VERONIKA S. BÖKELMANN
"Humanity and non-humanity have always performed an intricate dance with each other. There was never a time when human agency was anything other than an interfolding network of humanity and non-humanity; today this mingling has become harder to ignore."
*Jane Benett in Vibrant Matter
Veronika S. Bökelmann currently lives in Berlin and works as artistic assistant at the Technical University Berlin for the project MIGRATING ARCHITECTURE at the institute for Architecture / Fine Arts. As founding member of the artist collective VOLUMEN EXPRESS and friends, her art work explores the borderline of installation and performance, often approaching documentary contexts. Veronika holds a MA in Performance Studies from New York University (NYU), a BA in Acting in Performance Art from the Norwegian Theater Academy (NTA) and an Intermediate Diploma in Communication in Economic and Societal Contexts from the institute for time-based media at the University of Arts in Berlin.
Since Volumen Express‘ first large-scale installation Tyskerjenter - War Brides, a site specific installation in the archive building of an internment camp for Norwegian war brides after WW II (Island Hovedøya, Oslofjord Norway, 2008), Veronika realized several projects in international contexts, such as the theater installation (Im)Potencia about the transformations in the city scape of Buenos Aires after the economic crash of 2001 (Club Cultural Matienzo, Buenos Aires, 2011; Sophiensaele Berlin, 2010; Black Box Teater, Oslo, 2010), or the audio video walk Present Past (2012) guiding the audience in the city of Oslo to houses where Jews had been deported from in 1942. Her prize-winning video installations have been shown amongst others at the Moscow Biennale, the Video Medeja Festival in Serbia Montenegro, Stuttgarter Filmwinter Festival or the New Forms Festival in Canada.
In collaboration with Anett Vietzke, Veronika's theater play (Im)Potencia has been published at the Theaterverlag Hoffmann-Paul Berlin as a production of Volumen Express. Her monologue Dissolving Borders was staged for Det Blinde Teater - Five Audio-Sensory Portraits of Women at the National Theater in Oslo in the framework of Samtidsfestival 09. She has further contributed articles to the Norwegian theater magazine Shakespeare og Teatertidsskrift.
She lectured at the University for Arts Oslo, at the Film Academy Baden Wuerttemberg in Ludwigsburg and at the Norwegian Theater Academy. As curator, she has realized the symposium and film cycle Argentina Vice Versa (Cinemateket Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø 2011 & Vierte Welt, Berlin), on the Argentinian economic crisis correlating with new alternative modes of production and representation in the local film and theater production.
Contact: veronikaboekelmann@volumenexpress.com
