What does reality mean after the digital revolution? Anna K.E. (1986 in Tbilisi, Georgia) and Florian Meisenberg (1980 in Berlin, Germany) are pursuing this burning question in their own unique way. Since eight years, they share a studio and an apartment in New York, and investigate their joint creative process. They share a mutual interest in the latest technologies and their impact on the digital and analogue world. Their solo exhibition at the Kunstpalais combines paintings, videos, installations, and computer simulations into one enormous art parkour.

Florian Meisenberg began his artistic career as a painter, which is apparent in his persistent fascination of surfaces, displays and other two-dimensional pictures. As a professionally trained dancer, Anna K.E. often uses her own body to produce videos, performances and photographs. As different as their artistic strategies might be, a joint affinity towards a contemporary aesthetics is observable within their individual works on the basement floor, inspired by smooth reflecting surfaces and computer-generated colors.

On the first floor, they show collaborative projects. The six videos from Late Checkout were all produced in New York and show the duo sliding in symbiotic movements through their hotel room. They are communicating without words. K.E., filmed by Meisenberg, reacts to the pictures of herself in his live-feed, transmitted to her smartphone display. In Countdown Belladonna they film the reflection of their phone displays in their iris with a high resolution camera. For a well-curated hour the artists give us insights into their favorite scenes from various feature films and documentaries, as well as their YouTube favorites. The work Electric Forest, an installation with 3D-LED-fans and an online-simulation, will premiere at Kunstpalais.

Image: Anna K.E. and Florian Meisenberg, Countdown Belladonna (Anna), 2016, single-channel video, 1:14 h, Courtesy the artists

Sponsored by: