BENJAMIN BERGMANN
1968 born in Würzburg
1991-1994 apprenticeship as a wood sculptor
1995-2001 studies at the academy of fine arts, munich
with Prof. Asta Gröting
2001 diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
2008-2009 Visiting Professor, Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg
Prizes and scholarships (selection)
2001 Debutant Award, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
2002 Bavarian Art Promotion Award, Free State of Bavaria
2003 USA Scholarship, Free State of Bavaria
2008 Working scholarship, Kunstfonds Bonn
2009 Studio scholarship, St. Petersburg, Russia
2011 VHV "Artist of the year", Hanover
2012 Art Award of the City of Nordhorn
2013 Studio scholarship, Montreal, Canada
2015 German Study Center Venice
Exhibitions Selection
2023 Phantom; Apartment of Art, Munich (solo)
2022 Mix and Match, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich //
G2 Schaulager, Hildebrand Collection, Leipzig
2021 Sound and Silence, Kunstmuseum Bonn //
THE WORLD: REGLITTERIZED, House of Art, Munich // stoa169, Polling
2020 R.W.F. alive, mim - Raum für Kultur, Munich // Lichtparcours 2020, Braunschweig //
Pas de deux, Knust Kunz Gallery Editions, Munich //
Walking Through the Fields of History, Galerie Jochen Hempel, Leipzig
2019 THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED, Sprengel Museum Hannover (solo) //
Lichtparcours 2020, Kunstverein Braunschweig // Sinnesrausch, Oberösterreichisches
Kulturquartier (OK), Linz, Austria // confine, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice //
Movimento, Gallery Jochen Hempel, Leipzig (solo)
2018 Höhenrausch, Upper Austrian Cultural Quarter (OK), Linz, Austria //
stillleben, Kunstverein Konstanz (solo) // Bambi goes Art, Hase 29, Osnabrück //
"68", Artothek and City Museum, Munich (solo).
2017 Revision, Kunstmuseum Bonn // IJsselbiennale 2017, Doesburg to Kampen, Netherlands //
Untereck 5, Galerie Jochen Hempel, Berlin (solo) // Q & A, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and
Kunstbau, Munich & Munich Re Art Collection //
Biennale Le latitudini dell'arte, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, Italy.
2016 Echtzeit - Die Kunst der Langsamkeit, Kunstmuseum Bonn //
Emscherkunst 2016, Dortmund // Bleed II, Museum Plein, Amsterdam, Netherlands //
Salon International des Arts de Nuit Festival de Bobanisme, Paris, France //
A Perfect Match, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany.
2015 I must have such a thing, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau, Munich //
Sculpture 2015, Skulpture Museum Glaskasten, Marl, Germany
2014 Tatort Paderborn, Paderborn // links oben unten rechts, Galerie Jochen Hempel, Leipzig (solo)
2013 Le Noveau Bureau, Quartier des Spectacle, Montreal, Canada (solo) //
Visions, Marta Herford, Herford, Germany.
2012 In the Space of the Beholder - Contemporary Sculpture, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich //
Mediations Biennale, Poznan, Poland // Benjamin Bergmann - Art Award of the City of Nordhorn,
Municipal Gallery Nordhorn (Solo)
2011 Benjamin Bergmann - Artist of the Year, VHV Versicherungsgruppe, Hannover (Solo) //
Never Ever, former Leibniz Computer Center, Technical University, Munich (solo) //
Light in Darkness, Western Bridge, Seattle, USA
2010 repair, Ars Electronica 2010, Linz, Austria //
Dancing on the Ceiling, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, USA
2009 ... how long does it take to break?, AL Gallery, Saint Petersburg, Russia (solo) // Art on Site,
National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA), Moscow, Russia
2008 tief unten tag hell, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (Solo)
2007 Made in Germany, Sprengel Museum, Kestner Gesellschaft and Kunstverein, Hannover //
Vistazo. La transformación de la cotidiano, Museo dell Arte Carillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico //
Mondi Possibili, Gallery Sprüth Magers, Cologne, Germany
2006 Quake, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau, Munich (solo) //
Ear Appeal, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria //
It was all so much worse!, Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg, Bötzow Brewery
and Pampero Apartment, Berlin // Young Bavarian Art, Gagosian Gallery,
4th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin
2005 Dorothea von Stetten Art Award 2004, Bonn Art Museum // Benjamin Bergmann, Sprüth
Magers Projekte, Munich (solo) // Fraktale 2005, Palace of the Republic, Berlin //
Tunnelfassade, Ortstermine 2005, Munich (permanent installation) //
Theatrum Sacrum, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main (solo
2004 Works on paper, Galerie Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich //
Raveland, 8th RischArt_Project, Munich //
Benjamin Bergmann, Screaming of the Seagull, ACC Weimar (solo)
2003 Bavarian State Promotion Prize 2002, BBK, Gallery of Artists, Munich //
Last Supper, Milan, Italy (solo) // We Here, Lothringer 13, Munich //
Campanile, Suresnes Castle, Catholic Academy of Bavaria, Munich (solo)
2002 Box von Jericho, debut exhibition, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich //
Quake II, Gallery Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich //
Phantom
Ideas and inspiration for a new work don't fall from the sky. Nor do they turn the next corner or jump out at me from an ambush. Rather, it is a mixture of coincidence and the desire to move through daily life with alert eyes whenever I am able to do so.
It can be stated with certainty that it is images that have a lasting influence on a new work. Images of the world, our world, nature, things, villages, cities and life. Images of and about us humans, which for me, in my very personal perception break out of the ordinary; are strange, confusing, irritating and in this way have a lasting effect. They make me think and reflect. They raise questions in me. The bigger the question, the harder to find a possible answer, the better the picture.
In the sense of a competition, the winner is probably the picture to whose question there is no answer, but possibly only more questions. I collect these pictures, put them in small boxes and - since computers have been around - also in digital folders. The folders get different names. Names to sort them by content or also to separate the picture collections from each other in time and place. Frankly speaking, absolutely unsystematic, chaotic and yet somehow helpful.
Of course, I am not alone with such collections. Countless, possibly all artists, have such an archive of photos, newspaper clippings, texts, songs and much more. One of the best-known collections in pictorial form, which consistently accompanies the life of an artist and seems to me like a diary, is "Atlas" by Gerhard Richter.
In the exhibition "Phantom", on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the apartment der kunst, I present part of my personal archive in the form of a spatial collage of black and white and colored images.
Phantom is the unreal appearance, the frightening unknown, the sensory illusion and the mirage.
The exhibition project "Phantom" combines themes and characteristics that overlap with my mental cosmos and thus also play an important role in my work (at least a significant part of it). Images that tell of beauty and a poetry of absence. Events charged with an absurd and seductive aesthetic of decay and transience. Images of light and shadow that are about mistakes and failure, the deception of the senses and the many things that evaporate and cannot be grasped.
Unlike Gerhard Richter's atlas, however, the collection I present is both archive and deception. For images that I have collected over the years are mixed in "Phantom" with the findings of a quick and superficial research on the Internet. Some of them correspond to events and reality, some are posed, digitally manipulated, and snatched from reality.
Which image actually originates from my personal cosmos or my inspiring collection and which images are due to the search for keywords and phenomena on the Internet, becomes a riddle for the viewer. My apparent promise to provide insight into the creation and motivation for a new work of art turns out to be false. "Phantom" is insight and "phantom" is illusion at the same time.
The realization of my intention in the apartment of art is still not clear in my mind. I probably have an inkling of it and have made one or two attempts. Much arises in this very moment (while thinking and writing) and will then show itself, in the apartment für kunst.
Benjamin Bergmann, August 2023