Visual and media arts, music, performing arts and science – our lecturers also come from different disciplines. Many of them work between the art forms themselves or are involved in art and science. Here we present the lecturers who have shaped the Laboratory of the Arts 2024.
Professor of Sound at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
As an artist, he prefers to work with the obvious, but not the obvious. He views art in general as the shaping of thoughts in different materials and personally favours conceptual approaches: more thought, less material. the result can be scores, performances or installations, but also daydreams or no results at all. he researches experimental art practice and has been involved in numerous realisations of works by its proponents, above all Cage, Tudor, Behrman, Lucier and Ashley. His piece “the benchmark consort”, which was honoured with an award of distinction at the Ars Electronic Festival in Linz in 2008, is representative of numerous national and international productions. In 2007 he was a visiting professor for composition and experimental sound practices at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, and from 2012-2015 he taught hybrid sound computing and extended systems at the Institute for Music and Media at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule Düsseldorf. He has also curated numerous concerts and sound art events in Cologne, such as the sound art series BrückenMusik (www.brueckenmusik.de) from 1999-2012 and events as part of the concert series “Reihe M” (www.reihe-m.de) from 2009 – 2019.
Teacher for special tasks (metal sculpture) at the Düsseldorf Art Academy
Axel Kreiser studied sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and graduated as a master student of Tony Cragg. He lives and works in Cologne and Düsseldorf. With his company “Real Material – Manufaktur für Möbel und Objekte” he has created objects for visual artists, designed individual pieces of furniture and theatre equipment. In his sculptural work, he develops a complex formal language using banal steel tubes and the resulting combinations of concave and convex surfaces. He has been head of the metal sculpture department at the Düsseldorf Art Academy since 2009. In 2016, Axel Kreiser held a teaching position for sculpture at Alanus University in Alfter.
Teacher for special tasks (plastics) at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
Andreas Bee studied at the Kunstakademien Münster and Düsseldorf and has been teaching at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf since 1989. His teaching activities have also taken him to the Edinburgh College of Art and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. He has been awarded several scholarships and was a scholarship holder at the Villa Romana in Florence in 1993. His artistic work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, Seattle, Herne, Neuss and Xanten, among others.
Junior Professor of Artistic Research at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln
Winnie Huang is a Chinese-Australian violinist, violist, gestural performance artist and composer currently based in Germany. An active performer of new music, Winnie is co-artistic director and violinist of Paris based new music ensemble soundinitiative and co-founder and member of an experimental instrumental duo hoodwink with Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn, and performative duo LOOKOUT with Jessie Marino. Career highlights have included solo performances at the Berlin Philharmonie (DE), KKL Lucerne (CH) and the Elb Philharmonie (DE), among many international ensemble tours in Europe, USA and Australia. An engaging educator, Winnie has consistently taught in Australia, France and Belgium. She has guest lectured at the Orpheus Institute (BE), Basel Academie (CH), École Supérieure d’Art de Lorraine (FR), Kunstuniversität Graz (AT), Melbourne University and Monash University (AUS) and currently teaches interdisciplinary musical-gestural works at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp (BE).
Winnie’s strong interest in the performance of musical-gestural pieces is explored frequently through her own original compositions and collaborating with other composers, developing highly gestural contemporary works. Academically, Winnie’s doctoral artistic research was on interdisciplinary musical-gestural performance and collaborative processes, and she is expanding her artistic research further along those fields.
Teacher for special tasks (printmaking) at the Kunstakademie Münster
Jenny Gonsior studied painting under Prof. Siegfried Anzinger at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and graduated with a master’s degree. She lives and works as a freelance artist in Düsseldorf and Münster. She has been head of the etching workshop at the Münster Art Academy since 2021. She teaches the numerous techniques in intaglio and relief printing.
Teacher for special tasks (ceramics) at the Münster Art Academy
Verena Stieger completed her training as a wood sculptor at the vocational school in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2004. She then studied Fine Arts at the Braunschweig University of Art and Ceramic Design at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in Krefeld. In addition to her freelance work in her studio in Detmold, she has held various teaching positions and has worked in the sculpture workshops at the Münster Art Academy since 2011. She has been head of the ceramics workshop since 2016 and lives and works in Detmold and Münster. In her sculptural work, she plays with the variety of different ceramic materials and utilises their characteristics and properties. Moulded, white porcelain objects contrast with deep black, archaic Raku ceramics. Utility items, sculptures and objects complement each other. Industrial components are integrated, new and old things lead to further dialogues.
Lecturer in theatre directing at the Folkwang University of the Arts
Born in Cologne in 1978, he studied theatre directing at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich. From 2006 to 2009, he was an assistant director at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, where he mainly assisted on productions by Dimiter Gotscheff and Jan Bosse. He also realised his first own productions at the DT-BOX venue. Since 2009, Jakob Fedler has worked as a freelance director at various German municipal and state theatres, including the Deutsches Theater Berlin, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Wuppertaler Bühnen, Staatstheater Oldenburg, Theater Osnabrück, Theater Erlangen, DNT Weimar, Staatstheater Nürnberg and the Ruhrfestspiele in Recklinghausen. Jakob Fedler has realised over 40 productions since 2009. In addition to new drama plays, one of his main focuses is the realisation of participatory projects with amateurs and professionals. In recent years, he has increasingly worked in independent contexts and realised the interdisciplinary, inclusive productions “Ich bin ein Prinz – Normalität 3 bis 5” and “Pourquoi pas”, among others. He is a founding member of the inclusive, interdisciplinary POUR ENSEMBLE in Wuppertal. In 2008, he was invited to the “radikal jung” festival, in 2009, he was nominated as Young Director of the Year, and in 2010 his production of “Kaspar Häuser Meer” won an award at the Bavarian Theatre Days. Jakob Fedler has been a lecturer in theatre directing at the Folkwang University of the Arts since 2013.
Lecturer for speech technique and artistic speech expression at the Detmold University of Music
Christian Kleinert was born in Berlin. He studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. After graduating in 1989, he had numerous engagements, including at the Meiningen Theatre, Bühnen der Stadt Zwickau, Theater am Kurfürstendamm, Schlossparktheater Berlin, Berliner Kammerspiele, Theater Hildesheim, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Theater Magdeburg. As a director, he was responsible for productions in Meiningen, the stages of the city of Zwickau and at the Rudolstadt Theatre as well as at the opera school of the Detmold University of Music. His artistic work includes readings of classical and contemporary texts in various concert formats. Various film and television roles as well as CD recordings round off his artistic profile. Christian Kleinert has been a lecturer in speech technique and artistic expression at the Detmold University of Music since 2008.