welcome home

Ulf Aminde
Ulf Aminde experiments with human images. He reveals his own vulnerability and challenges the participants in his films as well as
the viewers themselves. Aided by a camera and strategies drawn from performative documentary film, theatre, Actionist art, music
and, above all, dialogue with people from highly diverse walks of life, Aminde produces his works in many settings . These include
prisons, facilities for the disabled, drug help centres, on the street, at Ikea, in employment offices, at the apartment of his cousin, in
psychiatric facilities and in a Taiwanese opera. He has also updated Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 (the ‘Farewell’ Symphony)
as the earliest art-strike opera . In his projects – which he plans as cooperative efforts – he always tries to critically examine his role
as initiator and director. For Aminde, film is a tool that renews and describes the relationships between individuals. As an artist he
sets up a social machinery that creates a complex, exuberant terrain made of reality, fiction, fictional identities, empathy and voyeurism . Figures with widely different origins happen upon each other; social standards, authorities and hierarchies are shown to be
changeable, and all extend into the artist’s expansive, stage-like installations . His works revolve around transformation, transition,
change and repressed social behaviour. Simultaneously, they are experiments in which the role of art itself is at stake.
Ulf Aminde studied visual arts with Lothar Baumgarten at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK), where he graduated as a master
student in 2004.
Nomination of the Nam June Paik Award, 2014
the
survival of
the
2004-2006 fittest
weiter
2004
keep goin
chair dance,
stage installation, sound equipment,
programmed DVD with irregular starting of the film
09`17 min, minidv PAL, colour, audio
Installation Berlinische Galerie 89/09
Täter und Opfer
2005
perpetrators and victims
One and a half years with street drinkers playing soccer (on saturdays)
2 channel projection
left side „shots“, right side „shits“
each 07`51 min, minidv PAL, colour, audio
Installation Hardware Medien Kunstverein
Täter und Opfer/Screening
2005
screening the foottage to them
14`24 min, minidv PAL, colour, audio
Täter und Opfer
2005
Rosa
04`50 min, minidv PAL, colour, audio
ohne festen Wohnsitz
2005
with no fixed abode
with three homeless persons in the MoMA exhibition,
installation with radio piece (32 min)
transport box, poster, MoMA catalogue, soundsystem, headphones
Installation Kunstverein Wolfsburg
mit 3 obdachlosen Männern in der MoMA-Ausstellung
B: Erste mal in mein’ Leben, komm ick in eine Kunstgalerie rein. Hey, ick war vorher noch nie drin. Geb’ ich ehrlich zu. Mein Gott, ick hoffe, dass is nicht schlimm.
A: Echt??
B: Noch nie da drin!
A: Sei mir jetzt bitte nicht böse, ich hab ein Bild gesehen ... dat is mir sofort ins Auge gefallen. So’n geiles Bild. Das hier. Das is nicht nur wegen der Frauen, um
Gottes Willen. Aber selbst das Gemalte.
B: Sind die Bilder alt?
A: Das sieht echt geil aus!
C: Kultur? Könn’ wir das sagen?
A: Das hat’n doppelten Sinn. Weißte warum?
Die eine Seite mit und die andere Seite ohne. Guck’ dir das mal selbst an.
C: Guck mal was die für dicke Brüste hat.
B: ...die hat einen verträumten Blick.
A: So, da kommt auf einmal das Weibliche hervor und auf der andern Seite... Kannst du noch was sagen?
C: Wie gesagt, jeder muss das so sagen wie er denkt. Nix andres.
A: Die andre Seite is wieder männlich. Stimmt das?
A: Das is mein Ebenbild.
B: Bisschen Bedenkzeit!
C: Was ich da seh? – Natur! Für mich is so was immer schön, weißte. Wenn du ein Naturbursche bist, muss dir das gefallen.
A: Ich seh noch’n bisschen mehr!
C: Das muss einem gefallen!
A: Ich seh noch’n bisschen mehr! Grün und schwarz! Was sacht dir das?
B: Das Grüne gehört ja immer dazu.
A: Nee. Was sacht dir das?
B: Wüßt’ ich jetzte nicht.
C: Grün is schön in der Natur.
A: Richtig!
C/B: Und Schwarz?
A: Und das schwarze is Trauer. Aber, - ick seh ein bisschen tiefer. Weil, du darfst jetz einfach nicht nur Westerwald sehen. Weil, ick seh jetz zum Beispiel den Urwald,
da wo ick auch gerne mal hin möchte. In den Urwald. Nach Australien! Und das weißt du!
B: Da würd’ ich auch gern mal hin.
C: Ich mein, das is mystisch. Ich versteh dich, weiß was du sagen willst. Ich versteh das, was dir so gut gefällt, gell!
A: Weil Bilder erzählen viel - mehr als nur Worte. Das is meine Meinung.
B: Ja, das tun sie auch.
B: Es erinnert ein bisschen an die Urzeit. Das is das Faszinierende!
A: So seh’ ick das nämlich auch.
C: So was gefällt mir auch sehr gut.
A: Er hat einfach nur die Wolken gesehen, nicht den Wind.
B: Guck mal, man kann ein Bild malen wie man’s sieht oder wie man’s sieht.
A: Man muss Sinn für so was haben!
C: Mir gefällt es schon ...die Häuschen gell?
B: Alles erinnert mich so an ... große Künstler.
C: Was soll ich sagen? - Diese schmucken Häuschen wie sie früher waren.
A: Ick habe mich mal am Bahnhof Zoo einfach auf eine Bank gesetzt. So und ick hab’ ja auch Fantasie, und auf einmal gucke ich auf so’n Pflasterstein und da sagt eine Frau zu mir: „Wat gickst du’n da?“ Ick sag’: „Einen kleinen Moment Ruhe!“
Und auf einmal sagt sie: „Sag’ mal, bist du noch ganz knusper?“ Ick sag’: „Guck mal bitte auf den Stein und lass mal deine Fantasie spielen!“ Sie
gegickt: „Habe nix gefunden.“ „Entschuldige bitte, wenn ich da runter gucke, guckt mich ein Mensch an!“
Aber ick hab’ wirklich nur in diesem Pflasterstein einen Menschen gesehn. Das hat die Frau nicht akzeptiert.
C: Es is nicht so einfach sich auszudrücken, wenn man nicht die Fachkenntnisse hat.
Das Bild is so ähnlich wie das mit der Urzeit.
B: Das is aber keine Urzeit mehr, das is normal Hawaii.
C: Aber Südamerika kann’s auch sein.
A: Hallo? Es ist nicht Hawaii!
B: Doch, die seh’n aus wie...
A: Südamerika!
B: Aber bei allen hast du so Frauen...
A: Dieser Maler war selbst, dieser Maler war selbst da und der hatte alles selbst miterlebt.
A: Hab’ noch ein anderes Bild gefunden.
B: Die Bilder, die faszinieren!
A: Das is ein Superbild!
B: Das is gut gemacht.
A: Russeau?? – Rousseau.
Aufsicht: Meine Herren!
A: Tschuldigung.
Aufsicht: Sie werden schon ne ganze Weile beobachtet, vor allen Sie. In einer Galerie ist man ein wenig leiser. Achten Sie auf ihn!
A: Ja, ich hab’n Bier..
Aufsicht: Ist wohl ein bisschen mehr als ein Bier.
A: Entschuldigung. Ich entschuldige mich.
Aufsicht: Noch einmal, dann sind Sie draußen!
A: Danke.
C: Ich muss jetzt auch aufpassen, dass ich nicht zu laut rede.
Was ich noch sagen wollte, was auch eine Wahnsinnsleistung ist, das in dieser Größe zu malen! Man muss sich überlegen, das is ja immer nur ein
Teil. Ja, gut, ich weiß, die machen manche kleine Vorlage und dann wird’s vergrößert.
A: Dies is meisterhaft. Das is wirklich meisterhaft. Das Bild spricht 10 000 Bände! Oder? Die Ecke is zum Beispiel unter Wasser, seh icke. Wir
müssen unserer Fantasie freien Lauf lassen.
B: Guck mal, das sieht aus wie, wie heißen die Dinger, die im See rumschwimmen?
A: Seerosen.
B: Genau! Aber eins weiß ich ganz genau, die Galerie, die is gar nicht mal so verkehrt!
A: Sieht ja auch geil aus.
B: Nur wegen der Frau.
A: Auch so, wegen der Farbzusammenstellung.
B: Aber das is Kunst.
A: So is’es nämlich! Guck dir mal die Frau an! Die erzählt mir wie wir verstehen können. Mehr als wir verstehen. Weil da is Mitleid, Sorgen und
Angst. Ich sach ja, Bilder sagen mehr als Worte. Hier, gucken wir uns mal die Skulpturen an.
B: Die Skulpturen!
.A: Die hat Angst. Das is so, so’n bisschen, na hoffentlich klappt es! Aber sie hatten Angst. Und sie guckt so’n bisschen besorgt. Nee, halb fröhlich
...
das Leben ist kein Wunschkonzert
2006
life is not a musical request show
24 street musicians, each playing one single tone.
in the installation they play all together at the same time
12 monitors, speakers, 00`29 - 28`13 min
mini dv PAL, colour, audio
Installation Berlin Biennale 4
welcome
home
2005-2007
Traenna & Factum
2005
daily soap format with IKEA clients who develop the script by themselves
40`48 min , mini dv PAL, colour, audio
welcome home
2006
improvisded scenes with Ikea clients during opening hours.
camera moves along the installations of the furniture shop
loop, mini dv PAL colour, sound
13´16 min
welcome home
der König ist Kunde
2007
the king is the customer.
(furniture rehearsal)
mini dv PAL colour, sound
00`12 - 32´19 min
welcome home
poor people must work
2007
(with customers)
1) to use a furniture until it breaks 04´16 min
2) fake talk about a fictional life (last supper) 23´51 min
3) Narciss 07´58 min
mini dv PAL, colour, sound
welcome home
lust
2007
my cousin, her rabbits and myself
mini dv PAL, colour, sound
11´43 min
installation ZKM between 2 deaths
Strasse ist Strasse
und keine Konzeptkunst
2007
the street is the street and no concept art
21`34
(the silence piece)
street musicians are paid for not playing
(reenactment of the „silence piece“ by John Cage)
mini dv PAL colour, sound
22´54 min
the law
(5. and it doesn`t matter
who the artist is)
Lawrence Weiner lookalike is talking about his work
mini dv PAL colour, sound
06´06 min
quad III
(Erschöpfung)
quad III/exhaustion
homeless guy is walking along a square
(reenactment of quad I &II by Samuel Beckett)
mini dv PAL colour, sound
45´12 min
der reale Rest
(symptom)
the real rest
homeless people are crawling in their sleeping bags into the museum.
they stop because they are loosing their coins
mini dv PAL colour, sound
03´19 min
opening night
homeless people are acting as a director in a casting.
they are very critical about the „authentic“ qualities of
the „actors“
mini dv PAL colour, sound
12´20 min
opening night II
2011
opening night II
2011
passersby near the theater are acting as a director who
is leading a casting for a love scene
installation with chairs, HD transferred to blueray, audio
23`12 min
installation Kunsthaus Dresden
es war einmal
2008
once upon a time
interviews with addicts about the metapher of film in the context of addiction
and about the spectatorship.
followed by a film performance with a super 8 camera in the basement of the rehab center
14`40 min
minidv PAL and super8 transfered to minidv, colour, audio
Installation Taunusanlage / SCHIRN Kunsthalle playing the city
schamdruck
2009
pressure of pudency
in the financial district in Frankfurt passersby are falling
in front of the gigantic architecture of the banks
1`00 min, minidv PAL, sw, audio
ungefragter Beitrag zum Tag des deutschen Denkmals
2008
unrequested contribution to the day of the german monument
with residents from Prohlis/Dresden
postcard edition
Ruhe und Ordnung
2008
Ruhe und Ordnung
2008
5 Aktionen und 1 Prolog
Silence and Order
5 performative actions and 1 prologue
with a lecture, a performative installation in the building on the other side of the art space, with a shadow theater,
a family constellation about the artsystem, a cello play by children accompaigned by the artist and an exhibition which is already
heavily critizised before the opening - „Silence and Order“ is requesting the performative limits of an artspace which is structured
by the ideoligy of the creative individual
prologg
Prolog
Jet Samstag 15.11. 19 Uhr
softskill/
das Jobcenter als moralische Anstalt betrachtet
2009
softskill/
das Jobcenter als moralische Anstalt betrachtet
2009
Nationaltheater Mannheim
the jobcenter as moralic institution
with more than 70 unemployed persons a jobcenter is transformed into a stage. the non-professional
actors are requesting the possibilities and limits of participation. with choirs and choreographies they
installl a social machine of „the withdrawel“
Sehstück
2009
Sehstück (tableau mort)
2009
seascape
installation and performance for a stage, a speaker, a bell, a curtain, a hardcore band,
five female performers and a director
Volksbühne Berlin
the hidden chapters
of my
lost
insistence
2010
the hidden chapters of my lost insistence
2010
36h performance
bus journey, exhibition, performance and back
artists, curators and writers werde invited to join for a 36 h trip to the countryside.
after 8 h of travel they get to see a video exhibition and a stage performance with five women from there
(non professional actors) together with the Art Critics Orchstra, Berlin. the next day the five women are
coming as special guests with the bus to Berlin to disappear on the stage of the theatre play „Seestücke“
I`m far, far away
(don`t know when and how
I will be back)
beautiful mind
2010
beautiful mind
2010
my archive
3 channel HD video installation, bw, sound
9`41-13`39 min
mach damit was Du willst
(Stipendium)
2011
mach damit was Du willst (Stipendium)
2011
do what you want with it (sholarship)
begging and singing for money (120 Euro)
to give a one-hour-grant to a prostitute.
performance, video, photo, collage, drawing
279 x 390 cm
learning from big mistakes
2011
learning from
big mistakes
2011
installation view at Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin
Hüter der Stelle
2011
the guardian of the spot
HD Video, monitor, colour
01“31 min
Schweigen als Loyalität zur Gesellschaft/silence as loyalty to society
fine art inkjet prints, 2011
die Angst des Künstlers vor dem Feld/the fear of the artist in front of the field
overhead transparacies
Schamdruck / pressure of pudency, wooden mask
Judith
2011
HD video, 8`26 min, HD monitors, colour
actors acting scenes from the past of a woman and making her director
Frontalunterricht
2009
frontal teaching
young unemployed adults playing me how I try convincing them to participate in the performance
installation with monitor, chair, headphones
39`34 min, minidv PAL, b/w, audio
Frontalunterricht
2009
frontal teaching
installation with video, curtain, chair
60`00 min, minidv PAL, colour, audio
Bildet Banden
(follow your leader)
2012
Bildet Banden
(follow your leader)
2012
form gangs
work and love with artists (and managers of the facility)
installation with canvas, HD video, archive material, self-portrait
unterlenker (unbekannter Künstler)
2008
unterlenker, (unknown artist)
colourprint
160 x 120 cm
miserere
2012
2 colour prints + sw copies (archive)
installation Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (Made in Germany II)
installation view ABC Berlin
urban tai chi
2010-12
mobile phone camera and found footage
7 scenes on monitors
colour, audio
00`11 - 04`56
der Noth gehorchend,
nicht dem eignen Trieb
2012
installation with tribune, videos and objects,
including five performative acts at Kunstverein Heidelberg
hole (baby in Ikea installation)
Vollzugsanstalt
penal institution
own drawings and drawings of prisoners,
texts without author
Kragen, (Steuerbelege 2010-2011)
collar, (tax receipts 2010-2011)
was wird zu tun gewesen sein, metamorphism
what will have to be done (rags from neighbours of the Kunstverein)
ICH /me stamping ink, paper 3,6m x 5,2m
Europa
2012
driving in circles for 1 hour
Europa
2012
one hour of driving a boat in circles
HD video, colour, sound
Act 1: choir of silence and responsibility
Act 2: choir of interruption, with actor students and a cello player
Act 3: the strike orchestra, speech to the musicians and 3 repetitions of the Haydn adaggio on 3 different spots within the installation
Act 4: the dscourse thing, 24 h seminar with Felix Ensslin
Act 5: the coming community, procession to the Thingstatte Heidelberg with paintings by women prisoners
ich übernehme Verantwortung
2002/2012
I take responsibility
4 b/w inkjet prints
26 x 36 cm / 36 x 26 cm
ich übernehme Verantwortung / I take responsibility, Halle-Neustadt
ich bin ein Schauplatz von Welt /I am the stage of the world, Bitterfeld
ich bin es selbst (der Gegner) / It´s me the enemy, Halle, Moritzburg
ich suche meine Lehrer / I am searching for my teachers
Halle, Frankesche Stiftung
the weight (6,3638 g)
2013
golden wedding rings melted,
letter, plinth
27 x 11 x 4 mm
... And sometimes I think, everything solely depends on the
break, the break between you and me, between stimulus and
affect. Or being blindfolded. To be able to do something blindfolded, no
diplomacy, thus no art of deception.
After all, lying is something, only one’s own self has to
endure. It doesn’t demand more of one.
Love commissioned by oneself, however is not really what
people currently dream of, what one is able to do
blindfolded.
The work between you and me, which consumer would stop
at this shelf? But, Ulf, that was just the deal. And you can’t
just wipe away a hickey.
And, anyway, where does this absurd flirtation with the idea
come from, that love could be something outside of work, and
work something outside of love?
But what else should be on either side of the coin? Heads or
tails, or more honestly: a tooth for a tooth?
We won’t really accept that in the long run anyway.
This sermon about the wolf within the human. This
perpetual voluntary self-incrimination, as if we received
something for it, something that pushes us forward somehow.
What is the exchange value, that we need? They say, gold originates only in a supernova, when a
star dies, during a total melting process. How does that fit into the wallet? What do we do with the
passion for collecting? With the
so-called Social Market Economy, which never wanted to consider the social anyhow? How do we
band ourselves together, and more importantly, what for and against what? But maybe, Ulf, we are
already allowed to call the two of us a group, and thus the time which we spend every now and
then, is legitimated.
Yours, S
don`t fuck with my name (hacking the curator)
2013
KW Instititute for Contemporary Art
Performance, video, homepage
in their project Insistere #7_don‘t fuck with my name (hacking the curator) Sabine Reinfeld and Ulf Aminde
create an avatar of Ellen Blumenstein that among other things examines how a curator, and her work,
structure an institution
The avatar – Ellen Bluumenstein /
chief curator – not only investigate
the performative qualities necessary
for the portrayal of identities, but also
asserts itself in the responsibilities of
the institution with gestures
of subjectivisation and demands
a response.
Ulf Aminde and Shi-Wei Lu
Performing Labour Contracts
(to love is give)
2013
vitrine, video played from Iphone4 on a BenQ screen, video on Ipad
a fictional cooperation between „Shi-Wei Lu, a Taiwan based female artist“ and Ulf Aminde.
from the Iphone is playing a sequence in which Taiwanese opera player are performing, chanting and dancing their own
labor contracts, as well as contracts from electronic industry and also similar contracts and conditions from Europe.
the performance was happening in front of the BenQ and Foxconn (Iphone) headquarter in Taipeh.
on the Ipad is playing a sequence with the typing of a mail from the fictional „Shi-Wei Lu“ adressed to Ulf Aminde
Installation view at Gallerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin
Installation view at Gallerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin
ANYTHING YOU WANT NO SHIT
(the love)
2013
2 channel video on upright flat screens, audio
Taiwan opera performers dancing without costumes.
sequence is produced out of single pictures. sound is taken from DJ Hell „the DJ“
Strike opera III
2013
performance with classical orchestra, students and teachers of „cultures of the curatorial, Leipzig“ and many contributers
curated by Joanna Warsza
GfZK, Leipzig
The >Strike: Opera< by Ulf Aminde takes roots in the Farewell Symphony by Joseph
Haydn. Known also as the Symphony No. 45, the piece was written in 1772 for
Haydn‘s patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, while Haydn and the court orchestra
were residing at the Prince‘s summer palace. Due to additional performances, the
musicians were asked to stay longer than expected, while their families were waiting
for them at home. In order to manifest a disagreement with the extended working
hours Haydn inscribed a form of a political protest directly on the music piece.
During the symphony’s final adagio the musicians left the stage as soon as their
instrument‘s part was finished, so that at the end there were just two muted violins
left and even the conductor had withdrawn.
Ulf Aminde recreates the last part of the Farewell Symphony looking at the
possibilities of rebellious potential, protest movements, consciousness-raising, and
performative strategies which reside directly within the art forms. Restaging and
altering Haydn‘s concept, Aminde reflects on the identity of the art community, the
logic of its self-determination and its capacities to create the significant disruption or
a meaningful act of withdrawal. >Strike: Opera< also looks at the tradition of the art
strikes as a form of protest produced within the artistic realm – from the Art
Workers‘ Coalition and Gustav Metzger to W.A.G.E – and reflects the tactics of the
withdrawal by reference to such figures as Lee Lozano. The Leipzig edition of the
>Strike: Opera< is an invitation to rehearse and perform the idea of an art strike and
a call to the local and the international art community for trying out a situation in
which the very art syntax is engaged with a wish to generate political momentum or
perhaps to perform a reversal of the status quo.