Artists Program
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2022, the University of Siegen in cooperation with the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen (MGKSiegen) has initiated the artists program ‘Artist in Residence Siegen’. The program brings together science, art and the public and visibly reflects the significance of urban development in Siegen.
‘Artist in Residence Siegen’ accompanies the extension of the university, which will take place over several years, and visibly reflects the significance of urban development in Siegen. Art reveals spaces of differentiated perception, critical reflection and will initiate social discourses with the planned interventions. The program aims to artistically examine the relationship between university and urban life anew in each case and to intervene in their public, social and media spaces for this purpose.
The artists program offers the University of Siegen and the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen the opportunity to engage with their respective social missions and to explore the question of how science and art, how university and museum can be further anchored in the urban society of Siegen. By occupying the interface between culture, university and urban planning, the program offers an important and lasting contribution to the Siegen Cultural Development Plan.
Auspices
‘The new residency program can serve as a model for committed imitators throughout North Rhine-Westphalia. Urban life, art and science dovetail very profitably here and enter into an intensive exchange with each other. This is a promising development, especially against the backdrop of the planned expansion of the inner-city campus, which will bring the university into the heart of the city and into the neighborhood of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst.’
Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (retired), is patron of the artists program ‘Artist in Residence Siegen’.
Artist of the Residency 2023/24
Artist of the Residency 2023/24 is Susanne Kriemann.
Susanne Kriemann (*1972 in Erlangen, lives and works in Berlin and Karlsruhe) is Professor of Code&Image at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. She is also co-founder of the artist initiative ABA in Berlin, which has been exploring research as an important component of artistic practice and has been running an artist-in-residence program itself since 2010.
Kriemann examines the medium of photography in the context of social history and archival practice. In the expanded sense of the photographic document, she understands the world as an analog ‘recording system’ of man-made processes. Addressing ecological issues is an important concern of her work. Kriemann’s work is exhibited internationally, including at the C/O Berlin, The Wattis Institute San Francisco, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Kunsthalle Winterthur. Recent solo exhibitions have been shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, the Salonul de proiecte in Bucharest and the Photographic Center, Tampere. This year, works will be shown at Kunst Haus Wien and the Diriyah Biennale, among others. Kriemann has participated in the 3rd Chennai Photo Biennale, the 4th Kyiv Biennale, the 11th Shanghai Biennale, the 10th and 11th Gothenburg Biennale and the 5th Berlin Biennale. She has also held artist residencies at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and the Goethe-Institut Sri-Lanka in Colombo. Publications play an important role in her artistic practice; she has published seventeen artist books since 1998.
Jury Residency 2023/24
Prof. Mariana Castillo Deball
Professor of Sculpture, Kunstakademie Münster
Jennifer Cierlitza
Managing director and Curator, Kunstverein Siegen e.V.
Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Eva von Engelberg
Professor of Architectural History, University of Siegen
Prof. Uschi Huber
Professor of Photography, University of Siegen
Dr. Karin Kolb
Director of the Siegerlandmuseum am Oberen Schloss, Siegen
Thomas Thiel
Director of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen
Partners & Supporters
Each residency is endowed by generous supporters. The following supporters have consented to a public mention:
Christa-und-Dieter-Lange Stiftung (residency 2022/23)
Rolf H. Brunswig Stiftung Berlin (residency 2023/24)