Ingo Günther
Year of birth, place
1957
Germany
Role at the ZKM
- Artist of the Collection
Biography
After embarking, in 1977, on studies of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Johannes-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Ingo Günther transferred in 1978 to the Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf. Here he studied painting under Fritz Schwegler, then sculpture under Günther Uecker. He subsequently studied under Nam June Paik, becoming student in his master class in 1983. Günther has won many prizes and grants, most recently the Stankowski Award (1996) and the Siemens Medienkunstpreis (1997). Between 1990 and 1994 he taught at the Kunsthochschule für Medien, Cologne. He lives in New York.
After travelling extensively in Africa, Central America and Asia in the 1970s, Ingo Günther began to take a strong interest in the use of new media in the arts. In 1979 he started making videotapes, video sculptures and video installations, above all on the themes of movement in space and the de-materialized flow of information. During the 1980s and 1990s Günther pursued media projects in which global processes were condensed into sequences of images, thus critically reflecting upon the illusion and the reality of manipulability. Many of Günther's works relate to contemporary political events. Most of these take the form of installations combining sculptural forms and projected images. Günther often incorporates symbolic entities, such as flags or passports, as reduced forms of the visual surface of a political structure. Besides his journalistic activities Günther has extended his work into the realm of global information technology. In 1996 he created a »Refugee Republic« as a project for the internet.
Individual exhibitions (selection)
1982 Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
1983 Anthology Film Archives, New York
1986 Museum Folkwang, Essen
1987 ELAC, Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain, Lyon; New Langton Arts, San Francisco
1989 »World Processor«, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg
1990 »P3 art and environment«, Tokyo
1991 »Schahid«, Galerie Weißer Raum, Hamburg; Hankyu, Osaka
1992 »P3-Museum«, Tokyo
1993 Galerie am Schwanenteich, Schwerin
1994 Galerie Pricke, Düsseldorf
1995 Wewerka Pavillon, Münster; Haverkamphalle, Münster
1996 »P3 art and environment«, Tokyo; Stadtgalerie, Saarbrücken
1997 Sala I, Rome; »P3 art and environment«, Tokyo
Group exhibitions (selection)
1984 »Arte, Ambiente, Scena«; Biennale di Venezia, Venice
1987 documenta VIII, Kassel
1989 »Video-Skulptur retrospektiv und aktuell 1963-89«, Kunstverein, Cologne, subsequently at Kongresshalle Berlin, Kunsthaus Zürich
1991 Ars Electronica, Linz
1992 »Humpty Dumpty's Kaleidoscope: A new Generation of German Artists«, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; »Moving Image-Electronic Art«, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona
1994 »Fotofest 94«, George Brown Convention Center, Houston; »A Project for Europe«, Kronenbourg Ferry, Copenhagen
1995 UN-World Climatic Conference, Berlin; Visible Museum, NTT Intercommunication Center, Tokyo; »After Hiroshima«, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima; »Video-Skulptur in Deutschland seit 1963«, Institut für Auslandsbeziehung, Stuttgart
1996 Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid; »Mediascape«, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York; »Mixed Pixels«, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf
[Frauke Syamken, 1997]
After travelling extensively in Africa, Central America and Asia in the 1970s, Ingo Günther began to take a strong interest in the use of new media in the arts. In 1979 he started making videotapes, video sculptures and video installations, above all on the themes of movement in space and the de-materialized flow of information. During the 1980s and 1990s Günther pursued media projects in which global processes were condensed into sequences of images, thus critically reflecting upon the illusion and the reality of manipulability. Many of Günther's works relate to contemporary political events. Most of these take the form of installations combining sculptural forms and projected images. Günther often incorporates symbolic entities, such as flags or passports, as reduced forms of the visual surface of a political structure. Besides his journalistic activities Günther has extended his work into the realm of global information technology. In 1996 he created a »Refugee Republic« as a project for the internet.
Individual exhibitions (selection)
1982 Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
1983 Anthology Film Archives, New York
1986 Museum Folkwang, Essen
1987 ELAC, Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain, Lyon; New Langton Arts, San Francisco
1989 »World Processor«, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg
1990 »P3 art and environment«, Tokyo
1991 »Schahid«, Galerie Weißer Raum, Hamburg; Hankyu, Osaka
1992 »P3-Museum«, Tokyo
1993 Galerie am Schwanenteich, Schwerin
1994 Galerie Pricke, Düsseldorf
1995 Wewerka Pavillon, Münster; Haverkamphalle, Münster
1996 »P3 art and environment«, Tokyo; Stadtgalerie, Saarbrücken
1997 Sala I, Rome; »P3 art and environment«, Tokyo
Group exhibitions (selection)
1984 »Arte, Ambiente, Scena«; Biennale di Venezia, Venice
1987 documenta VIII, Kassel
1989 »Video-Skulptur retrospektiv und aktuell 1963-89«, Kunstverein, Cologne, subsequently at Kongresshalle Berlin, Kunsthaus Zürich
1991 Ars Electronica, Linz
1992 »Humpty Dumpty's Kaleidoscope: A new Generation of German Artists«, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; »Moving Image-Electronic Art«, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona
1994 »Fotofest 94«, George Brown Convention Center, Houston; »A Project for Europe«, Kronenbourg Ferry, Copenhagen
1995 UN-World Climatic Conference, Berlin; Visible Museum, NTT Intercommunication Center, Tokyo; »After Hiroshima«, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima; »Video-Skulptur in Deutschland seit 1963«, Institut für Auslandsbeziehung, Stuttgart
1996 Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid; »Mediascape«, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York; »Mixed Pixels«, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf
[Frauke Syamken, 1997]