014 »Interview of the month« (text: Rory MacLean), Goethe Institut London
2013 »Rêves éveillés« (interview: Timothée Chaillou), L‘Officiel Art, no. 7, Paris
2013 »The weird show - a concern on collage and beyond« www.theweirdshow.info, Madrid
2013 »Portfolio«, Annual Magazine, no. 5, Nicosia, Cyprus
2012 »Fixation« (text: Elizabeth Pusack), www.plazm.org, Portland, Oregon
2012 »Barbara Breitenfellner« (text: Stéphane Malfettes), artpress, no. 386, Paris
2011 »Trauma« (text: Jens Emil Sennewald), www.lacritique.org
2011 »Traum einer Ausstellung« Text, no. 9, Berlin
2011 »Dramaturgies critiques« (text: Alain Berland), www.mouvement.net, Paris
2011 »L‘art de faire du rêve un art« (text: Emmanuelle Lequeux), Beaux Arts Magazine, no. 12, Paris
2011 »Traum einer Ausstellung« (text: Judith R. Manzoni), Springerin, no. XVII/3, Vienna
2011 »Kunst« (text: Frank Berberich), Lettre International, no. 92, Berlin
2011 »Traum einer Ausstellung« (text: Jens Emil Sennewald), Kunstbulletin, no. 5/2011, Zurich
2009 »Carte Blanche«, Mouvement, no. 54, Paris
2006 »Ins Bild gebannt« (text: Jens Emil Sennewald), Kunstbulletin, no. 12/2006, Zurich
2006 »Exhibiting exhibitions« (text: Clémentine Vermont), artpress 2, no. 2, Paris
2006 »Silence is sexy« (text: Jill Gasparina), art21, no. 7, Paris
TEACHING
/ EDUCATION
2024 - Visiting Lecturer - Institute for Contemporary Art, Yerewan
2023 - Guest Lecture, Institute of Art History/European Dream Cultures, Saarland University, Saarbrücken
2018-19 - Collaboration with Ensad Lab/Displays, École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
2018 - Jury (DNSEP) at École supérieure d’art de Lorraine, Metz
2017 - Studio Lecture with Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig
2017 - Studio Lecture with New York University - NYU, Berlin
2016 - Guest Lecture & Workshop at Burg Giebichenstein, Kunsthochschule, Halle
2016 - Workshop at École supérieure d'art de Clermont Métropole, Clermont-Ferrand
2014 - Jury (DNSEP) at Villa Arson, Nice
2012 - Studio Lecture with Villa Arson, Nice
2011 - Lecture at École européenne supérieure de l’image, Poitiers
since 2008 - various Art Classes at Berlin Kolleg, Berlin
2007 - Lecture at Künstlerhäuser, Worpswede
2001 - Seminar at Kent Institute of Art & Design, Canterbury
2000 - Seminar & Workshop at Turku Arts Academy, Turku
1997-98 - Various Classes in continuing education at Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow