Bodies liquefy when their appearance combines with new technologies contrary to cultural notions. Mette Sterre's (b. 1983, Delft/Netherlands) work constantly reappropriates and appreciates bodies in techno-social contexts. Drawing on ideas of post/transhumanism, queer/feminism and science fiction, the artist approaches bodies more than as just a substantial mass (flesh). Voluminous body suits, 3D-printed figures and the fusion of different materials such as plastic and oil together with the human body show a world where bodies resemble their surroundings and thus point to a future beyond anthropocentrism.
key data
- Venue
- Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus
- Date
- 20. 5. – 11. 6. 23
- Opening hours
- Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus Waagplatz 1a, 5020 Salzburg Tuesday-Friday: 2-6 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Free admission
- Events
- 19 May 2023, 6 p.m. Artist talk with Mette Sterre in English, 7 p.m. opening
Mette Sterre
Mette Sterre’s creations escape fixed definitions. They exceed performance practice, installation, digital technologies, costume-making and sculpture – potentially expanding their territories without limits. Entering her work, we are cast into the materialization of her mind processes: an unpredictable participatory and sensorial experience.
Sterre’s work gives value to the devalued, both aesthetically and conceptually. The artist makes room for exploring and exploding the power structures that silently – though violently – regulate our lives.
Creatures that seem to be assembled into hybrid and chimeric formulations – partly machines, monsters or nonhumans – occupy the same space as us. Rather than being ego-centered actors within a system that still oppresses those that are ‘less than human,’ Sterre’s creations celebrate our variance through dissonance, in a dimension of both fear and ecstasy.
When approaching this tentacular entity, the binarisms speech/non-speech, human/monster, nature/cyborg, life/death, (wo)man/animal, dynamism/stasis are troubled and dismantled. Abjection and desire are at work in this moment to analyze our own preconceived understandings and perceptions of sexual desire and power dynamics.
Mette Sterre is a Rijksakademie van Beelden Kunsten alumnus (2021) and obtained her MA in Performance Design & Practice at Central Saint Martins in London. She has shown her work internationally at Manifesta 14 in Kosovo, Kunstverein in Hamburg, the Watermill Center in New York, Migros Museum in Zurich, Trienale Design Museum in Hamburg and Art15 in London. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Dazed and Confused, El Pais, Berlin Art Link, and others.
Exhibitions
Selected solo exhibitions
2023 Multidance CODA, Apeldoorn (upcoming). 2018 Staging Realities Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg (DE). 2018 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair Joey Ramone, Manchester (UK). 2016 Sairagaz, Honey You’re No Seabunny, Joey Ramone, Rotterdam (NL). 2015 The End of Normal TENT, Rotterdam.
International Festivals/Biennials
2022 Manifesta 14, Pristina. Alternative Miss World Competition. Shakespeare Globe Theater, London. 2021 MIP4, Center of Experimentation and Info in Art, Belo Horizonte (BR). 2020 3pesos Trienale Bestos, Mexico City. 2019 LA Book Fair, Montez Press Radio and Publication, Los Angeles, CA (US). 2017 Frieze; An evening of performances, David Roberts Art Foundation, London. 2017 Athens Performance Biennal, ASFA, Athens. 2016Megahammer #2, Glasgow International, Glasgow (UK). 2015 Tribes Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Prague. 2016 SPILLInternational Performance Festival, Ipswich (UK). 2015 Watermill Summer Benefit, Watermill Center, New York, NY (US).
Selected international exhibitions
2022 But what else is it but a dream map Art, Quarter, Budapest. 2021 Being Both things at Once, Sommers Gallery, London. 2020 Queer Bodies Against ____ FLUC, Vienna. 2019 AMID Roes Theater, Athens. 2018 Hakuna Patata, Gallery Esmeralda, Willemstad, Curacao. 2017 Hummelmania, Birmingham Art/Fierce Festival Birmingham (UK). 2017 Queering the Occult, Queen Mary University, London. I can't be inside and outside at the same time, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh (UK). Once Upon a Pink, Puder Raum Gallery, Berlin. 2015 Spotlight on Schawinsky, Migros Museum, Zurich. Art15 Artfair, Best of Graduates, Olympia, London. 2014 Robert Wilsons Illy Red Night. Triennial Design Museum, Milan (IT). 2014 Night Watch Festival, Cambridge Junction, Cambridge (UK).
Selected presentations in the Netherlands
2023 On Marvellous Things, Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort (NL). The Grand Palace of Everyone Nest, Den Haag (NL). Animated Landscapes, 38CC, Delft (NL). 2022 Innovation:Lab, Theater Utrecht, Utrecht (NL). Gods Head Brief Encounters. Lust Warande, Tilburg (NL). Come Alive, Muntgebouw, Utrecht (NL). Habitat Multiform project space de Viervaart, Groede (NL). Big Dada, Arti et Amicitea, Amsterdam. Art Rotterdam, Kers Gallery, Rotterdam (NL). Evidence in Motion: Amorphous Beings III, The Hague (NL). 2021 Rijksakademie OpenRijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. 2019 Rijksakademie Open, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Master Talk, Museum de Pont, Tilburg (NL). 2018 Le Faux RireCobra Museum, Amstelveen (NL). High Light Art and Science Festival, Theater de Veste, Delft (NL).2017Playtime, Kunstvlaai at the SSBA Salon Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam. 2016 All You Can Art #1, Summer Carnival, IBB, Kunsthal, Tent, Rotterdam (NL). 2015 Super Nova Schunck, Heerlen (NL). Carnival, Marres House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht (NL).
Publications
Guest Lectures/Teaching
Rietveld Academie, Willem De Kooning Academy, Frank Mohr Institute, Mount Holyoke College, Central Saint Martins, St. Joost of Visual Arts, TENT, American Academy Berlin, Royal Academy The Hague, Queen Mary University London, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Maastricht, University of the Arts London, Akademie voor Dans en Theater Amsterdam, IBB.
