Ute Friederike Jürß

Ute Friederike Jürß was born in Wiesbaden in 1962. She studied (1985-90) under Daniel Spoerri at the Akademie für Bildende Künste, Munich. In 1991 she was Guest Set Designer at the Staatstheater, Darmstadt and, during the academic year 1992-93, she taught at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe. She has received many prizes and awards for work in video, including the 4. Bremer Videokunstförderpreis '95' and a grant for twelve months in New York awarded by the Hessische Kulturstiftung. ln 1997 she was awarded the Förderpreis Video by the Helmut-Kraft-Stiftung in Stuttgart. She lives in Lübeck.

Ute Friedrike Jürß uses both photographic images and video films in her installations. Here, one or more monitors will be shown alongside objects, to which the title relates, as in the case of the wheel chair in »Requiem for Frida Kahlo (Requiem für Frida Kahlo)« of 1992, or the pram in the installation »Children (Kinder)« of 1993. In the videos the camera often lingers over details - for example of the surface of the skin. Jürß confronts the spectator directly with these shots by placing her monitors at or above the average eye level, or by projecting the video on to large screens. Jürß's aim, in focusing on the nature of projected reality and its relation to the reality of the spectator, is to remind the spectator of the merely representative function of photography and video and so to point to the problematic nature of their illusory objectivity and neutrality. Over and above these aims, Jürß also touches on the questions raised by the prevailing notion of the average length of a human life and the process of ageing. 

Curriculum Vitae

1985 - 1990 Studies and diploma, with Daniel Spoerri, Academy, Munich
1992/93 Teaching assignments at the Hochschule für Gestaltung / ZKM, Karlsruhe
1994 Schleuse, experimental film with Ernst Jandl and Al Hansen, ARD/SWF
1994/95 Video Art Fellowship, Akademie Schloss Solitude
1995 Bremen Video Art Award
1996 Award of the Elisabeth Kraft Foundation, Stuttgart
1996-99 New York Fellowship of the Hessian Cultural Foundation and extended stay
2009 Grant from the Abt-Straubinger Foundation, Stuttgart
2013 Before the eyes of all, design and realization of the memorial sign, Lübeck
2014 Project funding from the Rudolf Augstein Foundation, Hamburg
2015 Funding from the state of Schleswig-Holstein
2014 - 2016 Cultural partner of the German Children and Youth Foundation/Cultural Researcher
2016 Project funding from the S.-H. Ministry of Culture, Justice and Europe
2017 - 2020 Lecturer at HAW, Hamburg
2019 Project funding from the Rudolf Augstein Foundation, Hamburg
2020 Project funding from the S. Ministry of Culture, Justice and Europe
2021 Project funding: Hamburgische Kulturstiftung/D. u. A. Otto Stiftung; Landeskulturverband SH; Bürgerstiftuntg SH; LpB SH; Heinrich Stegman Stiftung HH
2022 Project funding: Inge Deutschkron Foundation; dt-pol. youth organization DPJW
2022 Film festivals: exground, Wiesbaden; Filmfest Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel
2023 NEUSTARTplus scholarship, BKM
2023 Focus Art Prize of the University of Lübeck