Since April 2020, our Open Call ART MATTERS has been offering artists the opportunity to apply for an online exhibition with us two to three times a year. From all the applications, we choose nine finalists, whom we feature on our website and Instagram over a period of two weeks. At the end of the exhibition, we select two winners of our online competition and invite them to participate in a physical group exhibition in our gallery space. BERGERNISSEN (Alisa Berger/Lena Ditte Nissen), Hyein Jang, Jakob Limmer and Gabriele Ludewig are the winners of our ART MATTERS editions 12 and 13.

BERGERNISSEN aka Alisa Berger (*1987 Makhachkala) and Lena Ditte Nissen (*1987 Munich), both graduated from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne in 2016. They have presented their installations and performances in a wide variety of venues worldwide, among them the Museo del Banco de la Republica, KAI10 | Arthena Foundation, Kunstverein Heidelberg, and the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center. BERGERNISSEN work in the field of performance, happening and installation.
"The material of our work are group processes, collectively experienced realities and our relationship to cultural institutions. The illusionistic potential of film and cinema is a source of inspiration for the development of our performances and happenings that simulate realities. At the turning point where reason could destroy the illusion, the deception is consolidated to the point of being incorruptible, while at the same time the illusion seems fragile in exactly the places where it should appear consistent and self-evident.
Through ritualistic actions or scientific research and in collaboration with protagonists, objects and institutional structures, we create situations that illuminate the artificial connections between science, art, spirituality, and politics. The viewer can intervene or withdraw. This exploration of illusory boundaries and their transgression enfolds its power through happening and performance and from there on penetrates into the reality of the viewer." bergernissen.com / alisabergermun.com / lenadittenissen.com

Hyein Jang (born in 1993 in Gyeryong, South Korea) lives and works in Würzburg. She studied at Kyonggi University in Suwon, South Korea, and at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, where she completed her master's degree under Professor Daniel Roth.
"In the society we live in, our emotions are strongly influenced by our environment and other people. They are constantly changing, and this change also causes changes within ourselves. The self of the past, present and future can be different in each case. [...] I have represented this through “fabric-like layers”. Over time, emotions can fade in our memory, but the more the layers overlap, the more intense and distinct they become. These layers of fabric break out of the frame of the canvas and move freely in the wind, symbolising the imperfection of emotions. The fabrics, which are of different lengths, move with the wind caused by people passing by. This shows how emotions change and are influenced by relationships with others. With this representation, I have visualised the imperfection of emotions and their reconstruction." Click here for further information and available works.

Jakob Limmer (*1988 in Bamberg, DE) pursued his studies in media art at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig under Joachim Blank, class for installation and space from 2016 to 2020. Prior to this, he studied sound design at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences within the MultiMediaArt program. Limmer’s artistic practice investigates how authority and structure shape the body, its behaviour, and the subtle ways in which resistance and transformation can emerge within these conditions. His works are defined by the interaction of contrasting material worlds: soft, tactile substances meet rigid, unyielding structures. From this encounter arise objects that reveal a tension between submission and defiance, control and permeability. [...] At its core, his work explores the concept of agency – understood as a fragile construct that requires constant renegotiation. It invites viewers into a space where control, routine, and order are dismantled and transformed, provoking a rethinking of the systems we inhabit. Click here for further information and available works.

Gabriele Ludewig (born in Hildesheim in 1956, lives and works in Berlin) studied at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HfbK) from 1981 to 1988 under Ulrich Rückriem, Klaus Bendixen and Franz Erhard Walther.
With her new series of works ‘Balloons‘, the artist creates sculptures of condensed energy. Finely balanced curves of intense colour combine to form comic-like figures that radiate joy and vitality. The piled forms and colours transfer the principle of formulation and response in the painterly process to the sculpture. The balloons are both concrete and an inspiration for the imagination, turning them into a society of idiosyncratic characters. Click here for further information and available works.