The Berlin gallery Wentrup is hosting a conversation between artist Britta Thie and screenwriter and showrunner Katharina Eyssen at the Château Royal Berlin on February 17, 2024. The dialogue brings together two outstanding artists who deal intensively with narrative structures in their works that encompass both art and media historical discourses.
Image above: Britta Thie & Katharina Eyssen, courtesy of Wentrup
Katharina Eyssen, an acclaimed screenwriter, rose to prominence for her award-winning television series “The Empress” (Die Kaiserin), which won an Emmy. Her work is characterized by the skillful use of cutting-edge moving image technology to bring the complex narrative into the realm of popular entertainment. Eyssen draws from a rich pool of historical material, poetically translating the series’ characters and aesthetics into the streaming world – a currently omnipresent site of narrative production.
Britta Thie, both artist and actress, recently played a role in “The Empress.” While working on various film sets, Thie spent a significant amount of her time behind the scenes, surrounded by production equipment. In the breaks between scenes, Thie viewed these objects as a kind of companion. In her resulting paintings, these lighting systems, recording devices and other forms of cinematic infrastructure take center stage, and she cleverly weaves the static world of the classic portrait with the dynamics of the moving image.
The discussion will show how the different artistic approaches of the two personalities have enriched each other and how unexpected dialogues can emerge through the interaction of innovative ways of thinking.
BRITTA THIE
Britta Thie was born in Minden in 1987. She studied at the Münster Art Academy, at the CooperUnion of Science and Art New York and completed her studies at the Berlin University of the Arts. She lives and works in Berlin. Britta Thie’s works explore the treacherous geographies created by the endless stream of highly stylized and commercial images that define contemporary visual culture.
Her most recent solo exhibitions include “In Development” at the Leopold Hoesch Museum in Düren. As part of Gallery Weekend Berlin 2023, Wentrup presented Thie’s first solo exhibition in the gallery. Last year she was part of the group exhibitions “Identity not Proven” at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn and “How (Not) to Fit In – Metaphors of Adolescence” at the Villa Merkel in Esslingen. She has presented her work at the following institutions: Public Art Fund, New York, US | MOCA, Toronto, CA | Mumok, Vienna, AT | Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, DE | Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, DE | KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE | Schinkel Pavilion, Berlin, DE | Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, DE | Kunstverein Göttingen, DE | Anthology Film Archives, New York, US | Kestner Society, Hanover, DE | Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt, DE | Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin, DE | Villa Merkel, Esslingen, DE | Kunsthalle Osnabrück, DE | National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, DK | Kunstverein Wiesbaden, DE | Fragile, Berlin, DE.
KATHARINA EYSSEN
Katharina Eyssen was born in 1983 in Starnberg near Munich, where she studied screenwriting and dramaturgy at the University of Television and Film from 2005 to 2010. While she was still studying, she began working on her first feature film script for HEUTE BIN ICH BLOND (2013) (TODAY I’M BLOND). Her first novel ALLES VERBRECHER (ALL CRIMINAL) was also published in 2011. Since then she has been writing scripts for film and television and lives and works in Berlin. She is showrunner and headwriter of the International Emmy-winning drama series “The Empress.”
WHEN?
Saturday, 17. February 2024, 5 pm
WHERE?
Château Royal
Neustädtische Kirchstraße 3
10117 Berlin-Mitte
