Katja Eydel is an artist living in Berlin. She has a background in collaborative and collective projects with artists, activists and theoreticians. In her solo work she primarily works with the medium of photography and film on subjects from the fields of politics and aesthetics. Her interests lie in the realities of social visions that are rooted in political upheavals, utopian movements or traditional systems. One focus of her work is how politics and political intentions are realized in aesthetic forms. The question and problem of representation, both in the political and in the visual sense, are approached within the context of her work.
An example of her work is Model ve Sembol which documents both the visionary and utopian framework underlying the creation of modern Turkey, and the social reality of the current state. In her photographs Katja Eydel investigates this context through the various ideological stages since the founding of the republic of Turkey, and their aesthetic representations. Focal points of the project are: the history of architecture and urban planning as an urban-spatial expression of the new state, the staging of public holidays, as well as the model institutions that were created during the modernization process.
Katja Eydel studied Philosophy, German Literature and Political Sciences at the University of Cologne and Photography at the University for Applied Sciences in Bielefeld. She has been teaching internationally since 2001, and is Professor for Photography at the Merz-Academy Stuttgart since 2008. Her work has been supported by several scholarships and grants, i.e. by the Kunstfonds Bonn, the Potsgraduate Program Goldrausch - Female Artist Project art IT, an Exhibition and catalogue-Award by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung and a grant by the Department of Science, Research and Culture, Berlin. She was an artist in residence at Künstlerstätte Bleckede, in Buechsenhausen Innsbruck and at the Contemporary Art Centre Istanbul.
Selected exhibitions: 2011 Model ve Sembol, Milli Reasürans Sanat Galerisi, Istanbul , 2009/10 Modernologies, MACBA, Barcelona, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; 2009 Migration, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin; 2006/07 Model ve Sembol, Kunstverein Göttingen, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst Berlin, Kunstverein Salzburg, Centre d'Art Pasarelle Brest; 2006 1996 – 2006, Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen; 2004 What if I could be anything?, Kunstbank Berlin; 2002 Ökonomien der Zeit, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Museum Ludwig Köln, Migros Museum Zürich; Zielscheiben-Kampagne 99, Plattform Berlin; 2001 Die Gewalt ist der Rand aller Dinge, Generali Foundation Wien, Vienna.
Publications include: Model ve Sembol. Die Erfindung der Türkei (Sternberg Press: Berlin/NY, 2006); Teilt mit (Goldrausch artIT: Berlin, 2006), Belgrad Interviews, together with Katja Diefenbach (b_books: Berlin, 2000)
Filmography: 2011 Fahrstuhlvideo-Installation, DVD, 2.03 min loop; 2008 Out in the Light (with Martin Ebner and Klaus Weber), DVD, 17 min 54 sec, 2005-2008; Ping Pong d'amour - Nouvelle Vague Soap, 3 Series of four episodes, Beta SP 160 min, 1997-2005; Station A-clip, 35 mm, 1 min 3 sec, 2003; Infosäule A-clip, 35 mm, 1 min 29 sec, 1997; B-Aktie A-clip, 35 mm, 1 min 35 sec, 1997.