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Artist Interview: Cornelia Konrads

I’m so excited to continue my artist interviews with this amazing artist: Cornelia Konrads. Born in 1957 in Wuppertal, Germany, Kondrads studied Philosophy and Cultural Science, and has been working as an artist since 1998. Her main artististic focus has been site specific sculpture and objects. Konrads has done many commissioned works for public spaces, sculpture parks and private collections and participated in various sculpture and land art projects in Europe, Asia, Australia, America and Africa.

Can you explain who you are and what do you do?

I’m a sculptor, based in Germany but working in many different countries. My work is basically site specific, i.e. it’s related to a certain place. The main part of the construction takes place on site. The site is not just a background for me, it’s a texture – and it’s my goal and challenge, that the work merges with this texture, becomes a part of it, as if it has always been there.  

What themes do you pursue in your work?

I like the image of a journey for the creation of artwork. Life is a journey and art reflects life. Literally my site specific works are always preceded – and followed – by a journey. In a certain way this journey is a part of the work. I refer to it, and I speak about aspects of travelling: passage, movement, transformation, transience.

How has your practice evolved over time? What has been the main driver of that?

I started with graphic and painting, then integrated collage and printing. The illusion of space has always fascinated me, so it was just logical, that my works became more and more spatial. Regarding 3-dimensional artwork I’m mostly intrigued by the question how it dialogues with its surrounding. No matter if it’s an urban place or somewhere in the “wild”, if it’s indoors or outdoors – each place has a history (I would eaven say a “memory”) and a certain atmosphere – I like, if an artwork assimilates this pecularities and makes them visible.

What role do you think artists have in society?

To stay at least with one leg outside of the “common sense”, to be deliberately the fool on the hill, to ask crazy questions (not to give answers!) about things, everyone believes to know …

Can you describe a real life situation that inspired you to create? 

Early morning in my studio, with a cup of good coffee!

Walking along unknown streets, paths and trails.

Taking a bath.

When you create site-specific sculptures, from where does your process start?

My first approach to an unknown area is always: walking – without a certain destination. I follow the attraction of marks and constellations of the landscape, shapes, sounds, smells, tracks, light situations. During those walks I collect in my mind what lies on the edge of the path: incidents, materials, characteristics of the local architecture or vegetation  – untill I come to a place, where all this observations condense into an image. 

I know, that I’ve found „my site“, when immediately three aspects come together: a clear image, I can visualise there, the technical possibilities and a sensefull relation to the informations I picked up on my way before. This is a very “precise” feeling. 

What have you learned from your career as an artist that you would like to pass onto other practising  artists?

Never stop to surprise yourself! 

Do you think an artist needs an ultimate goal in his/her work? If so, what yours?

Yes. see previous answers…

What could you not live without as an artist?

Freedom.

25/9/2017 — 2:00 pm

Defying Gravity — The Works Of Cornelia Konrads

Written by Martina Advaney

German artist Cornelia Konrads has exhibited her work in many countries apart from Germany. Her works are unexampled, specific to the locales she chooses, and possessed of a unique vibe which gives viewers the impression that they are suspended in the air. We are fortunate to have obtained an interview with her given her extremely busy schedule.

Tell us, at what age did it all begin?

Quite early. I've always been a real outdoor kid who loved to be surrounded by nature. I had a deep passion for plants and animals and natural shapes and structures and loved to create landscapes with all kinds of formable materials: snow, sand, mud, mashed potatoes... Furthermore, I loved to construct things (or take them apart). These imperatives were present as long ago as I can remember - for my parents it might have led to the question, how to domesticate them. So they gave me paper and pencils to keep me from running around getting muddy - and this worked very well! They also gave me a little corner in our yard, which then became "my garden". These two clever stategies to keep an eye on me probably had a deep impact.

How did it progress into adulthood?

My parents supported my work in every way that they could: they loved my drawings and paintings and encouraged my artistic ambitions. Later, however – as many parents would - they expressed doubt that "artist" could be a reasonable job for me. That is one of the reasons why I made some detours in my life before becoming a "professional" artist (I studied literature and philosophy and worked as a teacher). But I won't complain: sometimes a meandering line is far more interesting than a straight one!
Besides my teacher jobs, I always did artwork (painting, drawing). I learned printing techniques, joined an artists‘ group, and started to exhibit paintings, drawings, and prints. It was quite successful, and one day I received a grant, which encouraged me to quit my job and become a free lancer. Then I worked for a while as an assistant for an older sculptor, who taught me a lot, about art in general and sculpture in particular. This, and another job as an assistant for stage design at a small theatre, introduced me to more 3-dimensional work and the question of how to relate to a given space. I became increasingly intrigued by site-specific installations through some Landart exhibitions that I saw. I joined a Landart network which helped me to get in contact with artists and organisations working in this field, so I found opportunities like exhibitions and symposiums that I could apply for.

It looks like physically exhausting work. Tell us about this aspect and how long it takes you to complete each of your projects?

Yes, it is exhausting sometimes. But other people do sports, or go to a fitness studio, all those things that I don't need to do … In fact I like to move, to feel my physical limits, to get my hands dirty — it keeps me mobile — and may go back to the “outdoor kid” I was. And if something is really too heavy, I have learned to ask for help …
Meanwhile, I often work with local craftspeople, and I highly appreciate this kind of collaboration: I constantly learn a lot about skills, traditions, and techniques in different countries and cultures. Everything I've learned about techniques and materials, I've learned this way: by watching and doing.
It's difficult to say how long it takes from the first draft to completion, the projects are so different! I would say, however, the average period I stay on site to build a work is around three weeks. But before that there is a period of preparation that varies, from the first site visit to developing a proposal and specifying materials and technical requirements.

How do you seek out and decide upon the locations?

My favourite approach to an unknown area is walking, with my sketchbook, a camera, and without a certain destination. I just meander, following the attraction of the distinctive features of the landscape: shapes, sounds, smells, tracks, light situations. I collect in my mind what I find along my path — stories, shapes, materials, local characteristics — untill I come to a place where these observations condense into an image.
I know that I've found “my site” the moment that three aspects come together: a clear image of what I can visualise there, the technical possibilities of the location, and a tangible relationship with the observations I have made on my way. This is a very precise feeling and cannot be explained rationally or logically.

Do you document some of your works after a certain amount of time has passed, to see the changes made by nature?

Yes, if I have the opportunity to return to a place. Sometimes it also happens that people send me photos of my work.

Tell us about you as a person and an artist?

I don’t really understand this question, but I think I have already answered it …

Who are the individuals who you would say have motivated you the most?

My teacher Hannes Meinhardt (the "older sculptor" I helped for a while, as mentioned above).

Which are the countries you have exhibited in, and where do you plan to go from here?

This would be a long list...to sum it up: I have worked on all five continents. Next there will be two commissions for an art collection in the south of France and one for a sculpture park in the U.S.

Your work has is unlike any other, but let me ask you if you have ever been inspired by the work of another artist?

Yes, there a few: Erwin Wurm, David Nash, Jan Bas Adler, Joseph Beuys, Wolfgang Laib, Anish Kapoor, Eva Hesse, Rainer Maria Rilke (a poet), Pina Bausch (a contemporary dancer and choreographer) plus the spiders in my studio.

What would be your advice to our readers, who are young people from different parts of the world?

Be aware, stay curious and independent! Don't get too addicted to technical means and devices! Never forget that life is a mysterious and transient gift — and it's basically analogue!

A tryst with Land and Art — Cornelia Konrads

A former teacher fulfills her dream of being an artist — Germany's Traveling Installation Artist creating astounding LandArt across the globe

March 11, 2017

Cornelia Konrads.
A name that is synonymous with brilliant execution of unique concepts. She is one artist whose playground is the world.

Literally.
She chooses a site and uses the natural resources to create a masterpiece that is a unique collaboration of nature and human intervention of our culture. Her art seems to defy gravity itself, floating just above the ground as if elements unravelling up towards the sky. Working its way up from the ground, it crosses boundaries of conventional design into a delicate balance in space and time.

We had the chance to drag her away from her current art project, long enough to answer few of our questions.

How did it all begin for you? What was your first ever inspiration that spurred you into this path?

My parents thought, giving me a pencil and a piece of paper was the best way to keep me silent on my place, may be that's how it all started …
Later, I worked as a teacher and did my artwork (painting, drawing) beside the job. I learned printing techniques on my own and started to exhibit paintings, drawings and prints. It was quite successful and one day, I received a grant, which encouraged me to quit my job and become freelancer. Then I worked for a while as assistant for an elder sculptor, who taught me a lot, about art in general and sculpture in particular.
This, and another job as assistant for stage design at a small theatre introduced me to more 3-dimensional work and the question how to relate to a given space. I became increasingly intrigued by site specific installations through some Landart exhibitions I saw.

A site is not neutral, you can’t just put up whatever there, you have to respond to what is given. This is an interesting challenge for me.

So I started with small interventions on hiking tours and it became more and more important.

I can't say, what was “the first inspiration ever”, but f.e. I was always fascinated by the construction skills of animals: spider nets, termite hives, bird’s and wasp’s nests — all this is ingenious site specific work! Besides this I sometimes love to create small objects from my collection of found things, which is just pure and open play, light and without calculation.

Different people grow up dreaming about becoming different things. Did you always aspire to be an artist?

I did always aspire to be an artist, but it took me a while and some courage to understand, that this is really a feasible way for me.

Creating an artwork, for some, is a journey. What does it mean for you?

I like the image of a journey for the creation of artwork. Life is a journey and art reflects life. Literally my site specific works are always preceded — and followed - by a journey. In a certain way, this journey is a part of the work. I refer to it, and I speak about aspects of traveling: passage, movement, transformation, transience.

Do you have a favourite among all your projects?

My favourite is always the next one. Looking back I prefer those projects where nobody asked a previous idea or proposal, so I was really free to invent something unexpected - f.e. “Walkaway” in South Africa 2013, “Knotty stilts” in Bakersfield CAL 2011, or “Billabong memory“ in Australia 2005.

My favourite is always the next one!

Can you tell us a little about the technicality and the process?

All I know about technique I learned by doing and watching. Sometimes I have local helpers — this collaboration is very important and interesting for me: to learn about local skills, traditions and techniques in different countries and cultures. About the process I can say, that the most difficult part of it is to reduce and to decide when it's finished.

How much approximate time does it take for you to complete a piece?

Around 2–3 weeks.

How do you chose a particular sight/land for an installation?

My first approach to an unknown area is always: walking — without a certain destination.I follow the attraction of marks and constellations of the landscape, shapes, sounds, smells, tracks, light situations.

During those walks, I collect in my mind what lies on the edge of the path: incidents, materials, characteristics of the local architecture or vegetation — until I come to a place, where all these observations condense into an image.

I know, that I've found “my site”, when immediately three aspects come together: a clear image, I can visualise there, the technical possibilities and a senseful relation to the information I picked up on my way. This is a very precise feeling. The site is not just a "background" for me, but a texture. The goal is, that my work becomes a part of this texture.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I'm preparing my next work, it will be in Switzerland, a kind of bizarre archaeological excavation site. As always, I hope to surprise, irritate and make smile.

With the world changing so rapidly right now, all this chaos and dissention. In the words of Toni Morrisson — “This is precisely the time when artists go to work.” What are your thoughts on this?

I'd like to quote a poem of Friedrich Hölderlin: “Where there is danger, the powers of salvation grow as well.” Or Pina Bausch, a contemporary dancer, I like a lot — she said: “Dance! Otherwise we’re lost!”

Anything else you would like to say? A message to the world perhaps?

Always remember, that life is mysterious, transient — and analogue!

“Always remember, that life is mysterious, transient — and analogue!”

| Cornelia Konrads

Cornelia Konrads enregistre l’odeur et le bruit des lieux

Xavier Guillon, 30 Septembre 2016

Née à Wuppertal en Allemagne, Cornelia Konrads, après avoir fait des études d’art et de philosophie, installe son atelier en 1998 à Barsinghausen près de Hanovre. Depuis, on rencontre régulièrement ses œuvres en Allemagne, au Danemark, au Japon, en Irlande, aux Pays – Bas, en France, Belgique, Suède, Italie, Etats – Unis, Suisse, Taiwan, Corée du Sud, Canada, Australie… J’ai voulu vous présenter le pourquoi d’un tel d’intérêt pour son travail.

Avec Cornélia Konrads, les scénarios émergent des rêves, mais pas seulement. L’artiste puise son travail dans la nature profonde, une nature qui se raconte et qu’elle sait bien transcrire. Plus encore, elle saisit l’instant initiateur d’un bouleversement, d’introduction d’une histoire.

Des histoires et des souvenirs

Lorsqu’on lui demande comment est née son œuvre, Cornélia Konrads exprime sa démarche en toute modestie : “(Lorsque je suis en prospection pour la mise en place d’un nouveau projet), je cherche l’odeur et le bruit du lieu autant que ses histoires et souvenirs. Mes promenades m’entrainent dans un dialogue étroit avec le lieu, reflétant tout le paysage, l’architecture, la végétation et l’histoire de la région environnante. Je peux compter sur le fait que tôt ou tard mes excursions m’amèneront à ‘mon site’, un endroit où seront condensées toutes mes pensées et mes impressions qui feront naître l’image de mon projet”. Cornélia Konrads “suit son nez”. Sur les lieux de ses prochaines installations, elle s’engage dans les chemins, photographie tout au long de sa promenade, regarde attentivement  et fait attention aux petits gestes et aux signes simples de la vie qui, pour elle sont “si facile à oublier” et qui pourtant “impliquent une leçon”. Elle interpelle la nature, l’interroge et la questionne sans relâche jusqu’à l’amener à constituer son fond documentaire. L’artiste l’exprime pleinement lorsqu’elle conclut spontanément : “Je rassemble ce qui se trouve sur le bord de mon chemin, les formes, les matériaux, les habitudes locales et les événements. Ainsi, toutes mes œuvres sont profondément liés à l’endroit où je les ai créées”.

… Et des combinaisons

De ce travail de terrain, l’œuvre est soufflée. Cornelia Konrads Joue avec les paysages et les matières apporte de nouvelles combinaisons. Elle prélève ses matériaux in situ et promptement reconnecte ses fragments de nature, de minéral et de végétal. Plus encore, elle joue avec la gravité et la certitude. On dit que la nature est source d’inspiration. C’est l’évidence qui ressort à la lecture des paysages réorganisés par Cornelia Konrads qui crée des ponts entre la nature et l’homme. L’artiste nous fait entrer dans le paysage. Peut-être aussi qu’elle éveille nos rêves plus que nos consciences ou tout au contraire qu’elle éveille notre conscience pour réveiller nos rêves.

Cornelia Konrads crée des ponts entre paysages intérieurs et paysages extérieurs. On dit qu’elle est peintre, dessinateur, sculpteur, designer. Je la croie plutôt illusionniste et poète.

AIR and I, 06: Search and Find in Rikuzentakata
from 15.11. – 8.12. 2014

Cornelia Konrads (Artist)

“In short, landscape is the link between our outer and inner selves”.
Bill Viola, Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House, Writings, p.253

How I encounter “my site”

As a passionate traveller and site specific sculptor, I had the chance to stay and work in various countries all over the world. Mostly (and preferably) I go on a travel without a predefined plan. Starting point after arrival is always: walking. Meandering in an unknown area, in search of the site and the form of a work, I collect what lies on the edge of my path: shapes, materials, local habits and occurrences. All my works are deeply connected with the place where i build them. I see the site not as a background, but as a texture. The goal is, that my work becomes a part of this texture.

jardin en movement. 4 x 4 x 1.2 m . stones, cement, iron . Installation around a bended cork oak
Domaine du Rayol – Jardin des Méditerranées, Rayol-Canadel-Sur-Mer (France) 2014

So I’m looking for the smell and the sound of a place as well as for its stories and memories. Meanwhile I know, that those walks will bring me into a close dialogue with the place, reflecting about the landscape, architecture, vegetation and history of the surrounding area. I can rely on the fact, that sooner or later my excursions will bring me to „my site“, a spot where all thoughts and impressions condensate to an image, an idea, a project.
This process of searching and finding, as i experienced it in the context of residencies, commissions and exhibitions, is of course every time exciting and special. Nevertheless it happened in my recent projects, that I sometimes feel a kind of “routine” I would like to avoid.

Is art possible here?

Walking in Rikuzentakata I realized, that before I had worked in most cases in rather protected areas, where artwork was previewed and my role as an artist clearly defined – places like parks, forests, gardens: places created to spend a leisure time, to enjoy beauty – a beauty, I often see threatened, which I refer to in my work.
At first sight nothing was beautifull in Rikuzentakata – I have to say honestly, that I was shocked in the beginning: I moved through a wounded landscape full of pain, not only devastated by the first “natural” Tsunami, but also by the technical interventions to reconstruct the town. I saw giant machinery erasing and transforming parts of the landscape: mountains, forests, beaches. It appeared to me allmost like a second “artificial” Tsunami, a violent act of human revenge in the war against nature. The carefull aquaintance with nature, I’ve often sensed in japanese philosophy and traditions, I couldn’t find here.

Rikuzentakata – construction area

Encounters with people who changed me

In this first days I was often wondering about the purpose of this visit and my role as an artist: is art possible here? Does it make sense? And how could I contribute, or respond – as a stranger from far away, landing in the middle of a disaster zone, with the protection of a flightback- ticket in the pocket?

A crucial change for me came with the local people, I met. I was enchanted by the people of Rikuzentakata: their curiosity, humour and kindness, their will to share their stories and memories, their courage to start again after all the sadness they went through, their power to create something from nothing, their dignity. Very soon i didn’t feel as a stranger any more – not even as an artist! Just as a witness.

This refers to another new and exceptional aspect of this residency: The focus was not to work on my own on a singular project — but rather to work together, take part in social life, meet people!

Meeting residents of a temporary settlement

I discovered the beauty of the people, specially the old ones. I also found their marks and traces in the landscape: carefully arranged memorials, collections of lost and broken things, someone had picked up and stored thoughtfully. It suddenly brought back to my mind a Haiku of Matsuo Basho, i had read many years ago:

よくみれば 薺はなさく 垣ねかな
(Looking carefully – a Shepherd’s Purse is blooming under the fence. by Basho Matsuo)

“Looking for the Shepherd’s Purse” became a theme for me, and the following walks I did with my camera and Matsuo Basho’s request in my mind: Look carefully! Pay attention to the small gestures and simple signs of life! They are just by the feet, easy to overlook – but once discovered they imply a lesson. Like the “Shepherd’s Purse”. And like the people I met in Rikuzentakata.
The first result of my search was a photo series, showing situations where the spirit of the “Shepherd’s Purse” was present for me. The motives of this series have in common, that they are ephemeral, soon they will disappear or change. By documenting them I found a role and a task which made sense for me: to keep the memory of this places in transition; to be a kind of “creative witness”.

From the photo series “Shepherd’s Purse”

I just “followed my nose” during this walks, and it often led me to a certain area leftside/upstream Kesenriver, a spot where the traces of the Tsunami are still visible.

Tsunami traces

A borderline between the forest on top and lower vegetation on the bottom of the surrounding hills showed the height of the wave, and it sometimes seemed, as if its echoe was still hanging in the air. Yet the bulldozers didn’t enter this area, though they were coming closer every day. Faded fotos, small memorials, a carefully planted garden showed the attempts of people to cope with the disaster. This was for me the area, where the „Shepherd’s Purse“ was blooming frequently.

Remains of a small memorial garden

Picking up broken pieces and joining them to stories and memories

Circling around a small temple on top of a hill – a peacefull place, i liked very much and often took as starting point – I noticed that the ground was strewn with pieces of broken china – like shells on the beach. Some halfburied in the earth, some shining in the sun. Obviously the wave had smashed countless bowls and plates and scattered the fragments all around. It brought me to the idea to reconnect all this fragments in the way of a mosaic, and in shape of a large bowl or coulumn.

Project proposal mosaic-bowl (photomontage)

With the help of my collegues, I collected two big boxes full of broken china. Walking and collecting in this area, where the past was still so present, was surely a special experience for each of us.

Collecting pieces of broken china

Later I cleaned piece by piece and stored them in a safe place. To collect, clean and join them means for me: to keep the stories and memories — in a certain way to help create history.
For the future I hope, that a permanent site will be found, once things are more settled in Rikuzentakata, and that I can return and realize a mosaic sculpture there — if possible as a collaborative work with local people.

So the Rikuzentakata Residency Program started with some doubts and questions for me – and it ended with the wish to come back and continue. I’m very gratefull, that its target is defined as “research”, and not as “completion of a work”, as it is often expected in the context of other artist residencies. This subject allowed me to face my doubts and questions, which are in fact essential for an artist, and should be faced sometimes.
Now, looking back and resuming, I think that the experiences I made in Rikuzentakata are incomparably rich and fruitfull – probably because of the difficult start, and surely because I really “touched the ground” there — literally and mentally.

A basic condition of course — and the special chance and challenge of this residency — is that it is located far away from the routines and attitudes of “art-world“, and that it is focused on an open research: to explore and build bridges between people beyond the limits of language and culture, between past and future and between inner and outer landscapes.

Residency Period: November 15 – Devember 8, 2014

Cornelia Konrads

Born 1957 in Wuppertal/Germany
Studies: Philosophy, Literature and Cultural Science

Freelance artist since 1998, Focus on Site-Specific Sculpture and Objects

Participation in various Sculpture- and Land Art projects in Australia, Asia, Africa, America and Europe Commissioned permanent and temporary works for public spaces, sculpture parks and private collections
Invitations as Artist in Residence to: Odense (Denmark 2001), Ahrenshoop (Germany 2001), Kamiyama (Japan 2005), St. Pierre en Chartreuse (France 2006), Aomori (Japan 2009), Bakersfield (USA 2011), Utica (USA 2012), Serenbe/Atlanta (USA 2013)

[January, 2015]

Interviewed by Gabriella Alziari

“Once a viewer put it very well: there is a ‘moment of catastrophe’ in my work—but I also hope a moment of humour.”
Cornelia Konrads

Cornelia Konrads is a German installation artist. She creates site specific installations and objects, exhibiting her permanent and temporary work in private gardens, sculpture parks, and public spaces. She also enjoys participating in a number of Land Art Projects. In the past, Cornelia has exhibited in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Belgium, Sweden, the United States, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia. Her combination of art, philosophy, and traveling gives her work a unique vibrance that fits well with the settings she chooses.

Q: What was your first introduction to art?

For my parents, giving me a pencil and a piece of paper was the best way to keep me silent in my place … maybe this was my first introduction to art.
Later I frequently visited an art museum close to the town where I grew up; it’s called “Island of Hombroich”. This museum has a special concept that I liked very much: presenting modern occidental art and art from other cultures in a direct dialogue. It was fascinating for me to study the languages of form and colour, the different techniques and materials in this cross-cultural ambience. They also have a big outdoor area where I saw the first land art works and site specific installations.

Q: Tell us about yourself and your work.

I have three passions: art, philosophy and traveling.
Thankfully, life has offered me a way to combine them all, but it took me a while to reach this point. First I worked as a teacher and did my artwork beside the job. I learned printing techniques on my own and worked for a while as an assistant for an elder sculptor, who taught me a lot. I started to exhibit drawings, prints and objects and became increasingly intrigued by site specific installations. It started with small interventions on hiking tours and became more and more important for me. Finally, in 1998, I had a first big outdoor exhibition and received a grant, which encouraged me to quit my job and become a free lanced artist—it was kind of a jump into the cold water, but I never regretted it.
Becoming a member of an international network for site specific art helped me to exchange with other artists, and I received information about land art projects and residencies all over the world. For some I applied, and was quite successful. This ushered a new era of my life: being a traveling artist.
All of my site specific works are preceded—and followed—by a travel. In a certain way the travel is a part of the work: meandering in an unknown territory in search of the site and the form for a planned installation, I collect what lies on the edge of my path—stories, shapes, materials, local habits and occurrences—until I come to a place, where these collected impressions condense into an image.
I understand the site not as a background, but as a texture. The goal is that my work becomes a part of this texture—in the end, it is unclear if it has always been there or if it will change or disappear in the next second.
Philosophy is the art of posing questions. Visual art is also all about posing questions, but beyond the limits of language, so I feel it’s more free.
The questions I put in my work deal a lot with the perception of time and movement—often my installations appear as if a film has stopped for a moment—a moment of “frozen time”.
I’m intrigued by this transient thing, called “moment” or “presence”—the intangible rupture between past and future. Consequently I try to create a moment of irritation, by adding an element to the scenery, which refuses to fit into the expected order. If something doesn’t behave as it should, within the twinkling of an eye the inner monologue gets interrupted. One “arrives here and now”, in a mysterious world, where strange things (including oneself) have a unique meeting. For this moment of irritation I like to challenge what is supposed to be “reliable”: the laws of gravity, the solidity of walls or the ground under our feet. Once a viewer put it very well: there is a “moment of catastrophe” in my work—but I also hope a moment of humour.

Q: What inspires you?

The process of searching and finding “my site” as I described above. Coincidences. Accidental arrangements.
Other inspirations come from the work of Anish Kapoor, Louise Bourgeois, Tadashi Kawamata, Joseph Beuys and Banksy. And I love street art!
I’m also interested in architecture and admire architects like Terunobu Fujimori or Frank Gehry—and the spiders in my studio!

Q: Much of your work is set outdoors and uses natural materials. How did this come about?

I also do indoor works… however, all of the places I work have in common that they are not neutral, not just a background. None of these places really resembles the other—you can’t just put up whatever there, you have to respond to what’s given—this is the challenge.
About materials: I often use materials I find at the site, or connect my work to existing structures. But it’s not at all a dogma for me to work with “natural” materials only. Actually I use all kinds of materials that are suitable and not destructive or harmful for the place. Anyway I doubt that there is a strict limit between “natural” and “artificial”. But this is another subject…

Q: How do you go about constructing your structures? Is it not physically demanding?

Of course it is. But other people do sports, or go to a fitness studio; all those things I don’t need.
In fact I like to move, to feel my physical limits, to get my hands dirty—it keeps me mobile. And if something is really too heavy, I ask for assistance…
Of course for the really big works, for “settlement” for example (realised in Ireland 2010), the organiser provides assistants. In this case it was a team of Irish stone masons who did the basement. These kind of collaborations are also a challenge for me: I meet people who rarely had any contact with art, especially with a woman working in this field. But until now, encounters like these have always been fruitful in the end: I learn from their skills, and they learn that there are different ways of perception.

Q: What has one of your favorite pieces or projects been, and why?

My favourite piece is always the next one!
In general I appreciate projects where nobody asks for a previous idea or proposal, so I’m really free.
Under this circumstance ideas can emerge, which are unexpected and surprising for me—for example “walkaway” in South Africa 2013, “knotty stilts” in Bakersfield CAL 2011, or “billabong memory” in Australia 2005.

Q: You have made installations all over the world. What environments or countries have been the most inspiring or fulfilling for you?

Japan and Australia.

Q: What materials do you most enjoy working with?

Wood, bricks, stones, and plaster.

Q: How do you find being a woman in your field? If there have been challenges, how have you risen above them?

It’s great to be a woman in my field!
Since I was a kid, I liked to construct things. People kept telling me that this was “nothing for girls”. It took me a while, but then I contradicted them: of course this has to be for me, just because I love it! And for sure I AM a girl, and I love it! So after all there is nothing wrong with me, but with the limited minds of people talking like that.
A big challenge to rise above is the stereotypical idea how “female art” should look. In fact “male art” or “female art” are not interesting categories for me.
I think that an artwork has the power to speak for itself, independent of the colour of skin or hair, or the gender of the author.

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring women artists?

Follow your passion, find your own way, stay curious, surprise yourself!
And decide by yourself, if you want to have kids or become an artist. Both are full time jobs—not impossible, but difficult to arrange.

Q: Do you have any dream projects?

I’m open to whatever comes next, but I’m especially thrilled to walk new trails.
For example, at the moment I’m in contact with the artistic director of a theatre company, who asked if I’m interested in creating a stage design. And of course I am—this could be a very exiting new task!

Q: Are you working on anything currently?

Yes, I’m testing different materials and techniques for two big installations in a botanical garden in the south of France, and playing with found materials and putting them together to create strange little beings.

"The fascinating creations of this German artist are focused on atemporality."

The Work of Cornelia Konrads: Enough of the Curse of Time

Cornelia Konrads (1957, Germany) is set on discovering what lies beneath the veil of Maya (illusion), where time and space are flexible, where anything that's solid loses its reality and the empire of reason crumbles.

Inspired by concepts from Land Art, Konrads takes the idea to another level, transforming space and altering the spectator’s perception of time by representing, for example, a fractured tree that seems to construct and deconstruct itself before your eyes. Some of her other works expressing transformation and suspended action include a handful of branches growing through a trunk and a collapsing house.

It seems as if you could come across the work by Konrads just as easily in a gallery as in the middle of the woods. Her reflections on the planet and its constant change appears in suspended natural events that look like crystallized moments of poetry, a profound find for anyone who’s ever imagined putting a halt to the laws of physics.

Konrads installations are just as surprising as they are profound, which is a relief for any art lover who finds many contemporary works increasingly frivolous. It would be hard to see any work by Konrads and not find yourself lost in thought or taken to some childhood fantasy where gravity doesn’t exist and flying only takes jumping in the air.

Play is an important characteristic of art in which the artist finds the pretext to go on creating and imagining strange landscapes, which is what Cornelia Konrads seems to have done, breaking past the spell of time with a magical and creative spell of her own.

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Published on YouTube on 23–05–2019 .
CORNELIA KONRADS — DOMAINE DE CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE CENTRE D'ARTS ET NATURE 2019
Movie by Vincent Mauger

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Published on YouTube on 28–04–2017.
Caltagirone, a Villa Patti la "Land Art" di Cornelia Konrads

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Published on YouTube on 11–02–2017.
CORNELIA KONRADS — Windhouse — BRAZIL
The Making of the Windhouse — Movie by Davi Francisco

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Published on YouTube on 04–06–2015.
CORNELIA KONRADS — CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE — FRANCE

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Published on Vimeo on 26–11–2013.
We visited current Serenbe Artist in Residence: Cornelia Konrads, who is looking for places for an upcoming site-specific project to be displayed in the Chattahoochee Hills area.
The German artist travels all over the world creating imaginative site-specific art. We take a look at the artistic process behind her mind-bending installations in public spaces.
By Felipe Barral © 2013 - IGNI productions & the G channel

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Published on YouTube on 8–7–2012.
German artist Cornelia Konrads designs and builds art objects that look like three dimensional photo compositions set in natural surroundings. The artist often works with natural materials and her sculptures are on display in countries the world over.

Collection Artists at Work: Le mur et la pergola, Cornelia Konrads

En 2015, l’artiste allemande de land art Cornelia Konrads est l’invitée du Domaine du Rayol, un « jardin méditerranéen » planté sur la Corniche des Maures, dans le Var, à l’occasion de la 2ème édition du festival « Land Art au cœur des Méditerranées ». Dès 2013, elle est venue prendre contact avec ce lieu si particulier et son équipe. Après plusieurs promenades à la découverte de cet espace si saisissant, bercée par le son des animaux qui ne cesse qu’à la nuit, ou du ressac de la mer, qui ne cesse jamais, elle a fait des croquis, et laissé venir les idées et les images. Ce film retracera cette aventure. Sortie Fin 2015.

Réalisateur : Antoine de Roux
Production : Double Elephant
Année : 2015
Durée : 52 mn
Genre : Documentaire
Format : 4:3
Langue : Français, Anglais
Format de diffusion : DV, DVD

Collection Artists at Work: Cornelia Konrads, the Gate – 2004–06

Cornelia Konrads, the Gate retrace l'installation de l'artiste dans la forêt de Sénart en 2004. L'artiste allemande y explore les frontières du bâti et du non bâti en transformant une ancienne entrée de propriété à moitié détruite et oubliée, dont elle prolonge les montants par une installation faite de pierres et de tiges métalliques filetées, qui se disloque dans l'espace. …

Réalisateur : Antoine de Roux
Production : Double Elephant
Année : 2004-06
Durée : 41'
Genre : Documentaire
Format : 4:3
Langue : Français, Anglais
Format de diffusion : DV, DVD

www.double-elephant.com/films/the-gate-cornelia-konrads

www.artists-atwork.com/catalogue4.htm