Kirstin Burckhardt (b. in South Africa) is a visual artist 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 that surpasses the body-mind duality in favor of empathy, transgenerational trauma, and the power of imagination.

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 obtained her masters-level degree in psychology at the University of Hamburg. 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 ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), the Goethe Institute Bogotá, 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
May I ask you?, performance with Lisa W Carlson, Errant Sound, Berlin
Wind in den Füßen, with Nicole Wendel, DE RUIT, Rotterdam
How to balance like a bird, Research Funding from Fonds Darstellende Künste, with Nicole Wendel
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)

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
– Project funding: How to balance like a bird, collaboration with Nicole Wendel, Fonds Darstellende Künste
2019-2022
– Project funding: touching fine lines, video and publication with Lisa W Carlson, Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, Rudolf-Augstein Stiftung, 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

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