Cartographie Dynamique by Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber is a virtual network connecting cities in Japan, Germany, France, China or India with the distinctive photographic works created in each location. Thematic filters are added into the mix, among them topics like Protest, Anarchism, Subculture, large-scale events events like Olympia or Expo, questions about urban transformation between the center and the periphery of cites. This network originated fifteen years ago, with »Japanese Lesson« (2005), a body of work drawn from a wide range of private and appropriated image sources that has been continually expanding ever since. Beginning as an exuberant visual grammar consisting of shots of the city, portraits, and manga, steeped in the melancholy of the already antiquated hyper-modernity of Japanese “electric towns,” it afforded a more acute view of Europe’s urban structures and evolved via photographic peregrinations through the city into applied psychogeography.
»The organization of the »Cartographie dynamique«as a network gives the desultoriness of Sieber & Stuke’s photographic dérives new possibilities of comparison and grants their repeating structures a logical inevitability. The cartography even generates ideas for new ways of mapping urban spaces. Even if today, in a globalized and automated world, the causes of social disruption can be attributed more and more to the invisible mechanisms of economic and political processes, they find visible expression in the physical world of our cities.« (Florian Ebner, for »Dec 8 2018, La Ville Lumière«, GwinZegal / Böhm Kobayashi 2021)
Cartographie Dynamique includes various series and photographic works of differing scales. Some chapters exist as books, artist books in limited editions, or unique maquettes. Several photographic works are presented as wall pieces or grids of images, while others take the form of extensive site-specific installations or video screens.
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Japanese Lesson, Mash-up« 2005-2015
one-channel video, 5:43 min
Resulted from a long-lasting research this »Mashup« contains images and drawings from mangas and animes, still images from japanese movies, historical and current press-photographs; photos, drawings and paintings by japanese artists, some of their own works and material they found in the web, magazines, LP-record-sleeves, catalogues and in the streets.
exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Gießen, 2019
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018/2019
UNSEEN Fair, Coop Section, 2018
Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf, 2016
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 Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber have been traveling to Japan, working on topics from subculture to surveillance. Since 2011 their 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
»Japanese Lesson« Artist Book 2019
1260 pages, 20 x 28 x 6,5 cm
digital offset, colour
incl 13 drawing, carbon paper and a glossary.
ed. of #5 + 5 AP
The »Japanese Lesson« artist book consists of 13 chapters. Each chapter shows a ‚walk‘ either on a border of a district in Tokyo or Osaka which inhabitants experience discrimination and stigmatisation often due to the geographic history; or the walk could lead around or towards a (construction) site related to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. On each walk we take photographs every 100 or 200 meters in the the walking direction. In this way we create about 300 photographs during a 3 hour walk which later becomes a book, a video or a wall piece. Of each chapter of the artist book there also exist unique maquettes including 100 to 300 images (see page 18)
exhibited at:
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018/2019
Museum Schloss Morsbroich, 2020/2021
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Japanese Lesson, Sanya April 10, 2017, 3 – 6 :30 pm« 2018
36 pigment prints, each 42 x 29,7 cm
total: ca. 2.75 m x 2.00 m
framed
San’ya is an area in the Taitō district of Tokyo. San’ya dates to the Edo period. Lower caste workers, butchers, tanners, leatherworkers, and the like, were forced to live in this undesirable region by the predominantly Buddhist authorities. It has retained its association with both lower class workers and with craftsmen.
exhibited at:
Museum Kunstpalast (acquisition) 2021
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018/2019
Museum Schloss Morsbroich, 2020/2021
Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf, 2016
Kunsthalle Gießen, 2019
UNSEEN Fair, curated Coop-section, 2018
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Japanese Lesson, Ichinomiya May 5, 2017, 12:15 – 3:30 pm« 2018
36 pigment prints, each 42 x 29,7 cm
total: ca. 2.75 m x 2.00 m
framed
The Tsurigasaki Beach in the town of »Ichinomiya«, Chiba Prefecture, has been selected as a site for the surfing event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Surfing made its debut at the 2021 Games as an official sport in the Summer Olympics. Ichinomiya is located 233 miles south of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
exhibited at:
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018/2019
Kunsthalle Gießen, 2019
UNSEEN Fair, curated Coop-section, 2018
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Japanese Lesson Nishinari« 2018
May 24, 2017; 2-7:30 pm
one-channel video, 281 photographs, 23:15 min
»Japanese Lesson Ikuno« 2018
May 27, 2017; 10:15 am-5:15 pm
one-channel video, 424 photographs, 34:45 min
Katja Stuke
12 Walks, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka 2017
carbon paper, 28 x 20 cm 12 drawings, 28 x 20 cm
Katja Stuke
3 drawings, Nishinari, Kotobuki, Shibuya 2025
Pigment prints, 96 x 66 cm
One part of Nishinari ward is Kamagasaki, located near the south of the Osaka loop line; it’s a so called »Yoseba,« an area where unskilled workers live and work day in and day out.
Ikuno-ku is one of 24 wards of Osaka, Japan. The Tsuruhashi area of Ikuno-ku is well known for the large number of Koreans, particularly Korean Japanese citizens (Zainichi Korean) living there, as well as for its large number of yakiniku (Korean-style barbecue) restaurants.
exhibited at:
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018/2019
Kunsthalle Gießen, 2019
Space Relations, WELTKUNSTZIMMER Düsseldorf 2025
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Sumiyoshi, A walk after Norio Imai« 2019
36 pigment prints, each 42 x 29,7 cm
total: ca. 2.75 m x 2.00 m
framed
In 1970 Norio Imai and the artist-collective Gutai Group participated in EXPO 70 in Osaka. After meeting him in 2019 we walked though Sumiyoshi, Osaka which is a very local un-special disctrict following a walk by Norio Imai‘s, which he made 1973.
exhibited at:
Museum Ostwall Dortmund 2024 (acquisition)
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Tokyo no Hate« 2016
35 pigment prints, different sizes, framed
total: ca. 250 x 180 cm
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 about places, spaces and history in Japan.
exhibited at:
Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf, 2016
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018/2019
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Tokyo No Hate« Zine 2018
20 x 28 cm, 72 pages
black and white xerox copies on natural paper,
handbound, published by: Böhm Kobayashi
exhibited at:
Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf, 2016
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018/2019
Kunsthalle Gießen (Zine), 2019
Leporello, Rome 2022
Katja Stuke »Midosuji« 2019
one-channel video, sound, 6:47 min
Midosuji Boulevard – the primary main street in central Osaka – is an ultra high-class shopping street, housing luxury clothing flagship stores, several department stores and major hotels. In 2019 on »Midosuji« several racists ralleys took place, opposed by counter racists – and the police inbetween.
exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Gießen, 2019
Tokyo Express, The PhotoBookMuseum, Cologne 2022
ANT!FOTO Bar, FFT Düsseldorf 2022
Glasmoog KHM, Cologne 2026
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Sakae Ôsugi, Anarchiste Japonais« 2024
105 x 150 mm
246 pages, 110 colour plates
softcover
published by Nouveau Palais
with a text by Marie Tesson
Sakae Ōsugi (*1885) was a Japanese anarchist; an publicist and theoretician of the Taishō period. He came to Europe in 1923. In 2023, 100 years after Sakae Ōsugi’s experiences in Saint-Denis, Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber walked through St. Denis, connecting the addresses of all former union offices.
Katja Stuke
»Noe Ito, Feminist / Anarchist, 1895–1923« 2020
Xerox Multicopy, framed
140 x 100 cm
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Paris Dec 8, 2018, La Ville Lumière« 2021
Two-channel-video, Full HD, 12:49 min, 2021
with music by Volker Bertelmann
exhibited at:
FFT (Forum Freies Theater) Place International, Düsseldorf 2021
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
»From the Cité des arts to the Champs-Elysées, where yellow vests demonstrated, »La Ville Lumière« states a photographic testimony. Posted in chronological order in which they were taken, their images show empty streets, closed store windows and diverse groups of people. They bear witness to the influence of the social context on the urban landscape.«
exhibited at:
Leporello, Rome (Italy) 2022
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Walks, Tokyo, Osaka, Paris, Chongqing«
Maquettes, Unique Copies
»The sequencing of these so called ‘walks’ correspond to the natural process that is characteristic of the photographic work by Stuke and Sieber as a whole. After the picture is before the picture; one photo does not stand for itself, but is part of a sequence and constellation; what is captured in one photograph will look somewhat different in the next; and completing a series with a particular photo does not necessarily mean that it has been finalised. As a general rule, the work of these two photographers almost always shifts the photographic work beyond the moment and the motif towards a movement that is conceived as open and that only comes to a temporary standstill with the last image of the photographic ensemble.« […] Stefanie Diekmann
Unique artist books, Japan 2017:
»Higashi Sumida« 2017
126 photographs, 20 x 28 cm, 256 pages
»Shibaura« 2017
60 photographs, 20 x 28 cm, 125 pages
»Rain Dogs and Stray Cats« 2017
264 photographs, 20 x 28 cm, 532 pages
»233 miles away« 2017
76 photographs, 20 x 28 cm, 156 pages
»Cities change the Songs of Birds« 2017
20 x 28 cm, 124 pages
»The headquarter« 2017
20 x 28 cm, 68 pages
»The Island« 2017
20 x 28 cm, 104 pages
»Tokyo Happy« 2017
20 x 28 cm, 64 pages
»Underground Maze« 2017
20 x 28 cm, 74 pages
»A Colour Guide« 2017
15 x 23 cm, 96 pages
»Walk the Walk« Chongqing 2018
166 photographs, 20 x 28 cm, 336 pages
»Aubervilliers« 2019
160 photographs, 324 pages
»Aulnay sous Bois« 2019
150 photographs, 304 pages
»Colombes« 2019
77 photographs, 20 x 28 cm, 158 pages
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Shinsekai, New World« 2019
2 x 59 photographs, clockwise/counterclockwise
2 softcover zines in an envelope
numbered and signed
2 x 112 pages incl. 112 colour plates, glossary,
handbound, edition of 5 copies
Shinsekai (»New World«) is located in Osaka. An area, where a
national industrial show took place in 1912 with the inevitable
Tsutenkaku Tower as the main structure – built after the Eiffel Tower. We walked on the district border of Shinsekai, one clockwise, the other counterclockwise, always photographing in the direction of the central tower.
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.«
exhibited at:
Diecixdieci Festival, 2024
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Peripheren« 2021
248 pages | 20 × 28 cm, softcover
with a text by Kerstin Meincke
supported by Kunststiftung NRW
Fotofabbrica Prize Diecixdieci Festival, 2022
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 city and area. Ignoring the different proportions, road layouts and construction sites, Kaja Stuke & Oliver Sieber followed 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
»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
exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)
Stiftung Zollverein, 2022
collection: Ruhr Museum Essen
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« by Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber the resarch becomes an artistic pieces itself. The two artists juxtapose different material: historic images, historic books, their own books, books from our own library by other artists, postcards, magazines etc, to visualize ther 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, 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 Auber-
villiers 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
«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
Ed. III + 1 AP
exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)
collection:
Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang Essen
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
exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»A Walk with Hao« Gelsenkirchen 2020
pigment print, framed
111,7 x 91,7 cm
exhibited at:
Kunsthalle Mannheim (Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022)
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Chongqing Express, The End of the New Silk Road« 2022
83 pigment prints
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
»Indian Defense« 2021
one-channel-video, 5:23 min, 16:9, 4K
with sound by Pondskater
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:
CPB Chennai Photography Biennale 2021/2022
as part of: »Bring your own beamer« Folkwang 2023
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain« 2024
9 walks, 9 videos
9-channel-video, 1:18:36h Loop, 4K,
with sound by DJ Sundae
In January and February 2023, Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber conducted nine photographic walks covering a total distance equivalent to two marathons—84.38 kilometres—each linking two sites associated with the Olympic Games, mostly con-struction sites of future Olympic venues. Primarily interested in the urban transformation and the developing infrastructure between these venues, they took photographs every 200 meters always facing the direction of their walk. These 1,600 photographs were used to create nine videos, each of a different length. The images slowly move from right to left across the screens, each screen showing one complete walk. The nine monitors are arranged geographically, corresponding to the walks in the banlieues of Paris.
At a glance, you can see and compare images from the different suburbs. Images drift from one monitor to the next. Black text panels drift irregularly in the opposite direction above the monitors.They contain quotes on the artistic practices of walking and photography, on infrastructure and urban development, and various lines from hip-hop lyrics. French musician DJ Sundae created a sound piece referencing “old school” hip-hop from the 1990s for this video-installation. All photographs of each walk are also published in an artists book edition.
exhibited at:
DFI e.V. / Towards Photography, Düsseldorf
acquisition:
CNAP / Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain« 2024
9 Walks, 9 Books
3410 pages in 9 books, 1705 colour photographs
210 x 280 x 220 mm, digital offset print
softcover, stapled and hand-glued
edition of #2 + I
exhibited at:
DFI e.V. / Towards Photography, Düsseldorf
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain« 2024
»Concorde/Allende«
2 Pigment Prints, framed, 100 x 70 cm, 2023
»Subcultures often emerge in the suburbs, on the outskirts of the city. Hip-hop in France began in the banlieues of Paris and Marseille, where music, lyrics, and dance first took shape. From the périphérique, young people moved into the city center to
to gain recognition and visibility. Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber explore sites that are significant to the history of hip-hop in Paris. At each location, they place a black square cloth, photographing it as a symbol—evoking the cardboard dancers used to protect their bodies, and at the same time representing the stage, the space the dancers claimed for themselves. In this exhibition, two of these photographs are on display: one from Cité Allende in St. Denis, where Suprême NTM began their journey; the other from Place de la Concorde, where breakdance competitions were held during the 2024 Games.« Moritz Wegwerth DFI e.V.
exhibited at:
DFI e.V. / Towards Photography, Düsseldorf
acquisition:
CNAP / Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Le Monde de Demain« 2024
»Eman«
5 Pigment Prints, framed, 70 x 50 cm, 2023
While working on »Le Monde de Demain«, Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber met dancer and choreographer Eman Hussein. They shared an interest in transformation, construction sites, and the labor and movement of construction workers. Katja and Oliver asked Eman to perform one of her specific sequences she developed from the workers movements for the camera. Together they created a series of five images showing different stages of this movement, in the manner of the historic work of Eadweard Muybridge or Étienne-Jules Marey, or like dance and movement tutorials. In the 1980s, breakdancers published photographic tutorials to teach their moves.
exhibited at:
DFI e.V. / Towards Photography, Düsseldorf
acquisition:
CNAP / Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Die unsichtbare Stadt / La ville invisible« 2017-2025
incl. 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«
»Who owns the city?« Mappe
9 pigment prints, 70 x 50 cm
2018/2019, 2023, 2024
exhibited at:
Museum Kunstpalast 2025 (acquitions: Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf)
Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber
»Die unsichtbare Stadt / La ville invisible« 2017-2025
site-specific installation
22 rolls, each 5 images, newsprint, 260 x 65 cm)
Since 2017 Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber photograph the transformation of cities and landscapes. Observing and documenting this urban transformations, the process of the construction-sites the project deals with the following questions: Can major events like the Olympic Games be accelerators of such urban changes, how much do they contribute to further changing the understanding of private and public space? Do ideas of coming together, exchange, sporting competition still play a central role or are the stadiums, arenas and pavilions just some more ruins of the future?
exhibited at:
Fondation de l‘Allemagne, Cité Universitaire Paris, 2024
Katja Stuke, Oliver Sieber
»La Ville Invisible« 2024
340 pages, 167 photographs,
20 x 28 cm, softcover, offset-print
with a text by Jochen Becker (Metrozones Berlin)
and an interview between
Ivan Vartanian and Katja Stuke / Oliver Sieber
published by Böhm Kobayashi
