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ARTIST TALK
Migrating artists – How does it impact their practice?
A dialogue between Ma Li & Elana Katz
Moderated by Rachel Rits-Volloch
In cooperation with USArtBerlin
Monday February 29 @ 18.00 – 20.00
At Momentum Worldwide, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin
Due to the increased globalisation of the art world and the rising opportunities for Artist Residencies all around the world, artists are compelled to be mobile and flexible. Moving to evolve their art has become a crucial part for most artist’s practice. However everyone grew up somewhere and carries their cultural heritage. How do the two things work together? What can be gained? Is the artwork changing due to the setting in which it is created or exhibited?
Ma Li a Chinese born artist, living in San Francisco and currently completing her Residency here in Berlin with MOMENTUM will discuss with artist Elana Katz, an American artist based in Berlin, whose recent work is concentrated in the Balkans. Katz is a board member of the organisation USArtBerlin, working with artists emigrated to Berlin. Both share the experience of migrating to different places for their art practice and their work. In the dialogue they will talk about these experiences and reflect on how they are influenced by their cultural heritage, their migration background but also the possibilities inherent in a mobile lifestyle.
Elana Katz is a conceptual artist working primarily in the medium of performance art. Katz’s work confronts cultural conventions, critically examines the complexity that lies within contradictions, and thus aims to create an experience of unlearning the assumed. Her grants have included the DAAD Graduate Studies Grant for Germany (2010), Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art (2011), and her ongoing work Spaced Memory (2011-present), has been realized in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy of Kosovo, the Embassy of Israel in Serbia, and the Goethe Institute of Bucharest. Katz has exhibited/performed at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium (2011), Diehl CUBE Berlin (2013), P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York (2013), Gallery 12 HUB, Belgrade (2014), Kunstwechsel, Aachen (2015), and DNA Berlin (2015). She studied in New York at the Parsons School of Design and earned a Meisterschülerin title from the Universität der Künste Berlin (Klasse Katharina Sieverding) in 2010. Katz has been based in Berlin since 2008.