Johanna Kotlaris

Johanna Kotlaris (b. 1988, CH) is based in Rotterdam and Zürich. She holds a BA Graphic Design from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and is currently completing her MA Fine Art at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. Her practice comprises photography, video, installation, sculpture, performance and sound. Her works have been shown at Museo d’Arte della Svizzera Italiana Lugano, Dienstgabäude Zürich (CH), The New Gallery Calgary, Kunsthaus Langenthal, Schwarzwaldallee Basel (CH), Stadtgalerie Bern (CH), Castrum Peregrini Amsterdam (NL) and others. Kotlaris was awarded with the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Award, the Young Photography Talent Fellowship by Pro Helvetia, the Patronage Fund for young Swiss artists by Basler Kunstverein and was shortlisted for the Migros Ticino Artistic Creation Award and the VFG Young Swiss Talent Award.

During her residency at Rupert Kotlaris elaborated the continuation of a recent series of audio pieces composed through language and voice. Her investigation revolves around the experience of the self as part of a continuum, the contemporary condition of the body, and the process of matter that is always in flux. She questions the way we understand and navigate our bodies in space, the concepts of presence, dislocation and dissolution, and carries this out through writing, practical experimentation with her own voice and by challenging sculptural and installation aspects.