Anna Anders

Anna Anders has been using video as a means of artistic expression since 1986. She first began making short films; then, beginning in 1991, she started creating video objects, projections and installations. Often, exhibition spaces and their characteristics stimulate her to develop new works and series of works, which also fit into other environments.

Her colorful and humorous videos show the richness of her ideas. The images are precisely choreographed, down to the last detail and prop, yet they don’t appear to be “posed.” Mostly one can see a course of events in real time, which usually center around everyday activities and quirks that all of us are familiar with – house cleaning, personal hygiene, and the like. Anna Anders often creates her pieces by using only one camera angle.

Most of her protagonists are from her personal circle of friends. They work together in developing the roles. The content of the works is usually about raising or disappointing expectations, about seduction and revelation, about the relationship between seeing and being seen.

The actors generally look directly into the camera and appear in life size. The viewer stands “face to face” with the performers, making them feel as though they are being watched, regardless of where they move about in the room. The performers also direct their actions and comments toward the viewers. This directness is vexing and prompts viewers to feel as though they were interacting live with the performers. Viewers are thus integrated into the event and become part of the installation.

Anna Anders’s desire to play with deceptions and illusions can also be found in other forms. Some of her works, for instance, allude to the projection screen itself as a layer or interface between the real and the virtual (= projected) world – where both meet and overlap. Not only a white wall can serve as a projection screen, but also a pane of glass, water, sand, curtains, window blinds or even a bathtub, a sink or a cat litter box. As in trompe l’oeil paintings, one can hardly distinguish between the projected and the real texture... The moving images seem to fuse with the host material, making them nearly tangible.

Gabriele Rivet, 2011

born in Munich
since 1986 artistic work with video (single-channel tapes and installations)
lives in Berlin

2005 – 2022 professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin, faculty of design
2004 – 2005 associate lecturer at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, department of visual communication
2003 – 2004 assistant professor for the rector of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
2001 – 2002 co-foundation of the media art agency art2b, Cologne
1997 – 2001 assistant professor for media art at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
1995 – 1997 independent video productions for cultural institutions
1992 – 1995 postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
1989 – 1992 production assistant at Bayerischer Rundfunk-Fernsehen (Bavarian Television) for cultural programs
1980 – 1986 studies at Akademie der Bildenden Künste München (Academy of Fine Arts Munich)

2002
honorable mention by the Verband der deutschen Filmkritik (Association of The German Film Critics), awarded for the video "Schlag auf Schlag" on the European Media Art Festival Osnabrück

1998
special recognition by the COMTECart Dresden/Germany for installation "Touchscreen"
1st Marl Video Art Prize for installation "Touchscreen"

1996
honorable mention of the 7th Marl Video Art Prize, awarded a four week scholarship for the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, "Shower"

1992
project scholarship by the State Capitol of Munich for "Schützen schießen"

1991
scholarship award for video art by the Bavarian Government