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Gisela Weimann (born June 10, 1943) is a German multimedia artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her working techniques range from painting, printmaking, photography and film to performance art and art in public space. Her work often focuses on political - particularly feminist - themes, and on art's relationship with political and social issues.
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Early life
Weimann was born in Bad Blankenburg, Germany in 1943, a period of German history she describes as, "characterized by destruction, displacement and loss of identity." From 1965 she studied Painting at the Berlin University of the Arts, graduating in 1971. She continued studying Printmaking and Experimental Photography at the Royal College of Art in London with a DAAD Scholarship. In 1978 she received the Airlift-Memorial and Fulbright-Scholarships to study Film and Photography at the San Francisco Art Institute. After her studies she lived in Tepoztlán (Mexico) until 1981 when she returned to Berlin where she took on the task of Head of the Department of Art and Creativity at the University of Continuous Education in Berlin-Wedding from 1982 until 1987. In 1989 she received the GEDOK Catalogue Prize.
Career
From 1990 until 1993 she directed the communal Galerie Lebendiges Museum (Living Museum Gallery) in Berlin-Wedding in cooperation with the Schering Art Socoety. In 1991 she was awarded a residence scholarship in Istanbul (Turkey) by the Cultural Senate of Berlin. The following year, she received a production grant from the Berlin Women Artists Programme and in 1994 a publishing grant from the Käthe Dorsch Foundation, Berlin. Between 1996 and 2004, Weimann was a DAAD Guest Lecturer in the Fine Arts Departments of the Universities of Salamanca and Madrid (Spain), Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City. In 1997 she received a grant from the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and in 2000 project grants for the “Opera for 4 Buses” by Kulturfonds and Berlin Capital Culture Fund. In 2002 she was awarded the prestigious Critics Prize for Visual Arts, and in 2011, 2012 and 2013 she received production grants from the Centre d’Art Contemporain d'Essaouira in Ifitry (Morocco). Other recent resident scholarships were from the Kunstverein Frankfurt-Oder (Germany) in 2009 and the Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice (Italy) in 2009 and 2014. Since then, she has been living and working in Berlin.
Weimann's work has been exhibited internationally and includes exhibitions, sound installations and multimedia performances. These include: "Une mer deux rivages" MAC.A, Asilah (Morocco) (2014–15); "My shadow Stays", solo exhibition, Brno House of Arts (CZECH Republic) (2014); "Start Date End Here Now", solo exhibition, Kunsthalle Brennabor, Brandenburg an der Havel (2013); "World in Flames", Casablanca Biennale (Morocco) (2012); "Memorias", Palacio de la Mosquera, Arenas de San Pedro (Spain) (2011); "La Notte Blu", Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, Venice (Italy) and galerie futura, Berlin (2010); "Winds Ballet I / Aurora", Body Navigation Festival, St. Petersburg (Russia) and "Espacios Mediterraneos" Casa de las Conchas, Salamanca (Spain) (2008); "Transatlantic Impulses", Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum, Berlin (2005); and "Opera for 4 Buses" Museumsinselfestival Berlin (2001).
Select publications
Critical reception
When Weimann was awarded the Critics Prize for Visual Art, the awardee Dr. Stefanie Endlich said of the artist: "There are two leading threads in Gisela Weimann’s life’s work: her diaries, which are conceived visually as well as narratively and which describe her continuous reflections on the relation between politics, society and personal experience. Both threads determine the specific form of her artistic references. Both include her repeated mental struggle with the powerlessness of art against war and violence. In awarding this prize, the jury wishes to emphasize that Gisela Weimann’s struggle is not outdated but as important as ever in today’s world."