Ulla von Brandenburg’s works draw on a range of historical references, including modern theater, the tableau vivant, folk traditions, and architectures that have become icons. In combination with singing, dancing, and movement, elements such as curtains, costumes, props, and stage sets suggest a symbolic enactment of ritualized actions and interpersonal encounters, which are at the center of her work.

In the exhibition, the central atrium of the Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe becomes the stage for an installation in which film, performance and architecture intertwine. Visitors are invited to move through this setting. The various wooden, textile and ceramic objects, which are spread across the room like theatrical props, reveal Ulla von Brandenburg’s intense exploration of many different traditions and customs. At the same time, an exhibition wall becomes a projection surface for the eponymous 16-mm film, “It Has a Golden Sun and an Elderly Grey Moon.” The film revolves around themes that also reoccur in her other works: color, rituals, movement, stairs, and textiles.

Moreover, the use of colored fabrics, curtains, and costumes is the narrative thread of the other eight films presented in the exhibition, which were created between 2009 and 2022. In this deliberate focus on her cinematic work, far removed from any spatial staging through large-format textiles, the films in the exhibition are linked together in the sense of an overarching Gesamtkunstwerk to form a loose story with multiple references to literature and art history, anthropology and ritual actions.

Ulla von Brandenburg, born in Karlsruhe in 1974, lives and works in Paris and Karlsruhe. From 1995 to 1998, she studied scenography and media art at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe [Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design], and from 1998 to 2004, she studied free art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg [Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts]. Since 2016, Ulla von Brandenburg is professor for painting and graphic arts at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe [State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe].

All images:
Courtesy of the artist and Meyer Riegger, Berlin/Karlsruhe; Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Hamburg; Galerie Art: Concept, Paris; Pilar Corrias, London, Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe.
Photo: ARTIS-Uli Deck.