A Q&A with Mikkel Niemann (Denmark)
and Christian Gerstheimer (Michigan)

Mikkel and Christian will present their (notso) Short Fest video works and discuss their personal process of making artworks over a geographic border during a pandemic. This will be followed by a conversation between the two about ongoing challenges and strategies that they continue to confront. Their visit will be followed by a Q&A open to the public.

Mikkel Niemann is a Danish artist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. His practice revolves around the relationships between the human body, architecture, memory and history, with an underlying current relating to decay and transformation. He is both fascinated and deeply disturbed at the fact that decaying and transformation are fundamental conditions for all things. Despite scientific evidence, he cannot stop himself from seeing decay and transformation as mystique, especially in relation to the body, memory and history. All his works reflect these notions of organic life, dead materials and human culture degrading crystalized through full color videos, sound recordings, photographs, performances and installations.

 After he received his diploma from University of East London, department of Architecture Niemann worked as an architect at several offices in Europe, later he received his MFA from Transart Institute, Plymouth University. He have received the Grand Prix Prize for his work at The Baltic States Biennial of Graphic Arts Kaliningrad and the first prize for a project proposal for reestabilizing the harbour in Reykjavik, Iceland.

 His works have been shown at Compound Yellow in Chicago (2020), SUNY Potsdam (2019), North Willow in New Jersey (2017), Powerstation of Art in Shanghai (2014), The One Minutes video series at Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam (2014), The Baltic States Biennial of Graphic Arts Kaliningrad (2013), FOKUS Video Festival (2015 and 2012), Danske Grafikere (2011), Esbjerg Kunstmuseum (2008).

Christian Gerstheimer is an artist, curator, and educator based in Michigan. He lived in El Paso from 2003 to 2019 and was a curator at the El Paso Museum of Art for fourteen years. He has taught drawing and art history classes at the University of Texas at El Paso, and currently teaches art history at the University of Michigan-Flint.

His artwork has been exhibited in Berlin, New York, Chicago, Flint, Detroit and El Paso, TX, and is often presented as public interventions because site, context and social engagement are important factors. His practice seeks to raise awareness about the struggle of immigrants and immigration laws through interventions; performances and sculptural installations. His on-going November Project has become more oriented toward social justice and precarity since 2012 as well as increasingly utilizing new, digital media. Whether kinetic, video or assemblage Gerstheimer’s practice speaks the truth to power for the exploited in the US, Mexico and beyond. In addition, Gerstheimer’s Discrete Interventions have been installed in cities throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.

Gerstheimer earned a B.A. degree in Humanities Interdisciplinary, and an M.A. degree in Art History from Michigan State University, a B.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an M.F.A. in Creative Practice from the Transart Institute with Plymouth University.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively, through creative experiences that he unfolds within the quotidian. He has exhibited and performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, Princeton University, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Estévez Raful Espejo has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Residencies attended include P.S. 1/MoMA, Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. Estévez Raful Espejo holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with Coco Fusco; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Born in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros, Dominican Republic, in 2011 Estévez Raful Espejo was baptized as a Bronxite; a citizen of the Bronx. elmuseo.org/office-hours and interiorbeautysalon.com  @interiorbeautysalon

Anna Recasens is a visual artist, researcher and cultural manager who combines her personal and collective artistic proposals with research and cultural revitalization intiatives. Her projects center around art, nature, urban issues, and social space. She also teaches workshops, publishes articles, and participates in forums related to these subjects. Recasens’ individual and collaborative work has been presented internationally in residencies and exhibitions. Between 2012 and 2017, she founded and directed the Laboratori Social Metropolità, based in the NauEstruch, Sabadell, Catalonia. Recasens is part of and collaborates with art programs and platforms such as Idensitat and Plataforma Vértices. annarecasens.org

Laia Solé’s work explores the social and physical dimensions of space. She intervenes in spaces by actions that communicate and/or transform the dynamics of each site, using resources that are immediate and interactive. Her work often develops as a cooperative practice, working with other artists and local communities. In her recent works, she blends her passion for the early cinema’s visual tricks and site-specific actions. She was an Artist-in-Residence at LABMIS at Museu da Imagem e do Som (Sao Paulo), 2012 and has exhibited her work extensively including at MAC (Santiago de Chile); Arts Santa Mònica (Barcelona); The Drawing Center (New York); and the Fundación Chirivella-Soriano (València). laiasole.net