*1981 in Berne, lives in Biel
Simone Haug studied sociology and visual anthropology in Berne and Paris, visual arts at HFBK Hamburg. Exhibitions include: Thun Art Museum (2018); Villa Massimo, Rome, Festa dell’Estate (2018); Il Caminetto, Hamburg (2018); Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography (2016); Gallerie Conradi, Hamburg Silken Tool (2015). Scholarships/Awards: Prix Maude Mottier (2020), Work Grant of the Canton of Berne, City of Biel (2019), Work Scholarship nfs Lives, Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography (2016), Recognition Award of the Canton of Berne (2011).
Article & Space
What Matters
Work Presentation 2022
“What Matters” was the question andtatement of 2022 presentation of works by the JUNGE AKADEMIE, the interdisciplinary and international artist-in-residence programme of the Akademie der Künste. In an exhibition and a multifaceted programme including screenings, concerts and readings, 29 fellows from all of the Akademie’s art sections presented sound and video installations, photographs, sculptures, paintings and performances they developed during their studio residencies in the Hansaviertel in Berlin and at Villa Serpentara in Olevano, Italy.
“What Matters” is not to be understood as the title of a thematic exhibition but rather indicates the diversity of questions, perspectives and realities that are interlaced in an artist residency, while emphasising their urgency. The exhibition focused on the artists’ individual approaches that encompass a broad spectrum of themes: from questions about the transformation of societies and their expression in relation to the urban space and landscape, to interrelations between the individual and social systems such as state, religion and the economy, to reflections on body images and conceptions of history, personal archives and the intertwining of nature, technology and culture.
What matters is artistic testimony, poetic resistance and the imagining of sustainable futures in the face of global tipping points – whether climatic or political in nature. Two years into the pandemic and the associated restrictions, “What Matters” was the most comprehensive presentation of works to date by the JUNGE AKADEMIE.
To quote one of the fellows: “What matters? Make them see…”
Sale e Pepe (2018)
Wax tablecloths
The dining table – stable base on shaking ground,
a stage for everyday daily life, where larger and smaller
communities come together.
During my stay in Olevano Romano, I bought waxed
tablecloths for families and friends and asked them to have
a meal on their primed, white backsides.
The used tablecloths are relicts of these meals.
My paintings originated in parallel, as commentaries
and free interpretations.