Category: Christel Dillbohner

Christel Dillbohner (www.dillbohner.de), an Associate of the Institute of Cultural Inquiry for over 20 years, is an experienced visual researcher, societal explorer and world traveler. Hailing from Cologne, Germany, she now calls Los Angeles and Berkeley, CA, her homes. She translates her findings from the field into visual thoughts by using a variety of materials such as pigments, wax and clay, plant matter and found objects. An Associate of the Institute of Cultural Inquiry for over 20 years, she has presented her results in a multitude of collaborative projects and interventions.

Projects:
2013 Visualist-in-Residence
2012 Fingerübungen
2003 AIDS CHRONICLES, Los Angeles, Project Coordinator
1995 AIDS CHRONICLES, Los Angeles, Project Coordinator
1993 AIDS BOTTLE PROJECT, City University of New York, and the Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, Project Coordinator
1992 AIDS BOTTLE PROJECT, Los Angeles, Project Coordinator
1991 AIDS BOTTLE PROJECT, Los Angeles, Project Coordinator

ICI Publications:

2007 Searching for Sebald
2001 Benjamin’s Blind Spot & The Manual of Lost Ideas
1997 Bataille’s Eye & ICI Field Notes 4

Field Projects:

1993 Wunderkammern: Salzburg, Wien, Guggingen, Praha, Dresden, Berlin, Bochum, Köln
1999 Museums of Remembering: Berlin, Krakow, Ausschwitz, Praha, Venezia
2004 Searching for Sebald: London, Oxford, Lowestoft, Southwold, Dunwich
2006 Book Publishing: Rhode Island, Dia Beacon
2008 Book Fair: New York City
2009 Interventions: Venezia, Frankfurt
2012 Barthesisan Musings: London, Gränna, Sweden

Visualist-in-Residence Project

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Due to space limitations, VIR applications for 2016 are currently not being accepted. This project may resume in 2017.

The VIR residency offers local artists, art theorists, writers, and other culture producers an environment that is oriented towards knowledge production through its well-equipped study and production facilities. Resources include a 3,000-volume library; an Ephemera Kabinett that contains cultural residue from the last 100 years; a collection of arcane visual tools or their handbooks (sometimes both); and a unique physical site with its own collection of phantom histories and secrets. 

Froebel Star Folding

We are looking for adventurous ‘visualists’ to help us ‘theorize the materials’ or ‘materialize the theories’ of the various processes of knowledge production that are ‘visually orchestrated.’ These are activities that interrogate and extend current conceptions of ‘studio-based research’ as they are being extolled in the academy.

Some of the features of the Residency include:

• The VIR laboratory is available for residencies lasting between 1-4 weeks. We can only offer a work space at this time (no live-in) but access is 24/7 to accommodate residents who have a ‘day job’ or other demands on their time during ICI’s normal business hours.

• At the very least, each resident will arrive with a single question to jump-start her or his visual research but, more often, the resident arrives with a project already underway that will benefit from an investigatory period at the ICI.

• The Institute will provide limited manpower and, at time,  financial assistance. We will also facilitate partnerships with a roster of highly skilled ICI Associates and supporters to enrich the VIR residency experience.

•The VIR quarters will be open to the public as part of regularly scheduled ICI tours at least one Saturday per month (depending on the concurrent ICI project) and/or by appointment.

• The Resident will interact with the ICI staff and/or Associates on a regular basis to discuss the Resident’s work, either through meetings or online interactions,

• At the end of the residency, the VIR will be encouraged to summarize their research processes and findings during some type of recorded discussion with ICI staff and/or associates. This exchange might include an interview, a non-verbal demonstration, an exchange on social media, or some other recorded form based on the scope and range of the residency.

• In addition to ‘documenting’ their residency on the ICI’s website, the Resident will also be asked to create a material trace of their tenure to be placed in a special box that will become a part of the ICI repository.

VIR Residents have included:
Julene Paul, Spring 2012
Jared Neilsen, Summer 2012
Greg Cohen, Winter 2012-13
Christel Dillbohner, Spring 2013
Martin Gantman, Winter 2013
Maya Gurantz, Summer 2014
Anna Ayeroff, Summer-Fall 2014
Jaime Knight, Fall 2014
Amy Kaczur, Spring 2015
Christopher Handran, Summer 2015

Find more information about the VIR Project at http://www.culturalinquiry.org/blog/activities/2014-visualist-in-residence-project
or email us at info@culturalinquiry.org

 

 

ICI Associates in Collaboration

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4 Hands ( A Suite) #1,
mixed media on paper 22 x 30 inches

Associates Antoinette LaFarge and Christel Dillbohner recently met at the Berkeley chapter of the ICI for an intensive residency called Seeing thru – Durchblicke schaffen.

They split their field research into two halves:

The first half explored possibilities for creating a modular system to generate figures and backgrounds without repetitive drawing. Using ink, paint, and acetate, they developed a variant on cell animation techniques.

The second half was a Gemeinschaftsbilder (collaborative drawing) workshop, during which they created four finished works on paper, one of which is shown here.

Christel Dillbohner at the ICI

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Mit dem anderen Blick
2 May – 21 May, 2013

“I want to come and look with a fresh eye … then translate, transform, ferry across that deep river of inquiry.”

Visualist-in-Residence and longtime ICI associate, Christel Dillbohner, spent two weeks of  inquiry and discovery at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry. On Saturday, May 18, she shared her processes of visual research along with her unique, ephemeral findings with an enthusiastic audience. Dillbohner documented her residency on the VIR blog.

You can also read or download an e-book of Dillbohner’s residency at Bookleteer: http://bkltr.it/17rSovG

Read more about the Visualist in Residence project.

 

 

ICI Associate featured in New DVD

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ICI Associate, Christel Dillbohner, has been featured in a new DVD entitled Authentic Visual Voices: Contemporary Paper and Encaustic.

The DVD “offers a rare opportunity to gain insight into the artistic process [of] 28 professional artists in their own voices.”

www.authenticvisualvoices.com for more info.

Chritell Dillbohner at the ICI

Thank you to all those who attended Saturday night’s discussion with our most recent Visualist-in-Residence and long time ICI Associate, Christel Dillbohner, as she discussed her project based research at the ICI.

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Be sure to stay tuned for details on upcoming ICI projects and events. We look forward to seeing each of you again soon.

 

Press Release

Mit dem anderen Blick

ICI-VIRchristel

May 18, 2013, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
At the Institute of Cultural Inquiry
Presentation and Discussion will begin at 6:30pm

The Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) presents Mit dem anderen Blick, a public presentation of our current Visualist-in-Residence, Christel Dillbohner’s practice-based research at the ICI.

The ICI’s “Visualist-in-Residence” (VIR) program offers artists, art theorists, writers, and other visual researchers and culture producers a chance to participate in studio-based visual research in a richly layered and mutable environment. The VIR ‘laboratory’ may function as an artist’s studio, a writing room, a space for gathering data or a quiet space for evaluation and contemplation depending on the needs of each individual project. At the Institute, VIRs are actively encouraged to expand current definitions of visual research and to borrow freely from ICI research practices as they develop aspects of their project in one or more of the following areas: Field work and Data Acquisition; Research and Analysis; Manipulation and Experimentation; Knowledge Transmission and Production; and Public Presentation and Publication. At the end of each residency, the VIRs are invited to present their ‘research’ in a public event/discussion session.

Christel Dillbohner’s VIR workspace and the materials associated with her findings will remain on display (by appointment only via info@culturalinquiry.org) until May 25, 2013. New applications for the Institute of Cultural Inquiry’s VIR program are being accepted through May 31, 2013. To apply, please send a detailed letter of interest to info@culturalinquiry.org.

All ICI public programs are free. Prompt arrival prior to program time is recommended. For questions regarding Mit dem anderen Blick or other ICI events, please contact info@culturalinquiry.org.

ICI Associate and Friend in Exhibition

Long-time ICI associate, Christel Dillbohner and friend of the ICI, Christine Nguyen, are featured in a new show titled WASHED UP: Ocean in Peril. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the tsunami that hit the coast of Japan in 2011, ‘the twenty artists gathered in this exhibition individually respond to the bewildering problems in the deep and on our adjoining shores.’

The exhibition is showing at El Camino College Art Gallery from February 11 – March 7, 2013.

The Honey Gatherers

Ueber das Sammeln von Honig                         – The Honey Gatherers

Christel Dillbohner’s site-specific installation at SPACE, Los Angeles, February/March 1993

“Insights/Einblicke”

catalog essay by Michael Lawrence, Los Angeles, 1994

“…..The Honey Gatherers utilized approximately 3,000 square feet to investigate the various aspects of the ancient art of honey gathering.
Using a wide range of materials, the installation was a metaphor for the human condition of searching happiness. The search specifically focused on gathering and filtering experiences in order to better understand those experiences.
The installation also exemplifies the artist creating art, of finding momentary meaning in the continual flow of events.”