Birgit Cauer | about
Birgit Cauer at work on her sculptureTERRA EXALTA, travertine, 2023 in Bernau
artist statement
In my sculptures, drawings and experimental set-ups, I explore the many facets of stone as a material and its essential role in the creation of all living things.
I use sculptural means to explore the limits of the material and its properties. To do this, I am driven into the stone and try to discover its structures. In doing so, I free myself from the idea that I can control the stone and leave it more and more to other active forces such as salts, acids and trace elements in experimental test arrangements. In this way, the processes of formation, transformation and corrosion become visible and tangible. The seemingly lifeless stone is transformed from a sculptural object into an idiosyncratic "actant" (cf. Bruno Latour, The Parliament of Things). I understand my sculptural work as an approach to the stone as a counterpart. Only by working in partnership with this material at the interface of natural and cultural design can these wondrously bizarre forms emerge.
CV
Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1961, lives and works in Berlin.
Descendant of the sculptor family Cauer and women's rights activist Minna Cauer; since the age of 13, lessons with the wood sculptor Chr. v. Kessel, Seeheim-Jugenheim; 1980-82 studied mathematics; 1982-1992 studied art sciences and art education M.A. at the J.-W.-Goethe-University in Frankfurt/M. and subsequently several years of working stays and guest studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, Italy.
Out of curiosity and love for stone, I have been a freelance sculptor since 1994; since 2004 studio in the NEUEN ATELIERHAUS PANZERHALLE, Potsdam / Groß Glienicke; since 2022 board member of the Berufsverband der Bildenden Künstler*innen, Berlin e.V. (bbk-berlin).
Sponsorships, symposia and others:
2023 Sculpture Symposium Sculpture Association Rheinland-Pfalz and German-Polish Sculpture Symposium Bernau, 2021 scholarship from VG-Bildkunst, Bonn; 2018 Artist in Residence TARE Steigen AIR, Norway, MWFK Brandenburg; 2013 working scholarship at Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf, MWFK Brandenburg.
(Participative) projects in public space and competitions, including:
2023 Kunst am Bau, Modulare KiTa-Bauten, Berlin (MOKIB), successor; 2021 Kunst am Bau, Landesamt für Geologie und Bergwesen, Halle, 2nd stage, 2020 Kunst am Bau: KiTa "Im Freschfeld", Trier, 2nd place, 2019 Kunst am Bau: PARK KITA Jungfernheide, Berlin, realized, 2018 Kunst am Bau: Oberstufenzentrum Lise-Meitner, open, 2nd stage, 2000-04 Lebendiges Labyrinth Kloster Helfta, 1995 Braunkohletagebau Niederlausitz.
Exhibitions including:
2024 Kunstverein Tiergarten; 2023 Steinskulpturenmuseum Bad Münster am Stein and Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern; 2022-24 Historisches Museum Frankfurt/M.; 2022 Karlskirche, Kassel and Weißfrauenkirche, Frankfurt/M; 2021 Projektraum Alte Feuerwache, Berlin, 2020 Kunstverein KunstHaus Potsdam; 2019 Guardini Galerie, Berlin; Kunstverein Neukölln, 2013 Gerhard Marcks Haus, Pavillon, Bremen; Darmstädter Sezession, Darmstadt.
