Adelheid Mers

Education

Mers received an MFA in 1986 from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany. She studied with Tony Cragg, Klaus Rinke, Günther Uecker and did course work in German Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy, Pedagogy, Didactics, Philosophy at University of Düsseldorf, University of Cologne, Germany. Mers continued her studies in 1989-1990 at the University of Chicago where she was a student at large, Graduate School, Committee on the Visual Arts, in association with a grant from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).

Interviews

Artist statement

I make diagrams that map paths through existing formations—books or essays by particular authors, but also institutions and organizations. As a compulsive learner, something I do well is to make out relations, and to hold in mind multiple points of view. Mostly, my diagrams are specific to a site or to an occasion. Most are closely related to the arts, dealing with the artist as citizen and with beliefs and habits that permeate art worlds. This may sound solipsistic, but as the arts have since the sixties been increasingly framed in relation to economy, sciences and politics, this is an entry into a wide range of issues. What fascinates me in any context is how people make sense, myself included. The emphasis is on the activity, not on the result. Beliefs—cultural, political, religious—may initially be products of indoctrination and of habit, but once scrutinized, they tend to squirm, to shift, to make away, in short, they reveal themselves as being in flux. That of course is one reason why to examine how one makes sense can be upsetting, and why techniques to affect and arrest critical thinking are employed by those seeking power over others. I am making work that is intended to provoke audiences to give it a shot, or to at least watch how I not only struggle through the underbrush, but also have fun with it. I don't think that the gumption to try to discern "the rules" as much as one's own tenets, and then to take responsibility for one's understanding, is necessarily tied to class, or even to education. The levels of sophistication may vary, but the impulse seems to arise in many contexts. Thus, I feel that I can work with many audiences, if I can only get exposed to them.I have no shortage of subject matter, since each arising opportunity carries that in it. How to offer more effective entries into my work now occupies my attention. The documentation that best captures my work includes the people who participate in it. If I want to continue to present diagrams, which I do, I need to increasingly present instances of their uses as well. I am scheduling more opportunities for formal and informal conversations. My experience is that most viewers are interested in inserting themselves. Diagrams are testing grounds for scenarios that may or may not turn out to be convincing. I am seeking ways to emphasize this open-endedness, to document it with video, make it available not just for the duration of a presentation, but also as representation that can exist in conjunction with a diagram later, as a mode of its use. By opening up my ways of making sense for public scrutiny, by mingling my points of view with those of others, I am framing myself as an artist who explores contemporary techniques of learning and of teaching through the arts. These techniques emphasize not to teach "down", but to respect and in turn learn from those one encounters. I am not an activist who supports a particular subject, but an artist who supports a particular mode of being in the world—respect, responsibility and, as much as possible, fearlessness. - Adelheid Mers

Projects

Commissions

Solo and collaborative exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Curatorial projects

Editorial projects

Authored texts

Professional activity: speaking engagements

Professional activity: conferences and symposia

Awards and nominations

Residencies