缅北禁地

I think of my practice as a multi tentacled beast that develops in discrete but interconnecting strands, each brining their own agency of a conversations. It is often collaborative and brings myriad people from different disciplines together to set out to articulate social, political and ecological concerns through video installation, photography, sound and sculpture. The work often positions itself in the public realm as a form of intervention and includes directly activist elements to set about making a difference beyond the visual arts.

Recent projects have included; Forest Complex (‘23-’24) and Fire Complex (’20-’22) two bodies of work that respond to the complex relationship of destruction and reconstruction humanity has set up in relation to forest ecosystems in the wake of the climate emergency; Uncertain Subjects, a series of ‘Action Photographs’ in the public realm and a mail art project in response to the social and political landscape in the UK in the run up to Brexit (‘17–‘20); The sculptural installation Orchestra of Rocks (‘16-’20) and Weather Works (’15) in response to changes in weather patterns due to climate change; and the photographic and video work Off Road developed as part of a trilogy of works around how the notion of freedom is lived out in the USA (‘08-’14).

My work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in leading arts institutions including exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London, Momus, Thessaloniki, Vincent Price Museum, Los Angeles, Millard Sheets Arts Centre, Ponoma, Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton, Art Night, London in collaboration with Whitechapel Art Galleries, at Bluecoat, Liverpool, Spacex, Exter, at Les Rencontres, Arles, at Southwark Park Galleries, London, Danielle Arnaud, London, the Architectural Association London, the Barbican, London, and Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC, and the Glassell Project Space MFAH, Houston.

I have been awarded the Royal Academy Wollaston Award, been awarded the Stanley Picker Fellowship, the Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship, the EAA Award for Art in Architecture and the SPD silver medal for editorial photography. Her photographic essays have been published in Wired, Esquire, GQ, and American Photography.

The practice is held in public and private collections including the MFAH, Houston and LACMA, Los Angeles.

Details about recent projects:

Summary of recent projects:

Forest Complex brought together a new multifaceted body of photographic, video, and sound works that observe the complex societal, political, and ecological entanglements surrounding the pressures mountain forests have come under in the wake of the climate emergency. The works in this exhibition delve into the multiple ways in which humanity is responding to the climate emergency. It runs in parallel to an experimental and speculative replanting project that targets forests that are essential for the critical safety function of Alpine Forests.

Fire Complex follows the causes and the devastating aftermath of the 2020 Castle Fire that destroyed 170,000 acres of California forest, including an estimated 10-14% of the global population of endangered Giant Sequoias.

Fire Complex brings together photography and video in the public realm and on instagram to raise momentum and resources for the regeneration of our forests. It involves a replanting project developed in collaboration and with the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, USDA Forest Services, Cal Fire and the communities of Sequoia Crest, Alpine Village and Cedar Slope. The public facing aspect of the work has been developed with the support of the Faculty Research Fund, 缅北禁地, the support of Alchemy Media (USA), Standard Vision (USA) and Buildhollywood (UK).

Uncertain Subjects situates itself between the photograph as historic document, performance and a work of activism. In a series of durational performances large scale 48 sheet billboards were constantly covered and recovered with new billboards: Each billboard a head and bare shoulder portrait of people who – in the face of Brexit – feel this country no longer represents their best interest, people who feel like they have become alienated within their own country and many whom have decided to move out of the UK. The work gives a voice to those who feel they have been silenced by the failing democratic processes. It brings a personal lived experience back into the conversations surrounding Brexit.

/sacs/fine-art/research/film-photography-digital/uncertain-subjects/

Orchestra of Rocks: Not Rock Concert, Rock Concert andCave Music are a playful evocation of ancient rituals, myth and man's desire, often futile, to gain control over nature. Each exhibition was different versions of an installation combining sculpture, experimental sound and live-performance and included collaborative contributions by experimental sounds artists and life performers including  , Dane Law (Adam Parkinson), ),  , , ,, Mariam Rezaei, , and . It was first exhibited as part of the Whitechapel Art Night Associate Programme and transformed St Olave’s Church on Hart Street, then as part of the GETN at the Boiler House, and finally in the Hub, Lonodn. An immersive environment of sculptural installation and sound, based on Kögelsberger’s recordings of individual raindrops, captured with experimental recording techniques, experimental sounds artists and performers created improvisations of trancelike, rhythmic and ritualistic soundscapes hovering between abstraction and dance track referencing the increase of rainfall due to climate change in the lake district. 

The Antipode Series The Antipode project seeks to make complex global relations palpable through a set of photographic diptychs that collapse geographical space by joining two exactly opposite points of the globe in a single image. At the core of the inquiry are the political implications of the redefinition of geographical space. In our one world society invisible international networks of, primarily, but not exclusively economical, cultural, and ecological systems supersede national boundaries. The resulting collapse of geographical space is arguably the most significant change impacting on the current political landscape. By drawing seemingly unrelated spaces together through a set of geographical co-ordinates the series seeks to create unexpected connections to draw attention to the fact that in spite of differences our worlds are inextricably connected. 

On Freedom; Off Road is the second installment of a Trilogy of works that looks at controlled pockets of freedom in the United States and how these notions are manifested in a unique relationship to the American landscape. It explores freedom as a construct that is instrumental in sustaining the political system that houses it. Off Road was developed out of an intense and sustained over a five-year period at a State vehicular Recreation Area in California. The location consists of a very large area of sand dunes, the south side of which borders on a nature reserve. In the work this close proximity of two contrasting sites acts as a metaphor for two very different interpretations of freedom. These contradictions are materialised by juxtaposing visual languages. The work seeks to redefine ways in which video and photography can be combined in contemporary art. Central to this is the way that time is represented, and an exploration of the boundaries documentary and fictional filmic languages. Off Road has been exhibited in a one-person show at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London in January 2014 and reviewed on viral net, a curatorial project of Tom Leeser (Cal Arts), screened at the California International Arts Foundation and exhibited in Brussels and acquired for the permanent collection at LACMA. 

For research narrative please see background text

Exhibitions:

Upcoming

2025  Solo exhibition, Hatton Gallery, UK

Past

2024 Cull, in a LACMA collections exhibition for Pacific Standard time Los Angeles, USA

2024 , solo exhibition, BTV Stadtforum, Innsbruck, Austria

2023 , Momus Thessaloniki, Greec Bani Abidi, Craig Ames, The Archive of Public Protests (A-P-P), Kimberly dela Cruz, Lauren Greenfield, Christian Lutz, Boris Mikhailov, Paolo Pellegrin, Wolfgang Scheppe, Prarthna Singh, Carey Young amongst others

2023 , Millard Sheets Arts Centre, Ponoma

2022  five channel video installation, Royal Academy, London

          Winner of the 2022 

2022  A series of large-scale photographs in the public realm exhibited across Los Angeles in a project hosted by Alchemy Media *

2021  collections exhibited Off Road as a single channel video,

·      VPAM (Vincent Price Art Museum), East Los Angeles

·      Northridge Art Galleries, Los Angeles

2021  5 channel video, Marriott Live with Standard Vision Art Programme, curated by Caroline Haydon*

2021  Group exhibition including works by Larry Achiampong, Victor Burgin, Jasmina Cibic, Jeremy Deller, John Kippin, Uta Kögelsberger, Melanie Manchot, Hardeep Pandhal, Hetain Patel, Ingrid Pollard, Eva Stenram, Mark Titchner, Jane & Louise Wilson and Alberta Whittle taking place across 15 billboards across 6 UK cities with the support of Buildhollywood and JackArts

2021 : digital and paper billboard, Shepherd Bush Roundabout, Your Space or Mine

2020  An interactive performance between liver interactive amplified reality Rock and Atau Tanaka produced for the Array 360 Music Festival in collaboration with Atau Tanaka and Vytautas Niedvaras, The Albany Theatre, London*

2019 : an on-going installation of 4 large billboards, Great Eastern Wall Gallery, Village Underground, London *

2019 Cave Music: a sculptural installation including sound a live performance including the battle of the Rocks between beat boxing champion Marv Radio, with contributions by Atau Tanaka, Chooc Ly Tan and Shelley Parker *,

2019  as part of an exhibition curated by the Contemporary Art Society, including works by Catherine Opie, Martin Parr and Sam Durant

2019  included in the Royal Academy Summer exhibition

2019  as part of Unframed, celebrating local donors, LACMA, Los Angeles,

including works by Catherin Opie, Barbara Kastern and Christina Fernandez

2018  a series of Action Photographs in the Public Realm, as part of A New Europethe Brighton Photo Biennial*

2018  Action Photograph/Billboard performance for Art Night in collaboration with the Hayward Gallery *

2018  Les Nuits the L’Annee, Les Rencontres, Arles 

         Shortlisted for Lumens Dummy Book Award

2018 The Nature of Things, The Tbilisi Photo Festival, Tbilisi, Georgia

2018  The Boiler House, Solo exhibition with performances by the Noize Choir, Will Edmondes and Mariam Rezaei, The Boiler House, 缅北禁地 Upon Tyne

2017 ; Mail-art project launched at 4Cose, London *

2017 Orchestra of Rocks: Not a Rock Concert, Art Night in collaboration with Whitechapel Art Gallery, curated by Fatos Ustek, a sculptural installation with sound including contributions by experimental sound artists and DJ’s: Atau Tanaka, Shelley Parker, Tom Richards, Nathalia, Dane Law, Xname *

2016 Foreign Encounter, group-show including works by Anthony Gormley, Richard Grayson and Wolfgang Weileder amongst others, Munich, Germany

2015  Tullie House, video installation as part of New Expressions

Commission, Carlisle *

2015  solo exhibition, 2 video installations and a series of photographs, Abbot Hall, Kendal *

2015 Cinema IV, artwork in public realm, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere *

2015  video installation, Ex-Libris, 缅北禁地, UK*

2015 , a series of photographs part the series On Freedom: Boys and Their Toys of group-show curated by Peter Lewis, including works by Melanie Manchot, Carey Young, and Uriel Orlow amongst others Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah

Writing about the work

Publications (2012-2024)

2024     Uta Kögelsberger, Forest Complex (monograph) with essays by Boaz Levin and Markus Verhagen, published by Fotohof

2024     Arboreal Activismin the Age of Climate Breakdown, by Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Focus Klim, published by Bundesminesterium fur Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport

2023     The Spectre of the People, with essays by Chantal Mouffe, Angela Nagle, and Yochai Benkler, Thessaloniki Photo Biennial, 2023

2023     Leave to Remain: A Snapshot of Brexit, by Noni Stacy, published by Lund Humphries

2023     Collage: Women of Prix Pictet since 2008, works by women artists nominated and included in the Prix Pictet, published by Gestalten,

2015     American Photographers, published by American Photography, a publication presenting the work of the top 100 photographers of the

2012:   Topophobia, edited by Eggebert and Gould, 2012, published by Eggebert and Gould, London, pp. 8-14 and pp.116

2012     Concrete Ambivalence, by John Beck, Duke University Press

Selected Reviews, Press, Articles and Interviews (2014-2024)

2024     Forest Complex, book review of Forest Complex, Fotohof, by Ruth Horak, Eikon Magazine

2024     , Interview

2024     Forest Complex, Radio Interview for Freirad, ORF

2024     Blick Nach Vorne, 20er Zeitung, April 24, by Florian Guchner

2024     Forest Complex, Unsere Wälder im Fokus, Mein Bezirk.at, by Martina Obertimpfler

2024     Täglich grüßt der Borkenkäfer, Tiroler Tageszeitung Print, 17/04/2024

2024     Uta Kögelsberger taucht für Inn Situ in Tiroler Wäldern in die Klimakrise ein, Tiroler Tageszeitung, von Barbara Unterthurner

2022     Like a Disaster Movie, the Guardian, Hettie Judah

2022     Fire Complex, interview with Uta Kögelsberger and Julian Stallabrass, E-flux, Art Agenda

2022     The Big Review: Summer Exhibition 2022 at the Royal Academy of Arts in

London, Matthew Holman, The Arts Newspaper

2022     Cull, interview by Aletha Magazine

2021     Replanting effort: ‘It could be a big tree in 1,000 years’: tiny seedlings of giant sequoias rise from ashes of wildfire. The Guardian

2021     Replanting effort: Interview on CBS

2021     Replanting effort: Interview for France TV

2021     Curatorial: Artists take to billboards to commemorate one year anniversary of UK lockdown, Louisa Buck, The Arts Newspaper

2020     Uncertain Subjects, Julian Stallabrass and Uta Kögelsberger, Source Magazine (December issue)

2019     Can Brexit Be Photographed? Mathilde Bertrand, LISA-e-journal

2019     Uncertain Subjects, Great Eastern Wall, Village Underground

2018     Brexit Rage from those too young to vote, Gülnaz Can, The Guardian ,Five Photographers exploring How Brexit is changing Europe, L. Manatakis, Dazed Brighton Photo Biennial, Dannie Louise, Artist Newsletter Brighton Photo Biennial A New Europe, by Paul Carey-Kent, Photomonitor; Exploring a New Europe at Brighton Photo Biennial, Shoair Mavlian, Independent

2018     How Wolfgang Tillmans is rebranding Europe, by Rob La Frenais,

2018     My Night in the Artworld, Fad Magazine, Giulia Trojano

2017     From Photos to Posters and the Press, by Hettie Judah, Artnet

2015     Uta Kögelsberger interview with Brainard Carey, The Museum for Nonvisible Arts

2015     New Expressions, Axis-web Films, New Expressions, Lakes Culture

2014     Uta Kogelsberger, Photogrist Magazine

2014     The Ends of The World, six-page double spread Photo essay, Wired USA and Wired UK

2014     Uta Kögelsberger, Off Road, Wall Street International

Awards/Fellowships/Residencies and Grants (2014-2024)

2022     Royal Academy Wollaston Award for Cull/Fire Complex

2020     Rock/Drop Arts Council Lottery Grant

2021     Fire Complex, Nominated for the Prix Pictet

2020     Uncertain Subjects, Nominated for the Shpilman Prize in Photography

2019     Uncertain Subjects, Nominated for Prix Pictet

2017     Orchestra of Rocks Not A Rock Concert, SSRF and NICAP Grants

2015     The Ends of the Earth, selected for American Photography

2014     Waiting for Los Angeles, Artist International development Grant, ACE

2014     California International Arts Foundation, Artist Residency

My educational background was in sculpture, but I have mainly been working with photography and video since 2002. These are also the main areas on inquiry I supervise.I have taught into all years of the BA and the MFA. I supervise PhD students.

I often work on projects that bring leading international practitioners to 缅北禁地 to address some of the most pressing issues of our times. Recently I devised the series of talks

a collaboration between 缅北禁地 and Art Monthly. The talks brought together leading international artists and curators to reflect on artistic and curatorial responses to the climate emergency. The focus was on approaches that move beyond representation, beyond activism. It explores perspectives that envision alternative pathways, propose new models and set about making a real-life difference. These talks test and probe the question of how artists and curators can use their unique position to create the space for the necessary confrontations to affect some form of change or awareness.

Speakers have included: Lise Autogena (artist and director of the NASDAC research Centre), Fiona Banner, aka the Vanity Press (artist), Ajay Singh Chaudary ( executive director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and author of The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World), Josephine Berry (art theorist, writer and political thinker. Her latest book, Planetary Realism: Art Against Apocalypse (forthcoming, Sternberg Press 2024) Maja and Reuben Fowkes (art historians, writers, curators, and directors of the Postsocialist Art Centre (PACT) at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London), Jay Jordan (artist), Amal Khalaf (curator and artist and currently Director of Programmes at Cubitt, Civic Curator at the Serpentine Galleries, and co-curator of the forthcoming Sharjah Biennial in 2025), Maggie Murray (artist and co-founder of the women-only photography collective Format Photographers), Alona Pardo (currently Head of Programmes at the Arts Council Collection, previously curator at Barbican Art Gallery) John Kenneth Paranada (Curator, Researcher and Writer. He is the first Curator of Art and Climate Change at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia), Filipa Ramos (is a writer, lecturer and curator), Oliver Ressler (artist), Jonas Staal (artist and founder of the artistic and political organization New World Summit (2012–ongoing).co-director of the training camp Training for the Future part of the collective action lawsuit Collectivize Facebook (2020-ongoing), founder of the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes) Robert Zaho Renhui (artist).

Visiting Speaker Programme

• Artefact

  • Kögelsberger U. . 2022. Los Angeles: Standard vision curatorial programme, Billboard takeover.

• Article

  • Kögelsberger U. . Wired, USA 2014, 22(12), 150-155.

• Book Chapters

  • Kögelsberger U. . In: Stallabrass, J, ed. The Spectre of the People: Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale. Thessaloniki: University of Macedonia Press, 2023, pp.114-117.
  • Kögelsberger U, Stacey N. . In: Leave to Remain: A Snapshot of Brexit. London: Lund Humphries, 2023, pp.49-57.

• Exhibitions

  • Kögelsberger U. . 2025. Los Angeles: Charles Wright Gallery, 1.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2024. Innsbruck: BTV Stadtforum, Inn Situ.
  • Kogelsberger U. You are Here Now: California Photography. 2023. Ponoma, CA, USA: Millard Sheets Art Center. In Preparation.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2023. Thessaloniki: MOMus, 1.
  • Kogelsberger U. . 2022. Los Angeles: Alchemy Media.
  • Kogelsberger U. . 2022. Los Angeles: Standard vision curatorial programme.
  • Kogelsberger U. Cull. 2022. Royal Academy of the Arts.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2022. Northridge, CA: Northridge Art Gallery.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2021. Los Angeles, USA: Vincent Price Art Museum, 1.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2021. London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Glasgow.
  • Kogelsberger U, Tanaka A. Rock/Drop. 2020. Great Array Music Festival, The Albany Theatre. In Preparation.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2018. London: Art Night, A photographic Billboard Performance.
  • Kögelsberger, U. Uncertain Subjects. 2018. Brighton: Brighton Photo Biennial/Photoworks, 1.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2017. London; 缅北禁地 upon Tyne: Art Night; The Boiler House; The Hub.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2017. London; Brighton; 缅北禁地 upon Tyne: Art Lab, 4Cose; Art Night; Brighton Photo Biennale; Great Eastern Wall; 缅北禁地 Grainger Market.
  • Kogelsberger U, Tanaka A, Law D, Richards T. . 2017. London, UK: Whitechapel Art Night, 16.
  • Kogelsberger U. . 2017. St Olave's Church on Hart Street: Art Night in Collaboration with Whitechapel Art Gallery.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2016. Kendal, UK: Abbot Hall, 12 large scale photographs and a video installation.
  • Köglesberger U. . 2015. Carlisle, Kendal, Grasmere: Tullie House; Abott Hall; Wordsworth Trust.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2015. 缅北禁地 uppon Tyne: Ex-Libris Gallery, 1.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2015. Carlisle: Tullie House, 1.
  • Kögelsberger U, Blees-Luxemburg R. Filet, a space for experimental art production and research. 2015. London: Filet, 10 projects to date. In Preparation.
  • Kögelsberger U. . 2014. London: Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, 4 videos, 1 sculpture, 160photographs, installational seating.
  • Kogelsberger U. . 2012. London.
  • Kogelsberger U. . 2005. Houston: 06/12/2005. London: 29/06/2007 to 29/07/2007. Athens, Greece: 1/10/07-15/10/07: Glassell Project Space, Museum of Fine Arts. ‘A Private Paradise’, Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art. ‘Flares, Roads, and Paradise’, presented as part of the International Festival of Photography, Aenaon Gallery, 10 photographs and slide show of 81 images with a voice over.
  • Kogelsberger U. . 2003. NYC: Laurence Miller Gallery.
  • Kogelsberger U. . 2002. Berwick-Upon-Tweed: 6/4/02-19/5/02. London: 3/09/2003 to 28/09/2003. London, 18/09/2003 to 26/10/2003. New York: 08/07/2003 to 22/08/2003. Arles (screening) 4/7/06-8/7/06: ‘Moon Struck’, Berwick Gymnasium. ‘Retreat’, Café Gallery Projects. ‘Gegenlicht’, Art Lab. ‘Oases’, Laurence Miller Gallery. ‘Festival-off’, Les Rencontres, 37.