NICOLE DEGENHARDT, born 1974
graduate of the Bauhaus University Weimar and the University of the Arts Berlin (MA Art in Context) with focus on video and installation in the framework of interdisciplinary practices.
Involves scientific contexts, institutional environment and curatorial activities in her artwork.
Lives and works in Berlin.
Since 2000 curatorial projects and exhibitions within and outside Germany, for example: ‘Gegenüber,’at GlogauAir, Berlin in coop. with EsferaLab e.V. and Embassy of the Republic of Paraguay in Germany (2019); ‘Bauhausfrauen,’ Kunsthalle Erfurt in coop. with BAUHAUS100 (2019); ‘anonyme Zeichner 2018,’ Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin; ‘Morgen war einmal,’ Solo show at the International Club Berlin (2018); ‘oops, hoops,’ at Kreuzberg Pavillon, Berlin (2018); ‘Abspann – Credits,’ Galerie Axel Obiger, Berlin (2014); ‘Made of Iron and Celluloid,’ Stedefreund Berlin (2012); ‘Atlas – Measures of Dreams,’ Kuhturm, Leipzig and Spriten Kunsthall, Skien, Norway (2012); ‘World in Passion,’ Evangelische Stadtkirche St. Reinoldi, Dortmund, in coop. with the Dortmunder Kunstverein (2012); ‘Space Release #1,’ Stedefreund Berlin (2011), ‘World in Passion,’ OberammergauMuseum, Oberammergau (2011), ‘Are there Bacteria in the Rooms of Monte Carlo,’ Stedefreund, Berlin (2010); ‘Oscillogrammes – Relinking Art and Natural Sciences,’ 2B Galéria and Goethe-Institut Budapest, Hungary (2009); ‘A Large Show,’ Erfurt Art Museum (2008); ‘Missing Link,’ Rubelle & Norman Schafler Gallery and Pratt Institute New York (2006); ‘Missing Link – Public Understanding of Art and Sciences’ in the Medical Historic Museum of Charité Berlin (2005); ‘La Bauhaus si muove’ Chiesa di San Paolo, Modena, Italy (2005); ‘Export Homeland’ at the Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice, Italy (2005); ‘Open End’ African Museum Johannesburg, South Africa (2004)
Art and science are nowadays separated into conflicting areas within knowledge production. Art is aligned with the improvised, intuitive and creative moment, while natural science affirms itself through the use of mathematical methods and the generation of instrumentally recorded images as a source for measurable and undeniable truths.
The work of Nicole Degenhardt questions the setting of norms and values in knowledge production and thereby troubles the conditions for objectifying rationality of scientific disciplines. To what extent is the hegemony of natural science still appropriate, in view of possible errors in empirical methodologies and of residual doubt over adequately decoding results in the given time. How does natural science deal with phenomena (such as death, the unconscious, extraterrestrial life) that elude empirical verification, while on the same time seem to transcend our imaginative abilities? Could art here accompany the natural sciences and contribute to the creation of a contemporary, viable human consciousness?
Text: Anne Fäser, Translation: Dominique Hurth