At the University of Applied Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, I studied painting and graphic art, in which free work in the painting class played just as important a role as the compulsory attendance of seminars on craft techniques. In my artistic work, I dealt with various painting, graphic and printmaking techniques. Thanks to a Socrates Erasmus scholarship, I was able to get to know other artistic viewpoints at the Art Academy Düsseldorf. While attending Siegfried Anzinger’s painting class, I began to use photography as sketches for my paintings and prints. Photography became an independent medium in my artistic work, so I continued a two-year guest study in Thomas Ruff’s photography class at the Art Academy Düsseldorf.
In my postgraduate studies in media arts at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, I had the opportunity to translate my sociopolitical interests into artistic formats. Camera work, sound and film editing were technical requirements that I was able to learn at the KHM. Developing scripts in terms of content, submitting applications for film funding and the ability to quickly build networks were among the many tasks as a director. In the photo project “Giving drug addicts a voice”, the focus was on a statement and a portrait of drug addicts. I also made a documentary about a previously homeless teenager during his difficult start to an independent life. This was followed by three documentary film projects in Egypt, which dealt with people in social spaces. In “997 to Giza”, the focus is on a bus driver from Cairo. The film “Mona”, which was shown at many international festivals, paints the portrait of a garbage sorter in Cairo. The film “Cleaning Cairo”, funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, expresses the political agitation of Egyptian garbage workers during the Arab Spring in political statements and personal perspectives.
I have been working as a freelance artist with a focus on painting, photography, drawing, experimental film and documentary since 2012. I use graphic and painterly works as well as photography on their own, but also to produce films, which are shown either in installations or as films. I am bridging the gap between analog and digital works.
Photography by Michelle Schönbein