ABOUT

ELENA CARR

German, Australian

// ARTISTIC WORK

Text | Leo Heinik, 2024

Elena Carr spreads out the various strands of her artistic work on the worn floorboards in front of me until they cover the entire floor like a shapeless patchwork quilt. Sometimes they run parallel to each other and contrast, sometimes they overlap, form tangles or merge into one another. Her interest in collective action and forms of communication geared towards it runs through everything.

The installation Room For Manoeuvre, for example, which she is currently realising for the forecourt of a sports facility, is right at the forefront. The steel panels attached to poles are based on drawings of hand gestures that are used for communication in various forms of sport and play. On the publicly accessible square, they in turn form a framework that invites people to hang around and wear it out. Carr’s large-scale projects in (semi-)public space also include the Ortsbeschwimmungen, which test the possibilities for action in the social structure of the indoor pool. Some come here to swim their laps in peace, others to prove themselves to their friends by jumping off the five-meter diving platform. The edge of the pool or the changing rooms, actually the turnstile at the entrance, mark a stage on which the social activities of the leisure society take place. In the time frame of the performance staged moments are integrated into the existing sound and spatial backdrop of the indoor pool within the time frame of the local swimming pool. Soundscapes alternate with the loudspeaker announcements of the pool attendants. Chants, numbers by amateur synchronised swimmers, theatrical water aerobics and water cinema. The performers jump into the water where their potential audience is. And the bathers decide whether they want to become spectators or performers or whether they would rather continue to do their own thing undeterred.

And then there are the devices, machines and Spielskulpturen that only reveal themselves when they are used. A drying bonnet blows a piano piece composed by Lorenz Schreiner through the heads of exhibition visitors. Waterballs, which Elena Carr and Nelly Stein have wrapped in their drawn correspondence printed on fabric, are released to announce a joint exhibition in the Dießener Taubenturm in Ammersee. The Gehschreibe, which were created in collaboration with Jonas Carr and are intended to be worn like bellybuttons, are tools for shifting the rather secluded process of writing outside, onto the street. The impressions gained while roaming around are recorded directly with the Gehschreibe, but can nevertheless remain a fleeting end in themselves.

The text-image montages that Carr scrawls on paper with ink and wax crayons, patches together from fabric, writes over the entire length of a garage driveway, or cobbles together as an oversized book object with wooden pages sawn freehand, are teeming with figures that arise from the repetition of the same gestures over and over again. They are spread across the page, forming swarms and loose formations. Scraps of sentences that Carr throws at her fellow human beings in sometimes more and sometimes more distant neighbouring rooms while drawing remain on the page. Drawing, scribbling, taking notes leaves traces of interaction.

Underlying all of this is the principle of complicity, a conspiratorial mode of communication between all participants in which the boundaries between the roles of artist, recipient and performer become blurred. For Elena Carr, art production is therefore always an opportunity to enter into an intensive exchange with others, to share and expand authorship, to put one’s own position into perspective – and to take the risk of possibly losing oneself and having to become lost again. Her formal language sometimes utilises the aesthetics of the provisional and the methods of carnies and funfair operators. Elena Carr’s work is carefully unironed and expansive in a way that first and foremost wants to make itself accessible and invites to use.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION

2025 – 2026 KUNST AM BAU Realization of ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE | QUIVID (Munich GER)
2025 Teaching assignment, Performance_Associative Space w/ Fritz und Maria Koenig Stiftung_Ganslberg | Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Munich GER)
2020 – 2025 Teacher for art, media, experimental design | FOS Gestaltung Stiftung Pfennigparade (Munich GER)
2023 GLOW THE FUTURE Curation with YoungCaritas Europe | Werksviertel (Munich GER)
2019 – 2020 Director of spacelab’s media workshop | Volkshilfe (Vienna AT)
2011 – 2018 Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts (Munich GER) with Prof. Res Ingold, Dr. Alexis Dworsky, Prof. Stephan Dillemuth // Master of Arts for Interdisciplinary Projects and 1st State Examination
2013 – 2017 STOFF AUF DEM KOPF Conception and realisation of workshops on the mediation of cultural history | Stadtmuseum (Berlin GER), Welcome Café Kammerspiele (Munich GER), Münchner Flüchtlingsrat (Munich GER), Staatliches Textil- und Industriemuseum (Augsburg GER), Museum für Abgüsse klassischer Bildwerke (Munich GER)
2016 WIR HUNDE / US DOGS Performance-installation by SIGNA as part of Wiener Festwochen | Volkstheater (Vienna AT)
2016 Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts (Vienna AT) with Prof. Judith Huemer
2015 GEHSCHREIBE APPARAT, kinetic-interactive object and creative writing with students | Ichoschule Giesing (Munich GER)

EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS

Selection

2024
DAS KLEINE FORMAT Producer’s exhibition curated by Annunciata Foresti | Blaues Haus (Dießen GER)
SCHUBLADENWERKE curated by Katharina u. Johannes Kreye | Buchheim Museum (Bernried GER)
DIE MÜDIGKEIT Lecture-Performance curated by Lukas Picard, PLATFORM München | Kunstpavillon (Munich GER)
OFFENE ATELIERS (Starnberger See GER)
2023
N E EINE KORRESPONDENZ Exhibition curated by Katharina Andress and Matthias Rodach | Taubenturm (Dießen GER)
2022
THINGS BEING FRIENDS Group exhibition curated by Amanda Elena Conrad, Hannah Gieseler, Nora Mertes and Johanna Kintner | Berlin Tempelhof, Gebäude 501 (Berlin GER)
ARTIST RESIDENCY IN MOTHERHOOD (GER)
2021
EINE ORTSBESCHWIMMUNG Immersive performance, as part of TKI_open_21 of the Tiroler Kulturinitiativen | Municipal Swimming Pools (Innsbruck and Telfs AT)
LETZTE LOCKERUNG Group exhibition curated by Jonas Carr | W1 (Regensburg GER)
2020
POETRY IN MOTION Lecture curated by Insa Wiese | International Short Film Week (Regensburg GER)
2019
NACHTWÄCHTER:INNEN Exhibition inside the Schlafbunker curated by KunstRäume am See and Gerd Holzheimer | Max-Planck-Institut (Andechs GER)
Z COMMON GROUND Group exhibition curated by Laura Lang, Loomit and Daniel Man | Gewerbehof at Zschokkestraße (Munich GER)
TROCKEN SCHWIMM SYNC, a swimming act Performance as part of Haben und Brauchen in Wien, curated by Tim Voss | Künstlerhaus (Vienna AT)
PAPER FEED FEST Group exhibition curated by Risograd | Schaumbad Freies Atelierhaus (Graz AT)
2018
ALLTAGSBÜHNE BADEANSTALT, EINE ORTSBESCHWIMMUNG Performance | Bath house Sargfabrik (Wien AT)
PopUpKunst IM KOMPLOTT Group exhibition curated by Katja Sebald and Elena Carr | Marstall von Schloss Berg (Berg at Lake Starnberg GER)
K IN SUMMERCAMP Performative study curated by WIENWOCHE | WERK X (Vienna AT)
VERLEGENE ANEKDOTEN Performance curated by Maximiliane Baumgartner| Der Fahrende Raum (Munich GER)
KÜNSTLER:INNEN AUS DER UMGEBUNG Group exhibition curated by Alinde Rothenfußer | Kunsthaus Orplid in the Granary (Percha/Munich GER)
HALTUNG EINNEHMEN Teach-In curated by Johanna Hoehmann and Anne Schulz | Münchner Kammerspiele (Munich GER)
DIE LANGE NACHT DER MÜNCHNER MUSEEN with Stoff auf dem Kopf | Munich Refugee Council (Munich GER)
2017
CINEMA ROMĂNESC Installation and filmscreening | PAO (Potoc RO)
RETURNING HOME Performance-Installation (performer), directed by Jos Porath | Artlake Festival (Niederlausitz, GER), Gelegenheiten (Neukölln-Berlin GER)
DAS GEHIRN SCHWIMMT DOCH AUCH Lecture Performance curated by TAMTAM | Salon Irkutsk (Munich GER)
LIEDERLICHE SUBJEKTE Performance curated by Jonas Carr | Weytterturm (Straubing GER)
2016
HIGHLIGHTS International Art Fair Munich with Stoff auf dem Kopf as part of PLATEAU | Otto-Galerie (Munich GER)
KARL&FABER PRIZE OF THE FOUNDATION ART ACADEMY MUNICH Group exhibition | KARL&FABER (Munich GER)
ARTWORK OF THE MONTH Solo exhibition curated by Katja Selbald | Katharina von Bora-Haus (Berg at Lake Starnberg GER)
MÜDE MANÖVER Intervention curated by Anne Schulz | Münchner Kammerspiele (Munich GER)
2015
SCHMIEDE WERKSCHAU Group exhibition | Media Art Festival (Hallein AT)
WHAT’S THE DEAL? LAB Group exhibition as part of the Moving urban cultures Festival | Kreativquartier (Munich GER)
RAUMSTATION Group exhibition | Kunstpavillon (Munich GER)
2014
SURVIVAL KIT Filmscreening How to project and spell | Chisenhale Gallery(London UK), Circuits & Currents (Athens GR), Lothringer13_Florida(Munich GER), Galerie Kullukcu & Gregorian (Munich GER)
FAHRRADKINO Temporary installation in public space, curated by Karnik Gregorian | Isarbalkon, Corneliusbrücke (Munich GER)
ASH WEDNESDAY OF THE ARTISTS Visual and spatial design of the Ash Wednesday service curated by Karnik Gregorian and Elisabeth Lutz | Frauenkirche (Munich GER)
GALOOPIEREND Exhibition | Gallery Kullukcu & Gregorian (Munich GER)
2013
JUNGE KUNST curated by BBK | Kunsthalle Kempten (GER)
RAIL DOMINO Installation in public space in collaboration with Rooftoptiger, curated by Castlemaine State Festival (Castlemaine AUS)
>750 VOLT Group exhibition | AkademieGalerie (Munich GER)
2012
LIBERTAS Group exhibition curated by Amnesty International Munich | Farbenladen (Munich GER)

AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS & ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

2022
JUNGE KUNST UND NEUE WEGE scholarship program of the bavarian state
2021
FUNDING & RESIDENCY Office of the tyrolean government: cultural department and city of Innsbruck, AT
2018
TASSILO CULTURE AWARD of the Süddeutsche Zeitung
2017
CULTURAL SPONSORSHIP AWARD FOR SCULPTURE
2016
Nominated for the KARL&FABER PRIZE, Foundation of the Munich Art Academy
NESTROY PRIZE | Category Special Prize for Wir Hunde/Us Dogs by SIGNA, Vienna AT
ERASMUS scholarship: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna AT with Judith Huemer | Department Art with extended painterly space action/sculpture/installation in public space
2014
RESIDENCY at Circuits & Currents (Athens GR), Coordination: Anja Kirschner and Nikos Arvanitis
DAAD FUNDING Survival Kit Educational and artistic research programme in collaboration of the Athens School of Fine Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts Munich
RESIDENCY at SCHMIEDE Media Art Festival, Hallein AT as part of What’s the Deal? by the Cultural Department of Munich
1999
PUMUCKL DRAWING COMPETITION AWARD