CONTACT / DOWNLOADS

Contact:

:: videoplanet@katjaloher.com ::

Katja Loher Studio
70North 6th St
Brooklyn, NY, 11249

:: download CV ::

:: download Portfolio ::

Katia Loher's Miniverses are compelling video works in a quiet and elegant statement about humanity. These tiny microcosms are inventive, poetic, and mesmerising to watch. Loher operates akin to a theatrical producer, beginning with her concept and subsequently joining forces with a choreographer, costume designer, dancers, various video personnel and art fabricators. The idea is predicated on a concept of creating idealized artificial worlds that exist in harmony with our own allegedly unpleasant reality, hatching tiny ethereal havens that at first glance seem amusing and quirky, but revealing beautiful kaleidoscopic patterns constructed from dance formations, filmed from above to recall the complicity and harmony of synchronized swimmers.
Much of Loher's work indeed addresses ecological issues and the future of humanity, dependent on overlooked details such as the plight of bees, potential abuses of technology, and the imperative for collective consciousness. Beauty is omnipresent as an artistic statement of the essence of life sustaining processes supporting our planet.
Loher's oeuvre reflects three compelling essential aspects: the miniature and what that encompasses as an experience for the viewer; her working method - collaboration in service of the miniature; and her use of language, encompassing the type with which we are familiar, and that with which we are not.
Such collaborative projects are generally prodigious undertakings whose outputs yield a sizably impressive scale. The diminutive nature of Loher's ultimate statement in visual form in its beautifully crafted glass bubbles, presents the viewer with a challenge to surpass mere ocular titillation, by engaging us in a private experience instead. Such an intimate experience nevertheless resonates globally, addressing ecological urgencies like the disappearance of the bee population. Collective effort can prevent ecological disaster but only if predicated by a sense of individual awareness and responsibility. Peering into the glass bubble is like having a conversation with oneself.
Language weaves together the corporal through dance, the written word, and the enigmatic communication of the animal kingdom. Loher's elfin performers mimic the somatic, sonar-type communication found in ant colonies, bee hives, or schools of fish, and further challenges mankind's hubristic nature over animals by inspiring us to look for answers from another viewpoint.
Karen Garratt

New York-based Swiss artist Katja Loher's work has appeared internationally in many solo and group exhibitions including: World Expo Museum, Shanghai, China, (2014), Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, USA (2014), MuBE, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012), Venice Architecture Biennale, Italy (2010), MAXXI Museum, Rome, Italy (2010), United Nations Pavilion, Shanghai Expo, China (2010), Biennale Chongqing, China (2009), Siggraph Asia, Yokohama, Japan (2009), Art Digital, Moscow, Russia (2005) and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Peterburg, Russia (2005). Her work is featured in many private and public collections including Miami Art Museum, USA, Credit Suisse Collection, Zurich, Switzerland, eN Arts Collection, Tokyo, Japan, Horsecross Collection, Perth, UK. In the last years she received several awards including TPC CreaTVty Award from the Swiss TV Production Center, artist residencies in New York, Berlin and Beijing.

Crew:

Choreographer: Saori Tsukada :: download CV ::

Assistants: Azumi Oe & Nozomi Yasuda- Wann

Studio Manager: Akio Sato

Finance: Lisa O'Connor

Architect: Andrea Liberni

Architect: Hans Focketyn

Audio Designer: Asako Fujimoto

Glass blower: Michiko Sakano

Katja Loher and Saori Tsukada, Photos: Gian Maria Annovi