In this City Gallery Wellington event, Daniel Beban (New Zealand), Janine Eisenächer (Germany) and Soraya Rhofir (France) discuss their experiences as artists on international residency programmes. Chaired by curator Melanie Oliver in partnership with Goethe-Institut and Wellington City Council City Arts.
About the artists
Daniel Beban (New Zealand) is a musician and sound artist. He tours internationally with groups including Orchestra of Spheres, creates sound sculptures and sculptural instruments, produces radio documentaries and experimental radio works, makes field recordings, and conducts oral history research. Beban also runs Pyramid Club, a venue for experimental music and performances in Wellington. Beban was recently in Beijing for the Wellington Asia Residency exchange run by the Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Wellington City Council.
Janine Eisenächer (Germany) is a conceptual performance artist, curator and writer. Working both solo and within collectives, Eisenächer addresses themes of labour, politics and economies in the art field and wider questions of ethnology and identity related to gender, post-colonialism, feminism, racism and activism. She was a co-curator and co-organiser of the Berlin-based events Performer Stammtisch (2007–11), and Platform Young Performance Artists (2010 and 2011). Eisenächer is currently undertaking an artist residency in Wellington through the Goethe-Institut in co-operation with Wellington City Council.
Soraya Rhofir (France) is a visual artist who specialises in internet art, collaging popular imagery, clip art, 16-bit video game graphics, banal and clichéd images to create small-scale and large immersive works that pose questions of aesthetics and explore ideas of national identities. Rhofir has had solo exhibitions at Les Eglises (2013) and Parc Saint-Leger (2012), both in France. She was shortlisted for the 2010 Prix Ricard art prize for artists under 40 in Paris, and for the international shortlist at Present-Future Artissima Turin International Art Fair (2014). Recently she has expanded into film work, acting as artistic director for independent American filmmaker Trent Harris’ latest film. Rhofir is currently the 2017 Te Whare Hera artist in residence with Massey University College of Creative Arts, Wellington.
Melanie Oliver (New Zealand) is Senior Curator at the Dowse Art Museum. Melanie has held curatorial roles at Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth and Artspace, Sydney, and most recently, was the director of The Physics Room, Christchurch from 2012–16. Melanie has also undertaken curatorial projects for One Day Sculpture, the Liverpool Biennial City States programme, RAMP Gallery, ST PAUL St Gallery and RM gallery. A published writer and speaker on the visual arts, Melanie also has an interest in the educational potential of cultural institutions, furthered by a period spent at the National Library of New Zealand.
