“You are among us, we are among you” / 2024

“You are among us, we are among you” explores the human relationship with urban waters within the nature-culture continuum. It visualizes aqua-urban habitats and shows how we are connected to the multi-species in water. The exhibition reflects on human responsibility for the changes in Berlin’s urban waters and uses various techniques such as photography, underwater video and water sound recordings to create an immersive experience.

“Drawing on interdisciplinary scientific research and activist practices, the artist develops a fluid, enveloping narrative in six gallery spaces located directly at the water’s edge. Wellmer uses techniques such as microscopic photography and video, underwater video, sound recording, and water data archiving to create moving and frozen images of watery constellations of critters, pollution, and technology. Water is represented as matter within us and as a material link between humans and non-humans, connecting living forms into a multi-species urban habitat. The exhibition offers an experience of coexistence in a multi-species wet urban world”. Karolina Majewska – Güde, art historian.

01. “Surface 02/03” / Resine Pro, animal and plant remains, water waste. Size: 60cm x 85cm / 2023 – 24

02. “Microfauna” / Microscopic HD video on MDF circle, 70cm x 70cm / 5.23 min / 2023 – 2024

“Surface”/ close up

“Algae” / 4K drone video, 3.25 min. / 2023

“Water Samples” / Laboratory glasses with water samples, steel rod. Size: 100cm x 4cm x 50cm / 2023 – 2024

“Monster”, “Goldessa”, “Capri” / 3D scan, 4K video, 20 sec, loop / 2024

“Fluid Landscape” / 4K underwater video, sound, 4.52min,. Projection on semicircular screen / 2023

“River” / C-print, resin pro, styrofoam, rusty bike tire. Size: 70cm x 70cm / 2024

“Fluid Landscape” / 4K underwater video, sound, 4.52min,. Projection on semicircular screen / 2023

“River” / C- print, resin pro, styrofoam, rusty bike tire. Size: 70cm x 70cm / 2024

“Urban Waters” – booklet / A 5, 48 sites, edition of 12 / seagrass paper / texts: Karolina Majewska – Güde / 2024

Audio&video live performance / water station data sonification and visualisation / sound: Jasmine Guffond / duration 30 min.

Lost Landscapes / 2023

“Lost Landscapes (2023) is a series of digitally manipulated photographic animations in which the logos of extractive companies operating in the North, such as the energy company Vattenfall and the mining companies LKAB and Kaunis Mining, are mirrored in the landscapes they exploit. Trembling like mirages, the iconic mountain landscapes – often referred to as “Europe’s last wilderness” – appear as empty shells, hollowed out from within and on the verge of collapse. The photographs were taken by the artist in the Swedish Arctic in 2022 during a residency at the Boden Art Hall “Havremagasinet”.

“Lost Landscapes – After Monoculture” / Communal Gallery weisser elefant / 2023

4 K Videoanimation / 1 min – in loop

Solid Landscapes / 2022

In the video “Solid Landscapes”, the artist “spells out” the never-ending growth of usable and productive (anti-)landscapes by reproducing and multiplying evidence of a dramatic change that is gradually taking place around the world. It is an allegory of societal processes that follow one another at an ever faster pace, mainly due to the dynamics of economic and population growth, technological advances and the ever-increasing flood of information. The flight over the monocultures of production begins with the ready-made components and goes deep into the pits where raw materials are mined to produce commodities. The viewer sees from a bird’s eye perspective an image that may be a piece of the Earth, but one cannot be sure whether it is reality or just a bad futuristic vision.

Solid Landscapes / video & animation / 19.04min. / video still / 2022

“Solid Landscapes” / NON Berlin – Meinblau / 2022

“Solid Landscapes” / Communal gallery weisser elefant / 2023

Video trailer

The video was recorded in Germany and Sweden thanks to Neustart Kultur – Stiftung Kunstfonds, Lapland Air, IASPIS, Konsthall Havremagasinet – Boden / Sweden.

Wund[er}mal / 2020

In my photo series “Wund[er]mal” I photographed an area of lignite mining in East Germany called Braunkohle Revier Lausitz. During the GDR era, it was the largest brown coal mining area in Europe. Even today, we see acres and acres of dry, lunar landscapes. For more than 100 years, many villages have disappeared because of coal extraction. The pitted, exploited landscape reminds us of human domination and the extent and nature of our activities on Earth.

“Marcelina Wellmer’s project Wund[er]mal is a photographic journey to open-pit coal mines in the Lausitz region. Due to decades of extraction, many villages, farmland and forests have disappeared; further settlements are to make way, despite the planned exit. To the present landscapes photographed by the artist, she added motifs from the Sorbian photo archive. They show people who belonged to the Sorbian minority; the area was their home. The project reflects history in a poetic way, at the same time it warns of our future actions: it shows the consequences of social and cultural contexts and the limits of the exploitation of nature.” PIB Berlin.

Wund[er]mal 01 / Photocollage / 200 x 300 cm / 2020

Wund[er]mal 02 / Photocollage / 200 x 300 cm / 2020

Wund[er]mal 03 / Photocollage / 200 x 300 cm / 2020

Wund[er]mal 04 / Photocollage / 200 x 300 cm / 2020

Wund[er]mal 01 & Wund[er]mal 04 / Berlin U – Bahnhof Kurfürstendamm / 2021

Wund[er]mal 04 & Wund[er]mal 01 / Berlin U – Bahnhof Kurfürstendamm / 2021

Wund[er]mal – a photo exhibition by Marcelina Wellmer at the underground station Kurfürstendamm U9 during the Berlin Art Week 2021

A Project in collaboration with berlinerpool. Supported by Sonderförderprogramm 20/21 NEUSTART KULTUR and Stiftung Kunstfonds. With the kind support of Digitales Bildarchiv des Sorbischen Instituts and Wall GmbH.

PRIVAT / 2021

The photo series “Private View” explores the fixed idea of discovering real, wild nature and experiencing it up close.This longing became even stronger during the COVID-19 pandemic – we were on the run from civilization, which was suddenly too confining. In the world of 2.0, however, this desire turns out to be a post-romantic fantasy. Instead of untouched wilderness, we find cultivated landscapes and a nature that has long since been claimed. It belongs to a company, a private individual, or “the city. Can nature have an “owner” at all? Is this concept ethically or philosophically viable? These questions arose during my tour of the Apennines, in the midst of the commodified Carrara Mountains, whose marble powder ends up in our toothpaste.

“Privat” /digital collage / print on photo paper / 92 x 63 cm / 2021

“Privat” / digital collage / print on photo paper / 92 x 63 cm / 2021

““Privat” / digital collage / print on photo paper / 92 x 63 cm / 2021

“Privat” / digital collage / print on photo paper /120 x 80 cm, dyptich / 2021

Exhibition view / photos, interactive installation / Ortstermin Festival / Nord Gallery&Kunstverein Tiergarten / Berlin / 2021

Exhibition view / photos, object, interactive installation / Ortstermin Festival / Nord Gallery&Kunstverein Tiergarten / Berlin / 2021

P R I V A T –

oder vom Ruf der Berge.

Text: Harald F. Theiss | Kurator | Kunsthistoriker

Fragmentarische Gedanken zu den Fotocollagen von Marcelina Wellmer.

Den Berg zum Antworten zu bringen, ist nicht leicht. Welche Antwort bekommen wir auf den Ruf von abgetragenen Bergen? Möglicherweise bleibt nur noch ein schwacher Nachhall aus der italienischen Alpenlandschaft um Carrara übrig. Die brüchigen Wände, die den Schall zurückwerfen, verschwinden – es wird stiller und das Echo verstummt im leeren Klangraum der Berge. Über das Verschwinden von Landschaften und damit realer Wirklichkeit erzählen die bereits kulissenhaft wirkenden Landschaftsfotografien von Marcelina Wellmer und verstärken über künstlerische Mittel den Eingriff und Einfluss des Menschen in die Landschaft. Er hat sie seit Jahrhunderten geformt und verformt. Es hat im Laufe der Zeit so etwas wie eine Unordnung stattgefunden. Im Zuge der Industrialisierung sind neue Landschaften mit unbekannten Folgen entstanden und damit in der Gegenwart ein wachsendes Bewusstsein und der Wunsch nach Neugestaltung.

Wir kennen aus der Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte das edle weiße Gold, wie der Marmor genannt wird, aber denken dabei weniger an den brachialen Abbau der leuchtenden Berglandschaften in Italien, aus deren Wänden das Rohmaterial herausgetrennt wird.

Entstanden ist das Gestein vor 30 Millionen Jahren, als sich die Kontinentalplatten von Afrika und Europa aufeinander zubewegten und sich zu den Apuanischen Alpen im Nordwesten der Toskana auftürmten. Mit ihren wiederum künstlerischen und fast künstlich anmutenden Landschaftskonstruktionen geht die Künstlerin zurück an den Ursprung der Mythen und Schöpfung – in einem geschützten Raum werden Fragen nicht nur nach der Bilderwirklichkeit gestellt, sondern auch nach dem Verhältnis Mensch und Natur, deren Nutzung und den unvorhersehbaren Folgen dieser Einwirkung. Die skulpturalen Bergfragmente wirken in Wellmers Darstellungen wie geformte Reste. In der Betrachtung beginnen sie sich in der Vorstellung mit etwas danach zu verwischen. Die jahrtausendealten Gesteinsschichten, in denen die Zeit eingeschrieben ist, bröckeln. Was bleibt sind andere Skulpturen und Geschichte(n) der Erinnerung. Wellmers manipulierte Bilder „beschreiben“ und dokumentieren gleichzeitig den sich ständig verändernden Zustand der Berge. Wir sehen auf den großformatigen Fotografien temporäre Bergformen, die sich in naher Zukunft auflösen werden: Das Zeitliche und Vergängliche sind festgehalten. Über eine erweiterte subjektive Landschaftsfotografie werden so Varianten von Transformationsprozessen untersucht und sichtbar gemacht.

Auf der Suche nach zukunftsorientierten Entwürfen bedienen sich die Künstlerinnen und Künstler vielschichtiger Methoden und Medien. Walter Benjamin verwies bereits 1936 in seinem Aufsatz Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit auf den Wandel der Rezeption von Kunst, vor allem durch die Entwicklung der Fotografie und des Films und einer damit veränderten Abbildung von Wirklichkeit, die andere kollektive Wahrnehmungerlebnisse erlaubt. Waren es zunächst Bilder, die den Fortschritt dokumentierten, die Konstruktion von Landschaft und damit die Modernisierung der Gesellschaft, reagieren die nachfolgenden Generationen differenzierter auf ihre Umgebung. Wellmer „wandert“ mit ihrem kritischen Blick über die Ränder des Dokumentarischen hinaus und öffnet gleichzeitig die noch unsichtbaren Resonanzräume mit unvorhersehbaren Folgen. Ihre Fotografien stehen in der Tradition der skeptischen Landschaft, die sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten innerhalb der „New Topographics“ zu einem eigenen kritischen und spekulativen Genre entwickelt hat.

Über eine Ästhetisierung der Bilder rückt die Landschaft wieder verstärkt in unser Bewusstsein. Die Grenzen des Dokumentarischen sind aufgehoben. Auf diese Weise entstehen neue Zusammenhänge. Mit künstlerischen Eingriffen wird auf Veränderungsprozesse hingewiesen. Es entstehen fiktionale und surreale Welten, die zum Denken auffordern. Aber finden sich in den „manipulierten“ Geografien auch die Indizien für gesellschaftliche und ökonomische Transformationsprozesse?

In den Fotocollagen von Marcelina Wellmer schon. Sie sind kein Zustandsbericht, eher ein Kommentar, sie reflektieren, verweisen und befragen vielmehr das wankende Verhältnis von Mensch – Natur – Ökonomie. Sie können als potenzielles Merkmal für Veränderung und als Aufforderung, aus einem Konfliktterrain und von der Landschaft zu lernen, betrachtet werden. Auch weil die italienischen Alpenlandschaften inzwischen längst nicht mehr nur in privaten Händen einheimischer Unternehmen liegen.

Ausstellungen öffnen fiktionale Schutzräume, in denen in der Realität mittels ästhetischer Konzepte und mit (fotografischen) Bildern, andere Wahrnehmungsprozessen in Gang gesetzt werden, die gleichzeitig einen Appell zum Handeln „formulieren“. Die Veränderungen der Natur und Landschaft sind in der Öffentlichkeit präsenter den je. Aber reichen für deren Wandel nach ihrer selbstverständlichen Aneignung die vielschichtigen Beobachtungen und Protokolle, um zu mehr Bewusstsein über das Dasein anzuregen – um auch künftig die Stimme des Berges zu hören?

Porous / 2020 – 2022

The work “Porous” blends parts of the city with organic matter and remnants of technology. This fusion overgrows architecture and familiar urban elements. Like today’s garbage, which all too often comes into contact with nature to decompose, the world is taken over by the “Porous” – the unhealthy hybrid of nature and waste. Astonishment and irritation: inappropriate and inexplicable.

“Porous” / Exhibition view / NON Berlin – Meinblau / Berlin 2022

Street object 01 / plants and electronic / 40 x 100 x 30 / 2022

Street object 02 / plants and electronic / 40 x 30 x 30 / 2022

“Porous” / Exhibition view / NON Berlin – Meinblau / Berlin 2022

“Porous” / Exhibition view / NON Berlin / c/o Meinblau / Berlin 2022

Project +49 157 362 961 96 / 2018

The Project +49 157 362 961 96 (2017) by Marcelina Wellmer is an interactive installation operating in the complex environment of telematic and mobile communication, on the edge of generative art and e-literature, with some features of a kinetic sound sculpture. Sending a text message to a given phone number initiates data processing, while customized software and plotter hardware turn each SMS into a line of manuscript. The result of the plotter’s movement imitates human handwriting, although the written content is neither imitated nor artificial. It is the result of the voluntary contributions of the participants. While the collaboratively created text as a whole is the result of a random flow of messages, the process reveals the hidden curriculum of transforming a raw thought into a coherent verbal statement. During the writing process, the plotter emits sounds reminiscent of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Operating within the given affordances, it evokes not an artificial but a collective intelligence, contributed to by both human and software-based agents. Although the idea may seem to echo the pioneering experiments in cyberarts, there is a contemporary approach that involves critical engineering and analysis of the creative process. While examining the Human-Computer Interactivity (HCI) paradigm, the project focuses on reinventing the rudiments of the communication process by reinterpreting technology and questioning its primary characteristics.

Text: Ewa Wojtowicz PhD, Media Art Researcher and Professor at the University of Arts in Poznań, Poland

2D plotter, contract microphones, speakers, pen, paper, sms, DIY control box (arduino, mix of program languages) / 2017-2018

Plotter printed messages / random senders / 2017

2D plotter, contract microphones, speakers, pen, paper, sms, DIY control box (arduino, mix of program languages) / 2017-2018

RGB / 2011

In the “RGB” series, Wellmer projects rays of color onto black and white oil paintings. The additive color mixing of red, green, and blue occurs in real time, based on a generative code. Over time, they change their color from red to green to blue at random speed. This happens so slowly that the eye can’t recognize it if it’s constantly looking at the canvas. It is only when you look away for a minute and then look back that you notice the difference. Each painting is based on a photograph taken by the artist. Marcelina Wellmer photographs the architecture of the city of Berlin, often office buildings or train stations. In reality, they are gray and static, but once she has them on her computer, Wellmer begins to fold them and color them. Wellmer says: For me, it is a live intervention from a human perspective.

Text: E. Wojtowicz PhD, Academy of Fine Arts Poznan, Poland

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RGB 01 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

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RGB 02 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

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RGB 03 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

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RGB 04 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

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RGB 05 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E / 2018 – 2016

In the interactive visual/sound installation 52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E, the body in urban space processes and analyzes the form and sound sphere of two capitals – Berlin and Warsaw. For several days, a GPS application recorded every street the author traveled, first in Berlin, then in Warsaw, including parking lots, shopping malls, and other points not always included in regular maps. Fourteen black MDF boards, covered with these laser-etched roads, illustrate the everyday, individual tracks. Thanks to the tracks, you can see how complicated, simple, geometric or chaotic the routes are. You might ask: Was the GPS signal weaving in search of a signal? What is the ultimate form of a “personal city” in Berlin and Warsaw – is it similar or perhaps completely different? The entire route in both cities was copied onto the wall of the XS gallery, and fragments of the resulting maps of Warsaw and Berlin can only be seen with a UV flashlight. To see different parts of the maps, visitors have to navigate through the gallery space, similar to moving through the city itself. Like the city itself, you end up seeing only the path in front of you or behind you-the rest is invisible.

The second element of the installation is sound. Ten vibrating speakers, mounted behind the lasered panels, play typical GPS commands such as “turn left,” “turn right,” “your destination is on the right,” etc. One command is assigned to each board. When a visitor approaches the board to view the lasered drawing, the ultrasonic sensor reacts and sends a signal to start recording. Because of the number of people and the amount of time spent looking, visitors hear a unique sound composition in the room each time.

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E / 10 lasered gps traces on black mdf / 30 x 30 cm /

10 vibration speakers with GPS sound recordings / 10 ultrasound sensors / LAB 30, Augsburg / 2018

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E / Glucksmann Gallery, Cork / 2019

Sound compositions:

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E / La Chapelle Sainte-Marthe in Montbron / France / 2018

DUST (A year of Dust) / 2016

The work Dust combines generative HD video with the movement of the audience through camera tracking. For several months I have been collecting dust particles on a piece of black Plexiglas. Each month I photograph the collected set, clean the surface, and start the process from the beginning. The composition and amount of dust depends on the movement around its location and other random occurrences. Using one of the photographed sets, I traced it in a graphics program. The resulting graphic particles are now animated in the generative video software VVVV. A Kinect 3D camera tracks movement in front of the video projection. When someone approaches the projection, the dust speeds up and flies in all directions, triggered by the viewer’s movement.

The movement of the pixel dust, while seemingly random, is based on close observations of real dust in flight. A complex force field emulates the forces that exist in real life. The composition is never the same, it happens in real time and by chance – it is a generative chaos. The movement of the observer is interpreted as an artificial wind source. We humans disturb the dust and make it fly faster. We are a source of wind and movement. Our bodies are now part of a random digital artifact, but with roots in real events.

DUST / interactive video projection / 2015

“Dust” and “Error 404 502 410” / B-Side Festival Mannheim / 2017

“Dust” / screen capture / 2015

The second part of the project are paintings: the photographed dust is painted on canvas and becomes the name of the month – every month one painting. It was a year of dust.

DUST November – December/ acrylic on canvas, 150 x 180 cm / 2015

Scanned_Image / 2014

The visual message (painting) has electronic devices in the background: a scanner scanning the light of a desk lamp or itself – with the help of a mirror. The images were created in a process of trial scanning with an open scanner and moving the light or mirror during the scanning process. The accidental glitch formed the basis of the final result – oil paintings. The process of painting computer-generated images reverses the image back to a real object and requires physical effort. The human factor returns and is responsible for variability and subjectivity. The processing of “reuse” is a strategy of cultural garbology based on the content of digital waste. As a result of the use of redundant data, both digital images and traditional paintings are remediated and shifted into a new aesthetic dimension.

“The randomness of the image as a key quality results from a kind of ‘reverse engineering’ tactic that Marcelina Wellmer applies in her works. Using everyday devices, the artist reaches for the ready-made aesthetic formula, but also engages these devices in a form of transmedial dialog”. E. Wojtowicz PhD, Academy of Fine Arts Poznan, Poland

Scanned_Image01 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image02/ oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image03 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image04/ oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image05 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image / exhibition view / Rainbow Unicorn / Berlin 2017

Scanned_Image / 2015

The work “Scanned_Image” is a circuit of random technical events. Two scanners scan each other – each time in a different, random resolution and at a different point in time. Two webcams transmit the scanning process to the monitor, and the printer reproduces the image of the scanners’ encounter. An office lamp, which flickers along with the printing process, amplifies the visual noise. The last device in the chain is a shredder – you can take the produced image with you or destroy it immediately. Another element of the work is sound. Piezo and magnetic microphones attached to the technical devices collect the sounds and electrical fields they emit. The signals are amplified in different frequencies and intensities directly through twelve loudspeakers. Simultaneously, the sound is processed by software on the computer, which controls the office lights and creates a looping and feedback soundscape. The machines and devices operate in an independent, autonomous circuit, making the human factor obsolete. Humans can only take control by taking or destroying the resulting images of this automated process. However, the next image is always already in production. This materialization of images brings the process of remediation to another level. In the age of an overabundance of artificial images, it seems more interesting to focus on the underlying structure of their production than on their actual content. Therefore, the devices that were once called peripheral are now engaged in reciprocal communication, independently and self-sufficiently.

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