Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Peripheren« 2021
portfolio incl. 120 pigment prints
each 29,7 x 42 cm
30 groups of each 4 prints

»Peripheren« refers to the boulevard périphérique which encircles Paris in a ring and which, with its various ›portes,‹ connects the capital with the rest of the country, functioning as a traffic redemption of French  centralism. From this border we looked as well into the polycentrically organized Ruhr area city, as towards the suburbs of Paris. When exhibited the images will be organzed in groups of 4 images,  juxatposing a ‚porte‘ in Paris to the related location in the Ruhr Area, both photographed photographed by both of us equally.

»Peripheren« won the Fotofabbrica Prize 2022 at the Festival Diecixdieci in Gonzaga Italy.
It will be exibited in 2024.

»Peripheren« 2021
248 Seiten | 20 × 28 cm, Softcover, Kettler Verlag
with a text by Kerstin Meincke
supported by Kunststiftung NRW

See the whole portfolio here »»

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Die unsichtbare Stadt, La ville invisible«
since 2017
Work in Progress

until now: ca. 120 photographs in
5 different portfolios (Mappen) 70 x 50 cm

»Dream Island«
»Ruinen der Zukunft (Ruins of the Future)«
»Fragile cities«
»Station to Station«
»Who owns the city«

Each portfolio includes a different number of pigment prints. To produce these prigment prints, each photograph has been printed, xeroxed and scaned before finally printed.

Since 2017 we photograph the transformation of cities. »These specify some of the unique features of these cities as well as comparable  structural elements that they share, which act, for the most part, as catalysts for revolutionary urbanistic developments.«
Starting from the plans of Expo 2025, which will take place on the landfill-island of Yumeshima (Dream Island) in Konohana, Osaka »Ruins of the Future« is an ongoing project, dealing with Future promises of Urban Developments. Since 2019 we compare certain topics in Tokyo and Paris. 2023 we could add some images from Seoul to this collection.
Also since 2019 we have been taking photographs in various cities in the Ruhr Area (Germany) which will compile in future portfolios, like Duisburg (Loveparade), Bochum (Schlachthof / Opel)

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»The Indian Defense«
one-channel-video, 5:23 min, 16:9, 4K
Sound: Axel Ganz
see the video »»

The harbour of Chennai, a metropolis in the South East of India, is an important hub to the Asia-Pacific area, and play an important role in the global trade network. »The Indian Defense« juxtaposes images from the Northern part of Chennai and found material  can also be read as a critical approach to photographic images, their relations to the global economy and the lack of own real photography.

exhibited at:
Chennai Photography Biennale 2021/2022

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Sequence as a Dialogue: A Future Book« 2017
15 pigment-prints each 80 x 66 cm
total: ca. 4.20 m x 2.20 m
unframed / eyelets

»Since 2005 we have been traveling to Japan, working on topics from subculture to surveillance. Since 2011 our perspective became more elaborated and several new works have been created, dealing with topics like protest, activism or political landscape. »A Future Book« is a work from 2017, dealing with editing and book-making.«

exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Gießen, 2019
CCCB Barcelona, 2017

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Walk the Walk« Chongqing 2020
one-channel video, 21 min

»Walk the Walk« follows the daily route between ourhome and studio in Düsseldorf, transfering the instructions to the city map of  Chongqing without knowing anything about the destination on site. Ignoring the different proportions, road layouts and construction sites, we follow the route through residential areas, across highways and past shopping malls business areas.

exhibited at:
Museum Schloss Morsbroich Leverkusen, 2020/2021
as part of: Taifun Projects, Düsseldorf 2020
as part of: »Bring your own beamer« Folkwang 2023

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain, 84.39 km« Paris 2023
Video Installation 9 monitors, ca. 1:20 h, loop
sound by: DJ Sundae
preview: vimeo.com/872505460 »» (PW: RegardsDuGrandParis2023)

»Move« In 2023, we worked on »Le Monde de Demain,« as part of ‚Regards du Grand Paris.‘* Our focus was on exploring the relationship between the ‚Banlieue‘ (suburbs) and the ‚Centre‘ (city center) of Paris, particularly in terms of the political and social landscape, urban transformation, and the visibility of various groups of people in this urban space. With a focus on »Paris 2024« and breakdancing, we conducted nine walks through the »Grand Paris« region, covering a total distance of 84.39 km, twice the distance of a regular marathon. In the year celebrating 50 years of hip-hop, our project connected different sites and areas, starting in the north, the birthplace of French hip-hop culture.
During the Olympic Games, breakdancing takes center stage in the city, signifying its transformation into a culturally and economically successful phenomenon. France is now the second-largest market for hip-hop after the USA. Our project explored the transformation of urban spaces, the influence of hip-hop culture, and the impact of the Olympic Games on the dynamics of the Grand Paris region.

acquisition:
CNAP / Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain, Allende/Concorde« Paris 2023
2 pigment prints, framed
each 70 x 100 cm

»Freeze« The history of French Hip Hop (and so also French breakdance) started  in St. Denis, in the Cité Allende. It was there that Joey Starr and Kool Shen started NTM Suprême. France is now the second largest market  in the world for hip hop and breakdancing is now olympic. For the Olmypic competitions there will be a temporary arena at Place de la Concorde – one of the significant places for breakdance history.
We made brief interventions at these and other relevant locations to French Hip Hop and took a photo at each location. We understand the black square meter of fabric as a stage, a reference to the cardboard often used by breakdancers. This small stage was the place for their visibility, an opportunity for communication and exchange.

acquisition:
CNAP / Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Sequence as a Dialogue: Le Monde de Demain« 2023
9 pigment-prints each 80 x 66 cm, total: ca 240 x 196 cm
unframed / eyelets

Like in previous works we again created a grid of 9 images using research material, other photographs, material, fashion or postcards to create a new body of work. All material relates to French Hip Hop, dance, photography and political landscape.

The online reference library:
preliminary drifting »»

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain, Eman« Paris 2023
5 pigment prints, framed
each 50 x 70 cm

»Freeze« In January 2023, we had the privilege of meeting the contemporary dancer Eman Hussein in Paris. Her movements are inspired by the motions of workers, such as those in car repair shops or on construction sites. Through this shared interest, we realized a wonderful collaboration with Eman, connecting her moves with the idea of dance tutorials from the 1980s. Finally, we present a selection of research-material from »Preliminary Drifting,« a website we created to bring together associations, links, and sources related to walking, music, dance, performance, art and political events in the context of breakdancing and the political landscape.

acquisition:
CNAP / Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain, Stalingrad« 2023
pigment print, framed

»Stalingrad« a mythical site in Hip Hop history. Between 1985 and 1989, 18 boulevard de la Chapelle was the epicenter of hip-hop culture. A place which turned a wasteland into a dancefloor, that now has disappeared, replaced by a postal distribution center. It was a meeting point for Graffiti artists, breakdancers, musicians, rappers, dancers – the Hip Hop cummunity of that that time.

published:
Le Monde de Demain, a Prologue, 2023
Release: Delpire, Paris Nov 2023

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain, Studio Square« Paris 2023
pigment print, framed

Our stage, our black squaremeter was the table in our studio at the Cité International des Arts in 2023.

published:
Le Monde de Demain, a Prologue, 2023
Release: Delpire, Paris Nov 2023

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express, The End of the New Silk Road« 2022
83 pigment prints
(landscape, portraits, scans, diary)
each 40 x 28 cm

Since 2014, trains from Chongqing but also from other desitations in China (like Wuhan, Xi’an), are arrinving in Duisburg; by now almost 60 trains per week. Reason enough to work about the so called New Silk Road / Road and Belt Project, the connections between China and Europe, and how it effects the Ruhr Area and the people living there. We understand our work on the border and as a connection between document and artistic work. In our artistic, photographic work we react to social changes and look at them from our personal perspective, with associations and connections that arise and develop in the course of the work.

exhibited at:
Stiftung Zollverein, 2022
collection: Ruhr Museum Essen

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express« 2021
artists book
28 x 22 cm 524 pages, incl. 260 images (colour / black white), 7 different chapters, 7 diff. paper, digital offset, xerox- and laserprinter, hand-stitched
Edition of #5 + 1 AP

Since 2014, almost 60 trains per week from several destinations  in China arriving in Duisburg. »Chongqing Express« deals with the  Road and Belt Project, the connections between China and Europe and how it effects the Ruhr Area (and other areas in Europe) and the people living there.

The book as a video »»

exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)
Stiftung Zollverein, 2022
collection: Ruhr Museum Essen

also:
Böhm #51, Chongqing Express
Popular Edition
20 x 28 cm, 8 pages
13 x 17 cm, 24 pages
Colour Digital Xerox Print

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express, Scans« 2022
»Scans: Camera, Inkjet-Printer, Harddrive, Flash« 2021
4 box-frames
digital offset, each  30 x 42 cm

In addition to electrical goods, foodstuffs, gravestones, fashion, toilet paper, coronavirus protective masks and tests, but also ‚transfers’ for skateboards, sports and cosmetic articles or dental implants arrive in containers from China at the Port of Duisburg.  A quick check of the equipment we used for this project revealed how many „Made in China“ products we use ourselves on a daily basis.  For the project, these are: the Japanese camera, which is finally also produced in China, the American hard disk, printer cartridges, the video camera, various tools and batteries.

exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
«Sequence as a Dialogue: Chongqing Express« 2022
20 pigment-prints each 60 x 45 cm
total: ca. 3.20 m x 2.00 m
unframed / eyelets

In these ‚Gesten’ we the resarch becomes an artistic pieces itself. We juxtapose different material: historic images, historic books, book we created (like »Chongqing Express« and also »Walk the Walk«, books from our own library by other artists (like Evans, Schmidt, Sekula), postcards, magazines etc. To visualize our perspective on the ‚New Silk Road / Belt and Road Initiative’, the  historic, political and personal connections with China.

exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express, New Landscape« 2022
Images of the »New Silk Road / Container« in Paris (2021), Dortmund (2021), Frankfurt (2022),
Mannheim (2021), Rotterdam (2011), Liege (2021)
folded pigment prints on newsprint paper, framed
each 100 x 80 cm

These six motifs extend the view beyond the Ruhr Area and juxtapose images of Chinese containers in Paris, Dormund, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Rotterdam and the Alibaba hub at Liege airport. The production of
these photographs, printed and folded on newsprint with a printing grid, refers to the maybe fluctuating media interest in this topic. There are also photographs from Geneva, Lyon and Ravenna.

exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express, Prologue« 2022
Phoenixsee, Dortmund 2019
Near Chaotianmen Market, Chongqing 2018
Grossiste à Aubervilliers, Paris 2019
pigment prints, framed
each 120 x 80 cm

»Phoenixsee« Dortmund 2019 The Phoenixsee is an artificial lake on the former steel-plant Phoenix-Ost in Dortmund Hörde. The Westfalenhütte (shut down in spring 2001) was bought by the Schagang Group, one of the largest Chinese steel corporations, dismantled in Dortmund and rebuilt in China.

»Near Chaotianmen Market« Chongqing 2018
»Grossiste à Aubervilliers« Paris 2019
On both of these photographs you see large cardboad-boxes with fashion, textiles maybe fabric – the one images was taken in Aubervilliers near Paris, in the center of Chineses fashion-wholesalers. The other photo was taken in Chongqing in an area with narrow streets and stairways where fast fashion is produced and sold.

These three images where taken long before our research for »Chongqing Express«. However, they do illustrate very well the links to China and our interest in these connections.

exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Sakae Ôsugi, Anarchiste Japonais«
246 pages, 110 colour plates
105 x 150 mm, softcover
will be published by Nouveau Palais 2024
with a text by Marie Tesson

Sakae Ōsugi (*1885 † 1923) was a Japanese anarchist; an publicist and theoretician of the Taishō period. In 1922 he got an invitation to attend the 2nd International Anarchist Congress in Berlin in 1923. After borrowing the necessary 1.000 Yen in travel expenses from the writer Arishima Takeo and others, he travelled to Shanghai on 13 Dec. where comrades helped him obtain a false Chinese passport. He landed in Marseille on 13 Feb on a French ship. He did not get the necessary foreigner‘s identity card issued in Lyon. […] In april, he canceled his plans to travel to  Berlin instead he stayed in Paris and gave a May 1 speech in Saint-Denis. There he was arrested by civilian police who knew about his presence in Europe. He was sentenced to three weeks in prison and deportation for passport offences. On 2 June he was sent back to Japan where he later was murdered – together with his second wife feminist and anarchist Itō Noe and a nephew – in Tokyo on 16 Sept 1923 by military police. Sakaes murder is known as the  Amakasu Incident.  In his book »My escapes from Japan« he mentiones a »workers’ hall« near the Basilica in Saint-Denis. Most likely he refers to the »Bourse du Travail« of Saint-Denis which was located in the Hotel de Ville at that time. In April 1892 a workers union was created for the first time in Saint-Denis initially in the premises of the Hotel de Ville opposite of the Basilica. In April 1895, several local trade unions formed a »Bourse du Travail«  which was first located on rue Saulger, later on rue des  Ursulines and rue Suger. The current »Bourse du Travail« on Rue Génin was designed by architect Roland Castro. Since the 1980s the architect has been working on the idea of a Grand Paris (he is at the origin of the »Banlieue 89« think tank with the urban architect Michel Cantal-Dupart). In Feb 2023, almost 100 years after Sakae Ōsugi’s experiences in Saint-Denis, we walked from Hotel de Ville past Passage Saulger, rue des Ursulines and rue Suger until we finally reached Rue Génin. The walk connects the addresses of all former union offices.

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Tokyo no Hate« 2016
35 pigment prints, different sizes, framed
total: ca. 250 x 180 cm

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Tokyo No Hate«
Zine: 20 x 28 cm, 72 pages  black and white xerox copies on natural paper,
handbound, published by: Böhm Kobayashi

»Tokyo No Hate« The Fukushima nuclear disaster was an energy accident at the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, initiated primarily by the tsunami following the Tohoku earthquake on 11 March 2011. Since then we met activists in Japan, joined protest demonstrations, exchanged with artists and learned a lot abour places, spaces and history in Japan.

exhibited at:
Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf, 2016
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018/2019
Kunsthalle Gießen (Zine), 2019
Leporello, Rome 2022

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»La Ville Lumière« 2021
Two-channel-video, Full HD, 12:49 min, 2021
with music by Volker Bertelmann
see the installation »»

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Paris Dec 8, 2018, La Ville Lumière« 2019
published by GwinZegal & Böhm Kobayashi
20 x 28 cm, 224 pages incl.  112 colour plates
with a text by Florian Ebner

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express, Mannheim Walks« 2022
»Walk Mannheim« 2021, colour prints
»Walk Mannheim 2« 2021, black/white prints
2 tables each 100 x 200 cm
each table contains 48 prints (6 rows)
each print: ca. 13 x 20,3 cm
digital c-type prints

The Festival (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie) invited us to realise two walks in Mannheim. We walked from our hotel near the main station towards the harbor; fhe other walk took us along a train waiting to leave for China, through the harbor of Mannheim.

exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express, Lieferkette / supply chain« 2022
one-channel-video, 00:19:29 min
loop

In Japan and China it is customary to write Kanji-signs with multiple meanings into your own hand to prevent misunderstandings. We chose this gesture and staged the term ‚supply chains‘ with Hao Wen for this video-piece.
Hao studied photography at the Folkwang University from 2019 to 2022. We collaborated with him several times and took his portrait for „The End of the New Silk Road“.

Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express, Leaving Quingdao« 2022
one-channel-video, 03:31 min
loop

On Feb. 18 the departure of the freight train to Mannheim was celebrated in Qingdao (and at the same time in a video conference). This marked the start of a newly established freight train connection between Mannheim and its twin city in China. We recorded several minutes of these two conductors waiting for the train to depart.