Kirstin Burckhardt (b. in South Africa) is a visual artist and psychologist combining video and performance with sound and spoken word. Critically drawing upon her training in psychology and neuroscience, her practice addresses power dynamics intertwined with the body. Continuously questioning what defines a body, her artistic research focuses on interpersonal space as a locus of sensitivity, conflict, empathy, transgenerational trauma, and the complexities of healing.

She is the founder of the Body Map Institute and the co-director of the interdisciplinary and international project own own body own with the choreographer Brenda I. Steinecke Soto.

She studied fine arts in Hamburg (Germany), Lyon (France) and Hangzhou (China). Simultaneously, she graduated in psychology at the University of Hamburg and is working as a clinical psychotherapist in Berlin. Her work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions at KINDL Berlin-Centre for Contemporary Art, KAI 10|Arthena Foundation, Deichtorhallen/Sammlung Falckenberg Hamburg, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, Festival of Future Nows 2017->∞, Exploratorio in Medellín (COL) and the Goethe Institut Sofia (BUL). She has collaborated closely with performing and visual artists from China, Sweden, and Colombia and has received working grants by the Fonds for the Performing Arts (DAKU), ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, and the city of Hamburg’s ‘Elbkulturfonds’ and ‘Arbeitsstipendium’ (working grant).

Education

2007–2014
Fine Arts (MFA), University of Fine Arts Hamburg HFBK (Hochschule für bildende Künste), École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (FR), China Academy of Art Hangzhou (China)
2008–2015
Psychology (BSc and MSc), University of Hamburg. Key areas: clinical psychology, neuroscience  

Solo, Two-person, and Collaborative Shows (selected)

2023
no ONE survives a real conversation, performance, with Nicole Wendel, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
May I ask you?, performance, with Lisa W Carlson, Errant Sound, Berlin
Wind in den Füßen, video installation, with Nicole Wendel, DE RUIT, Rotterdam
2022
Nobody survives a real conversation, collaborative exhibition with Nicole Wendel, HAUNT|Frontviews, Berlin
2019
spelling/spilling out possession – Kirstin Burckhardt performs a text by Jonathan Echeverri Zuluaga, cur. Anke Völk (l’oiseau presente), Haus der Statistik, Berlin
the movement our lips make to curl into language, Galleri Ask, Åsgårdstrand, Norway  
Invisible Spaces I, Kirstin Burckhardt & Tom Früchtl, Bar K, Berlin  
2018
» What do I feel when I feel your pain? «, MOM art space, Hamburg  
own own body own, performative video-installation with Brenda I. Steinecke Soto, Mojo Club Hamburg  
It is probited to sit, stand or lie on the autopsy tables / Es ist untersagt, auf den Sektionstischen zu stehen, zu sitzen oder zu liegen, sight-specific intervention with Lara Bogatay, Daniela Böttcher, Dinah Büchner, Marie Golücke, Sophia Guttenhöfer, Raha Emami Khansari, Nicola Riede, 05/03/2018, in the context of the conference Material Cultures of Psychiatry, Großer Sektionssaal, Universitätsklinikum Eppendorf, Hamburg
2017
small-scale spectacle, performance with Lisa Rykena, hinterconti Gallery, Hamburg  
things untold // como un cuerpo, performance with Brenda I. Steinecke Soto, Exploratorio, Medellín (COL)  
2015
TIDE潮汐, exhibition at the artist residency Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten, Cuxhaven  
*anghu- „eng, bedrängend“ (-> Angst), art in public spaces commissioned by the city of Heide in collaboration with Birke Baumann  
2014
Folgendes zeigt: Kirstin Burckhardt, Folgendes Exhibition Space at HFBK
2012
Sicht sammeln, Kunstverein Hildesheim (cat.)

Group Shows (selected)

2023
Info on Books, Café Babette at KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin
2022
Something Between Us, Kunsthalle Nürnberg
Scheitere an einem anderen Tag, Galerie Nord|Kunstverein Tiergarten
Topiate, HAUNT|Frontviews, Berlin
FUTUREPROOF, Kraftwerk Bille, Hamburg
B-LA Connect Festival, Goethe Institute Los Angeles
2021
Moving Images Moving Bodies, online exhibition + festival, curated by Ludwig Seyfarth, a collaboration between blinkvideo.de and Goethe Institut Bulgaria
zwischen körpern / among bodies, online exhibition + publication + workshop, Kleine Humboldt Galerie
Routes of Empathy, HAUNT|Frontviews, Berlin
TanzTage Görlitz, TanzRaum Görlitz with Neisse Centre for Contemporary Arts e.V.
2020
How beautiful you are!, Kosmetiksalon Babette as a guest at KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Something Between Us, KAI10| Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf
you’ve got mail! mail art project by Julia Katharina Thiemann during social distancing
Sexed Power – an exhibition in the context of sexualized power, MOM Art Space, Hamburg
CoNTACT – ways of distance and touch, frontviews at HAUNT, Berlin
KONTINUUM, Kleine Humboldt Galerie project website during the Corona pandemic
Auslöser, Institut für Alles Mögliche / Stützpunkt Abhörstation Teufelsberg, Berlin
Contemporary Closeness, active archive of personal accounts initiated during isolation and social distancing
2019
Live broadcast of audio piece by artists in residents of The Watch Berlin, cashmere radio, Berlin
Body in Pieces, performing Grow a Body with Gloria Höckner, KAI10 | Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf  
2018
36. und 37. Hamburger Arbeitsstipendium für Bildende Kunst zu Gast bei der Sammlung Falckenberg, Deichtorhallen/Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg  
2017
BETT, performance with Dania Burger and Eli Skatvedt, Mädchenkammer Berlin  
Festival of Future Nows 2017 -> ∞, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin  
Shades of Today – Picking up the Pieces Post-Truth, performance Grow a Body with Gloria Höckner, Centrum, Berlin  
Shades of Today – Picking up the Pieces Post-Truth, 48h Neukölln, Centrum, Berlin  
Ars loci 2017, exhibition and art prize (nomination) by the Neuhoff-Fricke Foundation for the promotion of the arts and sciences and the city of Nienburg  
2016
Nominee exhibition of the city of Hamburg working grant
2017 (Arbeitsstipendium Bildende Kunst), Kunsthaus Hamburg  
Fraud, Fake and Fame – Goldrausch 2016, St. Johannes-Evangelist, Berlin
2014
¶, Hinterconti Hamburg  
SETTLERS, Gallery of the HFBK Hamburg (cat.) curated by Julie Gufler & Julia Metropolit
Your current location is temporarily unavailable, graduate exhibition at HFBK Hamburg  
2013  
On Fiber and Space Art, Sanshang Contemporary Art Gallery, Hangzhou, China  
5th Open Studios, scholarship holders of the Art School Alliance Grant, studios Karolinenviertel Hamburg  
2012
Mullican Klasse, Wiensowski & Harbord, Berlin  
2011
Soirée Flare #17, short-film festival of the European art and film academies, Montpellier, France  
Let’s get down to business, École de Commerce, Grenoble, France  
2010
zu Fuß, Frappant Hamburg

Stipends and Residencies (selected)

2023
Process funding: How to balance like a bird, collaboration with Nicole Wendel, Fonds Darstellende Künste/ Fund for the Performing Arts
2019-2022
Project funding: touching fine lines, video and publication with Lisa W Carlson, Ministry for Culture and Media Hamburg, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, Rudolf-Augstein Foundation, IASPIS Sweden
2019
Artist in Residency to collaborate with Lisa W Carlson, KKV, Härnösand, Sweden
Artist in Residency with Anne Gathmann and Anna-Lena Wenzel, The Watch, Berlin  
Artist in Residency, Galleri Ask, Åsgårdstrand, Norway  
2018
Funding of own own body own with Brenda I. Steinecke Soto by: Elbkulturfonds, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, Goethe Institut Bogotá, Alcadia de Medellín  
2017
One-year working grant 2017 (Arbeitsstipendium bildende Kunst) by the city of Hamburg  
Traveling grants for a research residency at the Fundación Espacio Arte in Medellín, Colombia: Institut für Auslandsbeziehung (ifa) & Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg (Office for Art and Media – International Cultural Exchange)  
2016
Post-graduate program “Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt”, Berlin  
2015
Artist in Residency, Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten, Cuxhaven  
2008–2015
Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Merit Foundation)
2014–2015
Studio grant, 100 Ateliers für Hamburg  
2013
Residency and study grant, Karl H. Ditze Foundation  

Publications & Artist Talks

2023
Brutal with Love, Collaboration with Lisa W Carlson, Vexer Verlag
2021
zwischen körpern/among bodies, Kleine Humboldt Galerie, K. Verlag
2020
Something Between Us, Verlag für Moderne Kunst
2019
Interview on Body Ownership, Radiosalon für Alltägliches, radio interview with Anna-Lena Wenzel and Julia Bonn, reboot.fm  
2018
Dort, wo der Körper stattfindet, catalog published on the occasion of the Working Grant (Arbeitsstipendium) 2017 by the city of Hamburg  
Artist Talk with Ludwig Seyfarth on the occasion of the show What do I feel when I feel your pain?, MOM Art Space, Hamburg  
2017
Empathy Pain No-Pla-cebo, self-published artist zine on the occasion of the Festival of Future Nows, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, sold at Buchhandlung Walther König, Berlin  
2016
Untitled (antlers), catalog published on the occasion of the exhibition Fraud, Fake and Fame – Goldrausch 2016, Berlin 2016  
2014
SETTLERS, catalog published on the occasion of the exhibition series The Waves, HFBK Materialverlag, Hamburg 2014  
2012
Sicht sammeln, catalog published on the occasion of the solo exhibition Sicht sammeln, Kunstverein Hildesheim 2012  

Collective, membership, advocacy

2019
I, too, part II, Was ist Kunst wert? Symposium at Kunsthaus Hamburg, member in the initiative for fair wages to artists  
since 2018
Body Ensemble, collaborative with the choreographer Brenda I. Steinecke Soto  
Gesellschaft für künstlerische Forschung in Deutschland / Society for artistic research in Germany, founding member  

Research important to me

2019
Work retreat to collaborate with Lisa W Carlson, Öland, Sweden
The World is Sound, three-week intense program on voice exploration and development through movement for performance artist, Berlin
2018
Self-organized research stay, Sea Ranch, California