BIO
BLAISE KIRSCHNER (they/them) is an artist who primarily works in the moving image. Kirschner’s video installations, medium and long-form films frequently reference histories from below and draw on popular genres, speculative fiction and postcinematic media to address how fantasies and fears about socio-political, technological, and ecological developments are encoded in cultural forms.
Kirschner's work has been widely exhibited internationally. They were the winner of the prestigious Jarman Award in 2011 and their films have been presented at the Berlinale, the BFI London Film Festival and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen amongst many others. Their films are distributed by LUX and are also in the British Film Institute Artists’ Moving Image Collection, both London, and the Arsenal Institut für Film- und Videokunst, Berlin, as well as private collections.
Blaise Kirschner is currently a Professor in Fine Art with Focus on Moving Image at The Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm.
CV
EDUCATION
PhD Contemporary Art Practice, Royal College of Art, London,
Supervisors: Prof. Johnny Golding, Prof. Kerstin Stakemeier (2017-2022)
LUX Associate Artists Programme, London (2008-2009)
Foreign Study Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2000)
BA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, London (1998-2002)
AWARDS, COMMISSIONS AND GRANTS
TECHNE PhD Scholarship (2017-2022)
Fluentum Art Commission (2021)
PCAI Art Commission (2015)
Winner of the Jarman Award (2011)
Shortlisted for the Jarman Award (2009)
FLAMIN Productions Award (2009)
Henry Moore Foundation Grant (2008)
Elephant Trust Awards (2008 – 2013 – 2015)
LAFVA London Artists Film and Video Award (2007)
Arts Council Grants for the Arts (2003 – 2006 – 2009 – 2012)
RESIDENCIES
Beirut Artists’ Research Residency, Cairo (2013)
Visual Arts Creative Development Residency, Cove (2008)
EXHIBITIONS and SCREENINGS (selection)
2024
SCREENING:
UNICA, Västernorrland Museum, Härnösand
2023
GROUP EXHIBITION:
Illiberal Lives, Ludwig Forum, Aachen
έξω φρενών από ευχαρίστηση/outraged by pleasure, 'Nobel' Building, cultural space of the municipality of Chalandri, Athens
SCREENING:
Haunted Engines: UNICA and Other Films from Computer Generated Worlds, BFI Southbank, London
2022
SOLO EXHIBITION:
UNICA, Fluentum, Berlin
SCREENING:
Double Feature, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
2021
GROUP EXHIBITION:
Illiberal Arts, HKW - Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
SCREENING:
Estuary 2021, online
2020
SOLO EXHIBITION:
Living Truthfully Under Imaginary Circumstances, Kunstverein München
SCREENINGS:
20 Sunsets: Kino, HKW - Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Under the Ground, Galerias Municipais de Lisboa, Quadrum Gallery, Lisbon
Kino Siemensstadt: The image of the city in the cinematic space, Scharaun, Berlin
Hunter Movie Club, Hunter College, New York
metakino #5: economy, metakino, Helsinki
2019
SCREENING and PERFORMANCE:
Ian White: Cinema as Life Art / Becoming Object, Arsenal & silent green, Berlin
2018
SOLO EXHIBITION:
New Genres, kunstbunker, Nuremberg
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Kathy Acker: GET RID OF MEANING, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
Acropolis at the Bottom, Nikos Kessanlis Hall, Athens
Film London Jarman Award: A Journey Through the First Decade, Whitechapel Gallery, London
You Remind Me of Someone, 49 Nord 6 Est–FRAC Lorraine
SCREENINGS:
Videoart at Midnight: VAM Festival '18, Babylon Cinema, Berlin
Moderation, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
A Debordered Formalism, mumok, Vienna
2017
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
ESTER KRUMBACHOVÁ: Yeti – Wear the Amulet – Tangle Up the Archive, tranzitdisplay, Prague
Wie werden wir uns wiedererkennen, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen
The Very Impress of the Object, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
Who Pays?, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz
Paratoxic Paradoxes, Benaki Museum, Athens
ATLAS of the Ruins OF EUROPE, CentroCentro, Madrid
SCREENINGS:
Post-Apocalyptic Realism: It’s After the End of the World. Don’t You Know That? Museum Brandhorst, Munich
Speak, body: Art, the Reproduction of Capital and the Reproduction of Life
School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds
Glasgow Film Festival, Crossing the Line
Box with the Sound of Its Own Making, Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest
2016
GROUP EXHIBITION:
5 Uneasy Pieces + An Open Investigation, UM Gallery, Prague
SCREENINGS:
57th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Fast Forward
60th BFI London Film Festival, Experimenta
66th Berlinale, Forum Expanded
Geopolitics and Bodies, Lenbachhaus in cooperation with DOK.fest, Munich
2015
GROUP EXHIBITION:
Whose Subject Am I?, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf
SCREENINGS:
GEGENkino and Klasse Expanded Cinema (HGB), UT Connewitz, Leipzig
Moving Pictures: Artists' Films from the Film London Jarman Award, Tate Britain
PLASTIK Festival of Artists’ Moving Image, An Taibhdhearc, Galway
2014
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Acting Truthfully Under the Circumstances, Tenderpixel, London
Nikos Arvanitis, Stephan Dillemuth, Anja Kirschner, Karolin Meunier, Zafos Xagoraris, Françoise Heitsch, Munich
Metal: AV Festival 2014, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Newcastle
A Machine Needs Instructions As A Garden Needs Discipline, Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo
Rekurze 1.618, Oblastní galerie Liberec Lázně
51 Zero Festival, Rochester
SCREENINGS:
Assembly: A Survey of recent Artist’s Film and Video in Britain 2008-2013, Tate Britain
Art on Screen, Turner Contemporary, Margate
Tramway Artists’ Moving Image Festival, Glasgow
Artists’ Moving Image Programme, ICA, London
2013
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Ultimate Substance, CentrePasquArt, Biel
Ultimate Substance, Extra City, Antwerp
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Ultimate Substance, B3 - Biennale des bewegten Bildes 2013, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden
STOP!, Art On the Underground with ICA, London
Requiem for a Bank, HMKV, Dortmund
Momentous Times, CCA, Derry-Londonderry
The Magic of the State, Lisson Gallery, London
The Magic of the State, Beirut, Cairo
HELL AS, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
SCREENINGS:
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, International Competition, Oberhausen
AGORA, 4th Athens Biennale, Athens
A Theatre Cycle, Nomas Foundation at Teatro Valle Occupato, Rome
2012
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Ultimate Substance, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin
Lights, Tears and Real Abstractions, Artist Space, New York
Ultimate Substance, Secession, Vienna
Living Truthfully under Imaginary Circumstances, Transmission, Glasgow
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Liverpool Biennial, FACT, Liverpool
Lights, Camera, Action!, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
Bachelor Party, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
SCREENINGS:
Random Acts, Channel 4
Avantgarde ist keine Strömung, D21 Kunstraum & Filmgalerie Alpha60, Leipzig
Signal:Noise II, The Showroom, London
2011
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Living Truthfully under Imaginary Circumstances, Hollybush Gardens, London
The Projecting Stage, castillo/corrales, Paris
The Empty Plan, Kunsthall Oslo, Oslo
The Empty Plan, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Anfang Gut, Alles Gut, Basso, Berlin and Kunsthaus Bregenz
British Art Show 7, Hayward Gallery, London; CCA, Glasgow; Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth
Hydrachy, Museu Marítim, Barcelona
SCREENINGS:
Moving Image, Artissima, Turin
LOOP, Arts Santa Mónica, Barcelona
A Film Cycle, Nomas Foundation at Cinema Farnese, Rome
Video Art at Midnight, Babylon Cinema, Berlin
Jarman Award Shortlist Screenings, Whitechapel Gallery, London and Picture This, Bristol
2010
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
The Empty Plan, Focal Point Gallery, Southend
The Last Days of Jack Sheppard, Galerie Krobath, Vienna
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
British Art Show 7, Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham
Hydrachy; power and Resistance at Sea, Gasworks, London
TINA, Konsthall C, Stockholm; Storey Gallery, Lancaster
From One Thing to Another, Rumanian Cultural Institute, Stockholm
SCREENING:
Legal Disagreements, Villa Romana, Florence
2009
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
The Last Days of Jack Sheppard, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
The Last Days of Jack Sheppard, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow
The Last Days of Jack Sheppard, Chisenhale Gallery, London
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Depression, Marres Institute, Maastricht
Everything then passes between us, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
Heaven, 2nd Athens Biennale, Athens
SCREENINGS:
East End Film Festival, London
Images of the Lost, the Reforgotten & the Resistance, East End Film Festival, London
Polly II, FACT, Liverpool
2008
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Trail of The Spider, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow
Trail of the Spider, Nought to Sixty, ICA, London
Trail of The Spider, Art Premier, Hollybush Gardens at Art Basel, Basel
Polly II - Plan for a Revolution in Docklands, Broadcast Gallery, Dublin
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
TINA, The Drawing Room, London
Contrapolis; or, Creativity and Enclosures in the Cities, NAi, Rotterdam
SCREENINGS:
Container Project, Palmers Cross, Jamaica
Trail of The Spider, LUX at Chat’s Palace, Hackney, London
Trail of The Spider, Tate Modern, London
2007
SOLO EXHIBITION:
Polly II - Plan for a Revolution in Docklands, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow
SCREENINGS:
Polly II, Tate Modern, London
New Lands, BFI Southbank, London
Polly II, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
2006
SOLO EXHIBITION:
Polly II - Plan for a Revolution in Docklands, Whitechapel Project Space, London
GROUP EXHIBITION:
Was Wäre Wenn, Jet, Berlin
2004
SOLO EXHIBITION:
Supernumeraries, Whitechapel Project Space, London
CONFERENCES and SYMPOSIA (selection)
2024
As We May See: Tracking and Tracing the Image after Farocki, Seminar für Filmwissenschaft der Universität Zürich und des ZKK - Zentrums Künste und Kulturtheorie (UZH and ZHdK), Zurich. With Johannes Binotto, Noam Elcott, Anselm Franke, Tom Holert, Ute Holl, Blaise Kirschner, Occitane Lacurie, Kevin B. Lee, Laliv Melamed, Doreen Mende, Roland Meyer, Katja Müller-Helle, Clio Nicastro, Volker Pantenburg, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal a.o. Organised by Volker Pantenburg and Roland Meyer in collaboration with Anselm Franke (ZHdK), Ute Holl (Universität Basel), Kevin B. Lee (Università della Svizzera italiana) and the Harun Farocki Institut, Berlin (Tom Holert, Doreen Mende, Clio Nicastro, Elsa de Seynes).
2022
Abstraction and Economy, University of Applied Arts, Vienna. With adO/Aptive collective, Clemens Apprich, Gerald Bast, Brenna Bhandar, Leigh Claire La Berge, Christina von Braun, Sabeth Buchmann, Karel Císař, Patricia Grzonka, Gabriele Jutz, Eva Kernbauer, Blaise Kirschner, Sven Lütticken, Falke Pisano, Cauleen Smith, Beat Weber, Rebecca H. Quaytman. Organised by Eva Maria Stadler and Jenni Tischer.
2021
Going to the Limits of Your Longing, Research as Another Name for Care. In memory of Marion von Osten, Art Institute HGK FHNW, Basel. With Maria Thereza Alves, Ursula Biemann, Regina Bittner, Katya García-Antón, Anja Kirschner, Kapwani Kiwanga, Maria Lind, Otobong Nkanga, Lydia Ourahmane, Myriam Amroun, Filipa Ramos, Kerstin Stakemeier, Yvonne Volkart, Peter Spillmann. Organised by Chus Martínez and Quinn Latimer.
2018
Kathy Acker: GET RID OF MEANING, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe. With Dodie Bellamy, Hanjo Berressem, Ruth Buchanan, Georgina Colby, Leslie Dick & Audrey Wollen, Claire Finch, Johnny Golding, Anja Kirschner, Douglas A. Martin, Jason McBride, Karolin Meunier & Kerstin Stakemeier, Daniel Schulz, McKenzie Wark. Organised by Matias Viegener and Anja Casser.
Vision's Bleeding Edge: On nonhuman vision, liquid and crystal intelligence and AI, Royal College of Art, London. With by Esther Leslie (Professor of Political Aesthetics at Birkbeck) and Joanna Zylinska (Professor of New Media and Communications at Goldsmiths). Organised by by SOAH Researchers Mayra Martin Ganzinotti, Anja Kirschner, Anna Nazo, Emma Somerset Davis and Adam J B Walker with Aura Satz, Moving Image Tutor and Reader in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art. Moderated by Anja Kirschner and Adam J B Walker.
2017
Media Revolutions/Mediale Revolutionen, Academy of Fine Art Hamburg. With Klaus Birnstiel, Jodi Dean, Diedrich Diederichsen, Bernhard Dotzler, Arnold Dreyblatt, Yuk Hui, Anja Kirschner, Peter Osborne, Dont Rhine/Ultra Red, Kerstin Stakemeier.
ESTER KRUMBACHOVÁ: Yeti – Wear the Amulet – Tangle Up the Archive, tranzitdisplay, Prague. With Jana Baierová, Zuzana Blochová, Jan Bernard, Michal Bregant, Mikuláš Brukner, Barbora Dayef, Bracha L. Ettinger, Šárka Gmiterková, Linda Hauerová, Libuše Heczková, Anna Hejmová, Edith Jeřábková, Jesse Jones, Tereza Kanyzová, Anja Kirschner, Jan Kolský, Kateřina Konvalinová, Francis McKee, Ruth Noack, Matěj Pavlík, Tomáš Pospiszyl, Johannes Paul Raether, Michaela Režová, Lucie Rosenfeldová, Sláva Sobotovičová, Kateřina Svatoňová, Tomáš Uhnák, Marina Vishmidt. Organised by Zuzana Blochová and Edith Jeřábková with Anja Kirschner.
2016
We Need Your Carkeys! The Horizons of Horror, Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, Worpswede. With With Anselm Franke, Bracha L. Ettinger, Melanie Bonajo and Laboria Cuboniks. Organised by Sam Basu, Anke Hennig and Anja Kirschner.
2015
Are You Alive Or Not? Looking at Art through the Lens of Theatre, Studium Generale, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam.
2014
Psycho Materialism, Künstlerhäuser Worpswede. With Kerstin Brätsch/Debo Eilers, Helmut Draxler, Johnny Golding, Anja Kirschner, Benjamin Noys, Johannes Paul Raether, Juliane Rebentisch and Kerstin Stakemeier. Organised by Kerstin Stakemeier and Tim Voss.
2013
I'm Frightened. Bring Popcorn.,Teatro Valle Occupato, Rome. With Dario Argento, Enrico Ghezzi, Marco Greganti, Douglas Mortimer Collective, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Valerio Di Simone. Organised by Anja Kirschner
Art as a Form of Crisis, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin. Organised by Kerstin Stakemeier and Sophie Golz.
2010
WHEN HISTORICAL, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht. Organised by Babak Afrassiabi and Nasrin Tabatabai.
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2016
5 Uneasy Pieces + An Open Investigation. With Adam Chodzko, Stephan Dillemuth, Constantinos Hadzinikolaou, Ester Krumbachová and Nova Melancholia with Dora Economou. Curated by Anja Kirschner and organised by Are. UM Gallery, UMPRUM Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Prague.
2008
Stephan Dillemuth: Selected Films. Curated by Anja Kirschner. LUX, London.