Christoph Keller
Christoph Keller was born in 1967 in Freiburg, Germany. The artist lives and works in Berlin.
Christoph Keller studied Mathematics, Physics and Hydrology in Freiburg, Berlin and Santiago de Chile, followed by Liberal Arts studies at the Berlin University of the Arts (with Katharina Sieverding) and attended the Postgraduate Study Program for Film and Art at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.
He has been awarded numerous grants and residencies, among them: the Berlin Artistic Research Grant for 2020/2021, the scholarship of Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo in Rome in 2017, the Capacete Residency São Paulo in 2012, the Berlin Senate Residency in Istanbul in 2008, the Goethe Institute project residency in Mexico City, the Bremen Award for Video Art in 2006, P.S.1 Residency Program in New York in 2002, and Ars Viva Art Award in 2000.
Christoph Keller’s work constitutes an examination of the history of science and of the way in which knowledge is gathered and organized. Long-term projects concern, for instance, anthropology (in particular the history of Western European engagement with the Amazon region), fringe science and parapsychology. Keller continuously addresses how the organization of knowledge influences our thinking, which in the sometimes-arbitrary distinctions between what is and what is not considered science. His practice includes large-scale sculptural interventions, photography, film, exhibition-making, and psychological experiments, which he documents in various media.
Keller’s recent solo exhibitions include: Future Archeologists, Esther Schipper, Berlin (2023); Data Error – Roma Antichità, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome (2023); Grey Magic, Esther Schipper, Berlin (2015); Small Survey on Nothingness, Schering Stiftung, Berlin (2014); Expedition Bus-Shaman Travel, solo presentation at abc Berlin, Station Berlin (2012); Æther – between Cosmology and Consciousness, Nouveau Festival du Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011); Voyages Extraordinaires, CRAC Alsace Lorraine, Altkirch (2010); Observatorium, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig (2008), and Encyclopaedia Cinematographica, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Berlin (2001).
Selected group exhibitions include: Broken Music Vol. 2—70 Years of Records and Sound Works by Artists, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2022); the thing is, rosalux and modelo para armar, Berlin (2022); Hypnose, Musée d'art de Nantes, Nantes (2020); Die Villa Massimo zu Gast im Gropius Bau, Gropius Bau, Berlin (2019); Starship. The Near Future, Volksbühne Berlin, Berlin (2019); Il Mondo in Fine, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2018); EKSTASE in Kunst, Musik und Tanz, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart (2018); Conversation Piece, Part IV, Fondazione Memmo, Rome (2017); Anarchéologie, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017); Tamawuj, 13th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2017); The Reluctant Narrator, Museu Coleçao Berardo, Lisbon (2015); Zehn Räume, drei Loggien und ein Saal, Sprengel Museum, Hannover (2015); The Translator’s Voice, FRAC Lorraine, Metz (2015); Magic Hours, The Ridder – A House for Contemporary Art, Maastricht (2013); Now Here is also Nowhere: Part II, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle (2013); L’Institut des archives sauvages, Villa Arson, Nice (2012); A Terrible Beauty Is Born, 11th Lyon Biennale, Lyon (2011), and Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF, Lofoten (2011).