Silke Schönfeld

The film works of Silke Schönfeld (*1988) oscillate between installation, staged settings, and documentary. She engages with social media and the omnipresent flood of images: in this context, the artist highlights ambiguities, questions the authenticity of moving images, and thus situates the viewers in a vague space between staged and documented film.

Schönfeld is especially interested in places and situations so ordinary that we don’t (or no longer) notice them – places we pass by without a second thought. These initially inconspicuous locations and situations serve as launch pads for the artist to reflect on larger, socially relevant topics. Schönfeld skillfully interweaves personal stories with historical and societal contexts, subtly directing attention to social phenomena, rituals, ideologies, and processes.

The publication is being issued on occasion of the eponymous solo exhibition at the HMKV Dortmund and showcases five large-scale video installations. Numerous photo spreads and introductory texts are accompanied by a detailed interview with the artist.

Inke Arns, PhD, curator, since 2005 Artistic Director, and since 2017 Director of HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein in Dortmund, Germany (www.hmkv.de). She has worked internationally as an independent curator, writer and theorist specialising in media art, net cultures, and Eastern Europe since 1993. In 2021-2022 Inke Arns held the position of Visiting Professor at the Art Academy in Münster, Germany. She has been teaching at universities and art academies in Berlin, Leipzig, Zurich, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam (2000-2017), and has lectured and published internationally.

Books include Tutorials (2024), Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear! Die Avantgarde im Rückspiegel (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2004), Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) – eine Analyse ihrer künstlerischen Strategien im Kontext der 1980er Jahre in Jugoslawien (Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie, 2002), Netzkulturen (Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 2002).