ABOUT

Lidia Rossner is a media artist and cultural agent exploring the narrative and conceptual potential of visual media. Her interdisciplinary practice is situated at the intersection of research and art. Lidia's art practice is based on ethnographically informed research of contemporary art, experimental modes of representation and converging zones between art and anthropology. She makes films on art as mediation and articulation of research.

Lidia is a lecturer at Freie University in Berlin, Germany in the Master’s program in Visual and Media Anthropology. In this academic context, Lidia has developed and led inter-institutional projects between the university, the Ethnological Museum, the Museum of Asian Art, and the Berlin Biennale in Berlin, Germany. Her academic focus is on exhibition as a medium and visual culture as manifestation of social processes. Taking large-scale art exhibitions as case studies, Lidia explores methodology and representations that address the interdisciplinary, temporal and experimental nature of art biennials and their impact on culture and society.

Lidia holds a Master's degree in Visual and Media Anthropology, with honors, from Freie University Berlin and a B.A. in Applied Arts and Sciences with emphasis in Graphic Design, with distinction in Art, from San Diego State University. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Lidia lived in San Diego, California for 19 years, followed by 6 years in Berlin, Germany. Since August 2015, Lidia is based in San Diego with frequent visits to Berlin. Prior to her immersion in art, anthropology and teaching, Lidia worked in the the fields of graphic design, photography, video production, and project development.

Information on conferences, screenings and research is listed in ANTHROPOLOGY  

Samples of visual work can be seen in PORTFOLIO

 
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VISUAL WORK

Lidia Rossner's visual work is primarily documentary, research based using ethnographic methods. She uses video, audio and still photography as media. Most recently, Lidia has realized several commissioned films for the Humboldt Dahlem Lab in Berlin, Germany. Previously, as part of her research of contemporary art and art biennials, she made a film about the 7th Berlin Biennale.

 

portfolio

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TEACHING

Since 2013 Lidia has been a lecturer at Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany in the  Master's Program in Visual and Media Anthropology, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Department of Political and Social Sciences.  (visual-anthropology.fu-berlin.de). Lecture based course and audio-visual workshops in co-operation with external cultural institutions.

 

teaching

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ANTHROPOLOGY

Research focus on contemporary art and visual culture with the following areas of concentration: art practices and art institutions; complexities and outcomes of encounters between contemporary art and anthropology; use of media in contemporary art exhibitions and in historical collections museums. Films and papers presented a conferences and exhibitions.

 

anthropology

‘ARTISTIC OFFICE: Constructing the 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art’ (2012) 60 min

Through ethnographically informed research, the film aims to shed insights onto the workings of a large-scale international art exhibition. Comprised of visible forms of complex social processes, the film attempts to expose the mechanisms of how an exhibition is conceptualized and realized. The protagonist is a process, the articulation of ideas from linguistic to visual form in a collaborative trans-cultural context. This process is revealed through the transformation trajectory of ideas as manifested in collaborations, decision- making, and interpersonal relationships. It is presented through the prism of the artistic office team, curators and curatorial assistants, in a construct of multi-layered fragments evolving parallel to the Biennale.

view the film on vimeo: vimeo.com/57525223

portfolio

‘Sounds of Painting' (2014) 20min. Waseem Ahmed - Dahlem Karkhana               

This film is a portrait of Waseem Ahmed’s two month residency in the Asian Art Museum in Berlin, Germany. Waseem Ahmed is a contemporary miniature painter engaged in a socially-critical art movement in Pakistan. His work reflects issues of abuse, religious indoctrination and fundamentalist violence. The film is based on several visits to his studio and a breakfast at his residence. Being without his family in Berlin, Waseem’s wife taught him how to cook via skype and he shared his new skill with me. The process of painting miniature is rather long, lonely and quiet. Multiple stages include mixing pigments, preparing the paper, drawing, painting with brushes made with squirrel hair, and applying thin sheets of gold or silver. Screened from Nov 9, 2014- Apr 5, 2015 in the Asian Art Museum, Berlin.

view the film on vimeo: vimeo.com/111243767

portfolio