Throughout my work i am continuously trying to escape from uniformity. With as little restrictions as possible i create space for experiment and development. Surrounded by various forms of working material i play with its color, structure and texture. Doing so, I am constantly seeking for an appropriate mixture between these features which in turn creates further implications for the evolution of my project. On this quest the skin and the structure of objects are playing an ever increasing role. The materials that I am working with consist mostly of common goods that are to be found and collected for a project. I reconstruct the material in an attempt to give it a new identity. Namely, I want simple objects and random moments to come together creating a common direction with a new purpose. For example, daily implements which at first sight are not appealing are accumulated and used to create greater distinguishing qualities that are asking for more attention. Thereby, an image is created where the small and innocent fades into the big, massive and peculiar, constantly gaining on momentum and changing the course of development. Over the past years my work has changed from abstract to a more illustrative form. The story behind the work is getting a more prominent role. Furthermore, a new impulse while creating is needed in order to reflect and communicate. As a natural continuation within my developments i want my art to be my medium for communication. After my graduation i have taken on many challenges and i started to be more confident and determined in the choices i make and tasks i perform. This development i want to continue in my future work. I want to introduce more layers without destroying the initial form. I am intending to construct installations in installations, where the viewer has to peel of the layers to come to the source; the beginning of a story. I want to transit my present activities and ideas to projects on a bigger scale. Projects that are interacting with the environment and that communicate with the public. I want to research the universal language

In 1996 i took the Diploma in Grafic Art, c/o Istituto Statale D’Arte,Giussano, (Milano, I). i been away for some years, without pencil in the hand, until 2000 when I started study in Accademia di Belle Arti Di Brera (Milan) in the department of multidisciplinary arts. During the years 2004-2005 I done Erasmus Project in Tallinn, to Estonian Kunst Accaademia, and I have had a scholarship for it. After that experience, back in Milan I have accomplished my diploma work about the issue “The culture of Art in Estonia, in transition from Soviet Time to European Community”, with the curator Luca Beatrice.

In 2006 I have had in Milan a workshop of performance, with Takla Improvising Group.

In the summer of the same year, I left for German, and I stopped my walking in Halle Saale, I took artist residence, to the artist Carola Schimdt, the name of it was “Art of the invisible”, it means something that is ‘out’ the business system of art. The year after I was select for the workshop, in Verona, “The drawing and the colour”, an alternative way of think painting out of the academic ideas and modes, with the maestro Giovanni Meloni. In this year I was the winner of stipendium from Cariverona Bank I always do every idea that I have in the mind, is the only mode for know: sometimes after 5 minutes I understand that is a bad one, sometimes I continue to grind until the end. Write and draw are the invisibles basis of each one of my works, in the visible way of the realization ever piece will have an appropriate media. The main point of my work is ethical, I look for do something: “fragile and strong, light and unpersonality”.

2008
CupHouse, collective, Museo Granata Braghieri, Imbersago (Lc) - ECOISMI, collective, galleria Contemporaneamente, Milano – Everyone have inside the work organ, Kitchen Installation, Milano – Happiness isn’t potato, installation, Lombardini Park, Milan
2007
Leipzig Book Fair, collective of artist’s book, Leipzing (D) - Giovani Artisti, collective, Galleria9Colonne, La Spezia - Premio di pittura Morlotti , Museo Granata Braghieri, Imbersago (Lc) – Black summer, performance, Verona
2006
International Artist’s Book Triennal, Vilnius (Lit)/ 10th Sidney Art on Paper Fair, Sidney (Au)/ Oceanside Museum of Art, California (Usa) – Biennale del disarmo, GalleriaArteCultura, Milano – In&Out: il giorno dopo, personal exhibition, C/o RadioPopolare, Milano – Caccia all’Artista, performance, Spazio USI, Milano – Infective Weither, performance, Milano
2005
• FaxForPeace, collective, Istituto Superiore di Spilimbergo (PD) – A little piece of memory, performance, Ex chiesa di SanCarpoforo, Milano
• Pregnant Weither, performance in the street, Milano - Lost&Found, performance, Vabaduse Valiak, Tallinn (EST)
• 11° Parnu International film and video festival, proiezione del cortometraggio ‘A Dialogue’ realizzato in collaborazione con Alina Kosmik, Parnu (EST)
• Show and Pidu, installation, Polimery Cultural Factory, Tallinn (EST) Vana Ilus, road performance, Tallinn(Est) - Helsinki (Fin)
2004
• Brend New 2, installation, Palazzina Liberty, Milano
• ExponeBrera, collective, Accademia di Brera, Milano

I've been involved in Performance Poetry/Spoken Word/Slam Poetry since 2001 and have been competing officially in Slam Poetry since 2003 in Youth Speaks National Youth Poetry Slam. I am an official live Def Poetry performer as can be seen in Debbie Allen's showcase records. I have also had several competition performances at my school (Skidmore College), which I have won, and several kamikaze performances around the US as well.

Kirsten Leenaars (1976, Netherlands) moved to Chicago 2 years ago to join the Masters program at UIC. She graduated last May and received her MFA in Studio Arts. Prior to that she studied arts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Her practice is driven by her endless fascination for people. She is a collector of personal stories and uses these to pose questions in her work about longing and belonging. In her photo, video and installation work she creates imaginary worlds based on these personal stories. She stages portraits - of herself as well as of friends and members of a given community that address both private and cultural desires, projections and fears. Through these portrayals I bring my subjects’ interior worlds out into the social sphere where they are offered as alternatives to the drab, ready-made reality that threatens to streamline subjective hope and desire. As such they can be described as acts of resistance. Through the imaginary she aims to re-contextualize notions of identity and place and explore how imagination shapes the way we relate to each other and shapes the way we relate to the world we live in. Kirsten Leenaars has lived and exhibited at various galleries in Berlin, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, New York, Barcelona, Tbilisi and Chicago and her videos were screened at multiple festivals. She is also active as a writer and editor for various Dutch and American publications. She will start teaching at the Art Institute in Chicago in Fall 2008.

I LEAVE TRACES ... I leave traces, I work on the trace, the print, the symbol of what has been and what is no more, the passage of something in a temporality, Life, death, disappearance, memory. My work turns from the print whether by leaving the trace of my body lying on the ground or by inviting public in their turn to leave a trace in the earth. This choice is a choice of attention on what has always been a fascination. Which child has not been a day fascinated by the traces of his footsteps in the sand or in the snow, or even by the traces left by planes in the sky? In this perceptive simplicity, I decided to give a place of existence and revelation to the trace in itself by giving it body or material more precisely. I do belong to the earth, but I am not the earth, I'm becoming earth. I walk over it, I go through it, I penetrate into it , I try to reveal an essence of it, to find myself in the soil through the print, by leaving a part of me. In front of two different elements but deeply and primitively linked, the earth and the man, the print signs their connections. A symbolic work of stake in report, of me (with others) with the earth, the trace and the image allowing to make present (to represent) what became absent, to represent the meeting, the contact, the sensation.

Through the process of personality fragmentation I explore concepts of identity, authorship and autobiography. I am developing these topics by creating different heteronyms or alter-egos, characters endowed with their own biographies, personalities and religious attitudes that differ from my own. They are Francisco J. and Ana Garcini. I attributed to these invented artists histories and experiences that directly influence the work they produce. Placing myself as the ‘other’ in a singular social and intellectual background enables me to deal with complex issues of identity outside the mode of confessional autobiography. I can be detached emotionally from the work that Garcini and Francisco produce. It’s easier to maintain a critic mind and to allow a more freely experimentation of different mediums, concepts and formats, when being disconnected from my own constrains. Moreover, engaging with this multi-identity practice allows me to have a critical distance from material that deals with fundamental facets of identity and the ‘subject’. The construction of alter-egos, or heteronyms, it’s also a response to how systems of meaning and cultural representation multiply, arising around questions of identity and human behaviour. It’s an attempt to comprehend plurality and to understand the ‘self’ as a product of society. The act of depersonalization involves a relationship between ‘self’ and ‘other’, individual and object, inner an outer. As Sartre putted it, we must know how to say ‘we’ in order to say ‘I’. Although Ana Garcini and Francisco J. adopt different aesthetic languages, their artwork is equally concerned in defining their own identity. Ana Garcini, for example, adopts a scientific methodology, researching on genetic identity, while Francisco deconstructs cultural ideologies, religious and superstitious identity. Exhibitions (selection) 2007 Drosophila Melanogaster, Four Gallery, Dublin, Ireland The Other Side of real, Cavanacor Gallery, Donegal, Ireland; Céad in China, 411 Galleries, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing, China; Open Systems, Green On Red, Dublin, Ireland; Boyle Arts Festival, Roscommon, Ireland; Aveiro Jovens Criadores 2006, Museu da Cidade, Aveiro, Portugal 2006 Launch/Making Do, The Lab, Dublin, Ireland; it is a kind of magic, Ashford Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland; Wildbeaming, organized by Sign Gallery, Groningen, The Netherlands; 2005 New Irish Painting, Context Galleries, Derry, Northern Ireland; 2003 Supercalifragilistichespiralidoso, Galeria Espaços Jup, Porto, Portugal; 2002 7º Prémio Fidelidade Jovens Pintores, Culturgest (Lisboa), Fundação da Juventude (Porto) e Galeria de Abrantes, Portugal;

Although I am based in Belfast I have been in countries around the globe for a variety of reasons such as: A four month arts’ residency in Calcutta (Kolkata) India, as a student in Uppsala, Sweden, I exhibited in New York, I found ‘brothers in art’ in the Aboriginal community, Australia and created site specific installation in Valencia, Spain and have working in schools and community centres across the Basque Country with the International Gathering of Artsits for Peace. These and other parts of the world have all provided great experiences and brilliant opportunities to learn. I have exhibited widely in Ireland and in a number of international venues. I am an eclectic artist who creates work in any media; I start with an idea then find the best way to visualise it. To date I have produced public artwork, gallery based work and site specific installations. Amongst the materials I commonly work with are – bronze, wood, clay, metals, paints and cement. I have exhibited widely in Ireland and in a number of international venues in New York, France, Spain, India and the Basque Country. I have produced a number of site specific installation pieces in Ireland, Spain, India and the Basque Country and have produced a substantial number of pieces of public art locally; most of which have been made in close contact with local communities and schools. Some recent and significant international and local arts activities are: Sept. 2007 I represented the Northern Ireland at the 3nd.International Gathering of Artists for Peace, in Gernika, the Basque Country. Jan – Apr 2007, Conducted a four month residency in Calcutta, India; during which I produced a large temporary installation, The Helix of Hope. Mar. 2007, I presented and discussed my work with lecturers and students at Santineketan, The International University of Peace, founded by Rabindranath Tagore, in West Bengal, India. My artwork is included in the International Humanist Art Archive, Melbourne Australia December 2005 I was commissioned to produce an outdoor installation for the 1V Encuentro Internacional Artistas para la Paz (4th International meeting of Artist for Peace), in La Vall d’Uixo, Spain. A painted element of the installation is on permanent exhibition in the Municipal Library in Vall d’Uixo. Sept. 2005 I had work exhibited with the RUA in the Ulster Museum Belfast. Aug. 2005 I organised an International Humanist Arts event and the International Humanist Art Exhibition in Conway Mill, Belfast. June 2005 I presented and discussed my work at the Foc Art Festival, Moncofa, Spain. March 2005 I was an Arts Delegate at the Crossing Borders, Crossing Waters International Arts Project, Cork, Ireland. 2004 I presented and discussed my work at the Peace Pedagogy Conference, Gernika, the Basque Country. 2003 I represented Ireland at the 1st International Gathering of Artists for Peace in Gernika, 2003. At this same Gathering’ I travelled with an International group of artists to schools and community centres to conduct workshops with hundreds of local people. I have also produced a substantial amount of work that is inspired by the Maze Prison (Long Kesh Prison), where most of Northern Ireland's political prisoners were kept. This prison is now closed for good. I was held in this prison for approx. 7 years (1978-85), and my work that uses the Maze site is generally about illuminating a brighter future in our post conflict situation.

Chiara Fumai was born in Rome in the year of Never Say Die by Black Sabbath, studied in a gesuits school and graduated in Architecture at Politecnico di Milano. She produces videos, installations, performances, drawings and audio.Besides being a visual artist, she as been working with techno music in last four years, becoming a respected disc jockey and playing in nine countries. She lives and works in Milan and Switzerland, her best friend is a famous magician and she has never been to Ibiza.

WEB www.moustachewoman.com www.myspace.com/mybeardedpippi

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2008 Palazzo Pippi, CS Bruno, Trento The Electric Sheep, ponte di Via Tortona, Milano (performance with William Bottin) Tutto Giusto, Careof, Milano 2007 The Night is Still Young, Kunstart, Bolzano (performance for Conduits Gallery, London) GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2008 Massive Media, Area 57, Miami (curated by Luca Curci) A, B, F, G, M, N, O, R, O, Z..., Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia (selected by Chiara Agnello, Careof) 2007 Ghost Trax, Pad, Verona (curated by Microgallery) 2006 100stili, Palazzo della Triennale, Milano PAN Archive, Artissima, Torino 2005 Padiglione Portoghese, Aichi, Tokyo (con Krv Kurva Lisbona) Too Many Designers, club Rocket, Milano (con Krv Kurva Lisbona) VIDEOGRAPHY Salone's Transumanza (with W. Bottin, M. Malizia), for Check-In Architecture, 2008 Moustache Woman, 2007 I'm A Junkie, 2007 The Night is Still Young, 2007 Hocus Pocus, 2006 Je Aime l'Amour, 2005 Pippigomix, 2004 DISCOGRAPHY Pippi Kid: Thank You Mr. Taylor (Additional prod. By M. Passarani), Music Control 2008 William Bottin: Horror Disco (Pippi Kid remix), 2008 Nico Fumai* : I ragazzi come me, Ghost Tracks 2007 Nico Fumai* :Un altro ballo / Another dance, Ghost Tracks 2007 Nico Fumai*:Allora perché?, Ghost Tracks 2007 Nico Fumai* : Amarti Ora… , Ghost Tracks 2007 (* Nico Fumai is a fake discography created by the artist under the name of her father and distributed internationally thanks to radio and friends/djs)

My practice can be described as a hybrid of diverse disciplines and mediums that range from visual art performances and actions to site-specific installations and video works. I employ each medium as a tool for an expression of a particular idea or project, whilst using my body and its immediate surroundings, conditions and state of being, as material. The themes of my practice stem from my personal experience of life in the East and West, under different political regimes, the Soviet and Post-Soviet mentality, dislocation and longing, embodied memories and remnants of my past. Everything, I have ever attempted to create has always been and will be, affected by the move to the other side of the world. I have lived in Australia for almost fifteen years by now, and even though I have become a “comfortable”, adopted citizen of this land, I sometimes suddenly catch myself standing outside, behind an invisible glass wall, seemingly observing everyone else. It is this almost subconscious, hazy feeling of an outsider that has eventually inevitably led me to artistic road of expression.

Education American University - Master of Fine Arts / Rome, Italy-2005 Mississippi State University - Bachelor of Fine Arts / Mississippi, USA-2002 Additional Study National Exchange Program/San Jose State Univ.-Web Design/Video Art,-2000 Black & White Photography - N.Y.C, New York-2000 Intensive Painting and Drawing - various locations in France including Paris-1999 Residencies Chautauqua Institute of Fine and Performing Arts, New York-2004 Work / Teaching Experience Art Teacher, Geschwister Scholl Gymnasium, Pulheim, Germany -2007/08 Painting Tutor - Independent Courses. Rome, Italy -2005 Teaching Assistant/Drawing and Painting. Mississippi State University -2000 Exhibitions: ( selected ) Solo : " Transitions", Bremen Airport, Germany-2008 Group : "Paradise is elsewhere" Studio 23 Berlin , Berlin, Germany-2008 Group : Bedburg Castle, Bedburg, Germany-2007 Group : Art on 5th Fine Art Gallery, Austin, Texas, USA-2006 Solo : "Survival", Gloss Gallery, Rome, Italy,-2005 Solo : "Metamorphosis" The Permanent Intercultural Gallery, Rome, Italy-2005 Group : "American Rodeo", Center of American Studies, Rome, Italy-2005 Solo : "Beethoven's 5th", Rione V, Rome, Italy-2005 Group : Chautauqua Institute of Visual and Performing Art, Chautauqua, NY-2004 Group : "Departure", Piramide Gallery, Rome-2004 Group : Commune di Corciano, Corciano Italy-2003, 2004 Group : McCommas Gallery, Starkville, Mississippi, USA-2002

Abbildungen geboren: 08.01.80 Osogbo, Nigeria Berufe: Tänzer, Trommler, Singer und Künstler Ausbildung: 1986-1993: Salvation Army Primary School, Isale-Aro Osogbo Osun State, Nigeria 1993-1999: Osogbo Grammar School, Osun State, Nigeria 2000-2001: Isolo Metropolitan College, Lagos, Nigeria 2001-2003: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (Deutschkurs) 2003-....: Kunstakademie Münster Ausstellungen: Juni-September 1998: Gruppenausstellung Yorubakunst, IYA DuDu Galerie, Münster Oktober-Dezember 1999: Einzelausstellung, Lekan Oguntunde - Grafiken, IYA DuDu Galerie Münster März-April 2002: Gruppenausstellung im Rathaus Ostbevern Juli-September 2006 Einzelaustellung,Elings Praxis Ostbevern Sonstiges: Kunst- und Musikkurse am Adigun Olosun Gallery and Cultural Centre Osogbo/ Nigeria Deutsch-Sprachkurse am Adigun Olosun Gallery and Cultural Centre, Osogbo/Nigeria seit 1999-2003 Art Instructor am Adigun Olosun Gallery and Cultural Centre, Osogbo/Nigeria

Noriko Yamaguchi was born in Tokyo, JAPAN. She studied Weaving at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Currently she lives and works in Germany. She won scholarships from The Pola Art Foundation Tokyo in 2007 and Japanese Government Overseas Study Programme for Artists in 2008. Selected Exhibitions 2008: Holland Paper Biennial 2008, Rijswijk Museum & CODA Museum Apeldoorn / Netherlands 2007: East Weaves West: Basketry from Japan and Britain, Collins Gallery, National Vlechtmuseum / England 2006: `Suspended` The exhibition of Artist-In-Residence-Program 2006/Autumn, Aomori / Japan 2004: SOFA-Sculpture Object & Functional Art Expositions 2004, New York and Chicago / USA BASKETS Four Worlds Spread from the Fingertips, The Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa / Japan FIBER BIENNIAL 2004, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA / USA WORKS ON PAPER/WORKS ON PAPER, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA / USA My work is informed by a background in dyeing and weaving – eventually I chose to move from the two-dimensional world of textiles to the three dimensional by turning to paper. Not only is paper extremely accessible but it also brings us back down to earth, at a time when space and distance is losing in significance; by working with paper I am re-anchored, my being is embodied. I often use washi (traditional Japanese paper), but have also incorporated newspaper, shopping bags, photographs and other common objects. Each of my installations is site specific, exploring both the space of the exhibition, the ‘space’ I am in and the objects I am surrounded by. Here, I am interested in contingency – both in terms of the materials used and in the act of creating. ‘Knitting’ paper and other objects is very repetitive, yet in the very act of repetition, chance creates variation and intricacy – not unlike the rhythm of the everyday.

I have been taking photographs for 18 years, nearly 10 professionally. I have travelled extensively and lived most of my adult life abroad in Europe, Mexico and Korea. I am a trained photographer from Brooks Institute of Photography. I left commercial photography in Los Angeles and NYC for self-discovery in photography and to involve myself with non-profit organizations to explore humanity and educate myself to the world outside of advertising. Though only being in Berlin a little over a year, I have two current exhibitions and shoot for artists in residency here in Berlin to earn a living.