Ulla von Brandenburg

Born 1974 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Lives and works in Paris.

Ulla von Brandenburg has a richly complex and multifaceted practice that is realised through a combination of black & white film, installation, performance, drawing, and painting. The vocabulary of von Brandenburg’s work comes from a basis of using approaches and methods of the theatre, the stage, and rules of performance to engage with cultural or social issues from different moments in history to explore how stories, rituals, and symbols of the past have constituted our societies. Permeated by recurring themes and images sourced from literature; expressionist theatre; early cinema, and pre-Freudian psychoanalysis, von Brandenburg’s practice cross-references back and forth between media creating a language that loops back on itself: endlessly repeating and developing. Concerned with ‘the borders of different consciousness: past and present, alive and dead, real and illusionary’, von Brandenburg creates work positioned uncertainly at the point at which reality ends and the illusion of life, emotions and events begin.

Major solo exhibitions of her work include: Under Water Ball, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland (2024); One-Sequence Spaces, Palacio de Velázquez Madrid, Spain (2023); Meris Angioletti e Ulla von Brandenburg - Sul vestito lei ha un corpo. Note su Sonia Delaunay, XNL Piacenza, Piacenza (2022); Blaue und Gelbe Schatten, Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin (2021); Ulla von Brandenburg, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2020); Sweet Feast, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); It Has a Golden Sun and an Elderly Grey Moon, Kunsthal Aarhus (2017); It Has a Golden Sun and an Elderly Grey Moon, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami (2016); It has a golden red sun and an elderly green moon, Power Plant, Toronto (2016); It has a golden orange sun and an elderly blue moon, La Fonderie Darling, Montréal (2016); Manchmal Ja, manchmal Nein [Sometimes yes, sometimes no], Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2016); It has a golden sun and an elderly grey moon, ACCA, Melbourne (2016); Yesterday and Today is Tomorrow is also like this, Kasseler Kunsteverein, Kassel (2015); Ulla von Brandenburg: Wagon Wheel, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis (2015); 24 Filme, Kein Schnitt, MAMCO, Geneva (2014); Inside is not Outside, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover (2014); Innen ist nicht Außen, Secession, Vienna (2013); Kunstpreis Finkenwerder 2013, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg (2013); Das Versteck des W.L., Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg (2013); Neue Alte Welt, The Common Guild, Glasgow (2011); Name or Number, Frac Ile- de- France/Le Plateau, Paris (2009); Ulla von Brandenburg, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2009); Whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2008); Passengers 1.68 Ulla von Brandenburg, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2008).

Significant group exhibitions include: I dreamed I was a house, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2019); Toi qui chemines il n’y a pas de chemin, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2019); Hinge Pictures, Eight Women Artists Occupy the Third Dimension, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans (2019); Prix Marcel Duchamp, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017); Sink Down Mountain, RiseUp Valley, Performa 15, New York (2015); Accrochage 3: Pop & Musique/Son, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2015); Etbien dansez maintenant !, Centre d’art contemporain de Pontmain, Pontmain (2015); After Dark, MAMCO, Geneva (2015); Vidéodanse, Le corps en jeu, Space 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); The Other Side, CAC, Vilnius (2014); Explore, Frac Île- de- France, château de Rentilly, Bussy-Saint- Martin (2014); 19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire, Sydney (2014); Intense Proximite, La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); A Terrible Beauty is Born, 11th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon (2011); Secret Societies. To Know, To Dare, To Will, To Keep Silence, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankurt (2011); Spatial City, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2010); Making Worlds, 53rd International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale, Venice (2009); Wizard of Oz, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2008); The World as a Stage, ICA, Boston (2008); Performa 07, the 2nd Visual Art Performance Biennal, New York (2007); The World as a Stage, Tate Modern, London (2007).

In 2016 von Brandenburg was nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp (award presented in October 2016). Previously she has been awarded Finkenwerder Art Prize (2013); shortlisted for Daniel and Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation’s 2013 Drawing Prize (2013); Kunstpreis der Boettcherstrasse, Kunsthalle Bremen (2007); Cité des Arts, Paris (2007); Arbeitsstipendium Jürgen-Ponto-Stiftung (2006); Reisestipendium, Verein für Neue Kunst in Hamburg (2005); Stipendium Künstlerstätte Schloss Bleckede (2005); Begabtenstipendium der Dietzte-Stiftung (2003).