Biographies

Harun Farocki

Artist and filmmaker
Harun Farocki was born in Neutitschein (today Nový Jičín, the Czech Republic) in 1944. He studied at the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin from 1966 to 1968. Since then, he has directed over 100 different productions for television and cinema. Farocki was editor of and one of the authors for Filmkritik magazine from 1974 to 1984. Since 1996, his films and installations have been shown in a large number of group and solo exhibitions in museums and galleries. He has been a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 2006.
Harun Farocki's project

Anselm Franke

Curator and critic
Anselm Franke works primarily in Berlin and Brussels. He was director of the Extra City Kunsthal Antwerp until the end of 2010, where he curated a number of exhibitions including "No Matter How Bright the Light, the Crossing Occurs At Night" (2007), "Mimétisme" (2008) and "Sergei Eisenstein: The Mexican Drawings" (2009). In 2008, he was involved in putting together the concept for different exhibitions to be held at the Manifesta 7 in Trient, Italy and the first Brussels Biennale. He started his long-term project "Animism" in Antwerp (Extra City and MuHKA) and Bern (Kunsthalle) in 2010, which can also be seen in modified form in Vienna (Generali Foundation, September 2011) and Berlin (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, March 2012). Since 2011, he has been responsible for the theoretical training program at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK) in Ghent and teaches at the HfG Karlsruhe. He was the curator of the 2012 Taipei Biennial and since 2013 he is Head of the Visuals Arts and Film at Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin. Anselm Franke is currently completing his PhD at the Centre for Research Architecture/Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London. Anselm Franke is currently completing his PhD at the Centre for Research Architecture / Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, London.
Anselm Franke's project

Stephan Geene

Filmmaker and author
Stephan Geene works at the Berlin publisher, shop and film production company b_books. He has been involved in various film projects (including with Judith Hopf amongst others), making his feature debut with AFTER EFFECT. He is the co-editor of "geld.beat.synthetik" and "Film Avantgarde Biopolitik" and the author of "money aided ich-design".
His current projects include a translation of "Film Fables" by Jacques Rancière (with Teodora Tabacki) to be published in 2013, "Film, ein Leben" (working title) to appear in 2013 and “umsonst”, a fiction / documentary hybrid shot in summer 2012 and in postproduction.
Stephan Geene's project

Nanna Heidenreich

Cultural Studies scholar and curator
Nanna Heidenreich is currently a research scholar at the Institute for Media Studies at the HBK Braunschweig, a member of the Forum Expanded curatorial team and also works for Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art primarily in the area of experimental film and video art. She has been a member of the anti-racism network Kanak Attak for many years. She occasionally works as a translator, has published extensively (mainly on the subject of migration, image debates, racism and visual culture) and is an independent curator for film and video projects. She lives in Berlin.
Nanna Heidenreich's project

Tobias Hering

Curator and journalist
Tobias Hering was born in Siegen in 1971 and lives in Berlin. His work focuses on topical programs often reflecting on social issues and image politics but also allowing literary references. Films play a central role in his curatorial practice. Recent collaborations have been with Atelier RE.AL (Lisbon), Jeu de Paume (Paris) and gallery Savvy Contemporary (Berlin). Since 2006 he works free lance both in Germany and abroad, and has been a member of the programming jury for "dokfest" Kassel since 2011. At Arsenal, Tobias Hering presents the ongoing series "Der Standpunkt der Aufnahme - Point of View".
Tobias Hering's project

Dietmar Hochmuth

Filmmaker, author and curator
Dietmar Hochmuth was born in East Berlin in 1954. He worked as an assistant director at the DEFA feature film studio in Babelsberg from 1972–73 and went on to study direction at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (under Georgi Danelia) from 1973–79. From 1979, he worked as an assistant director and later as a director and author, directing three cinema films, MEIN VATER IST EIN DIEB, IN EINEM ATEM, MOTIVSUCHE, and around 25 documentaries, mainly for television, including for arte, ZDF, 3sat, NDR, SR, ORB). In addition to his film work, he has also held various teaching positions and worked as an author, translator and publisher. In 1996, he founded PotemkinPress, a publishing house for film literature and new media, and worked as a lecturer for direction at the German Film and Television Academy (dffb).
In 1998, he moved to north California to work on film projects and teach at Stanford University, giving classes on film history and film education, digital filmmaking and an introduction to world cinema art. In 2004, he returned to Germany and became the professor for Documentary Film Direction at the Cologne International Film School in 2004/2005. From 2006, he taught at the Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule / Hochschule für Gestaltung (experimental and documentary film, video). From 2004–2008, he worked on the film and DVD "Factory of Gestures. Body Language in Film" (160 min., together Oksana Bulgakowa).
He is currently acting professor for Film and Video at the Institute for Media Design at the Mainz University of Applied Sciences and is overseeing the 2010 the film modeling trials at the Department of Film Studies and Screenwriting at the University of Mainz together with Prof. Dr. Norbert Grob.
Oksana Bulgakowa's and Dietmar Hochmuth's project

Brent Klinkum

Film and video curator
Originally hailing from New Zealand, Brent Klinkum has lived and worked in Caen, France for the past 20 years. In 1994, Along side his work codirecting a contemporary art centre, he founded Transat Vidéo (now Transat Projects) in 1994. Recent projects include being a founding member of the Suspended Spaces collective, curating "Breaking Ground, 60 years of Austrian Experimental Cinema", in 10 film & video programs presently travelling. Or this summer’s project "La Ligne", a multidiscipinary event over five weeks along the Norman coastline, with artistic, architectural, scientific, gastronomic, or performative interventions in public spaces, alongside artistic residencies resulting in photographic books, videos, sound works, hand drawn maps…In 2011 he received a grant from the DAAD Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme.

Merle Kröger

Author, filmmaker and producer
Between 1991 and 2000 Merle Kröger was involved in the realization of numerous documentaries and video art works as a member of the group dogfilm. 2001 she co-foundend the media production platform pong together with Philip Scheffner. In subsequent years, she worked as a producer and co-contributing author, producing the award-winning documentaries THE HALFMOON FILES (2007), DAY OF OF THE SPARROW (2010) and REVISION (2012). In addition to her film work Merle Kröger published three novels in the ariadne series by renowned publisher argument. The novels combine historical research, personal history and political analysis with elements of a thriller. The novel "Cut!" (2003) was translated into English and published in 2007 in India. The novel "Kyai!" reached #5 of the Crime/Mystery World Bestsellerlist in February 2007. Based on the research for the film REVISION, she developed the novel "Grenzfall", which won the German Crime Literature Prize in 2013.
As a curator Merle Kröger directed the transnational project "Import Export - Cultural Transfer between India and Germany, Austria" (2003–2005), as well as the filmpool project "Work in Progress" (2006/2007) for the Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art.
Merle Kröger's project