<p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Detail from Up in Arms at nGbK, 2019 <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents 2023 during Rencontres d'Arles at LUMA <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Installation view at Kunstpreis Fotografie (Art award Photography) by Lotto Foundation Brandenburg <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Detail from Kunst im Untergrund/Art in the Underground 2019 at nGbK <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Detail from Kunst im Untergrund/Art in the Underground 2019 at nGbK <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Detail from Kunst im Untergrund/Art in the Underground 2019 at nGbK <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Detail from Kunst im Untergrund/Art in the Underground 2019 at nGbK <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Installation view at Kunstpreis Fotografie (Art award Photography) by Lotto Foundation Brandenburg <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Installation view at Kunstpreis Fotografie (Art award Photography) by Lotto Foundation Brandenburg <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Installation view at Kunstpreis Fotografie (Art award Photography) by Lotto Foundation Brandenburg <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> Installation view at Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents 2023 at Rencontres d'Arles at LUMA <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p> <p>Since 2017<br /> Forensic Excavations Inventory<br /> or The Total Deconstruction of an Armenian Family</p>

DEUTSCH

Eine medienreflexive, prozessbasierte Arbeit, die analoge und digitale Methoden schichtet, um die Auswirkungen historischer politischer und emotionaler Ereignisse auf mich und meine Familie, wie den Armenischen Genozid, bulgarischen und deutschen Sozialismus, Familiengeheimnisse und Missbrauch aufzudecken und neu anzuordnen.


Ich habe eine armenische Mutter, einen bulgarischen Vater, den ich nie kennengelernt habe, und einen fake deutschen Vater, den ich auch nie kennengelernt habe, und bin 1990 zusammen mit meiner Mutter von Sofia nach Berlin eingewandert. Mit 23 Jahren habe ich angefangen, mehr über meine Identität herauszufinden, was mein Leben für immer verändert hat. Ich habe den verbliebenen Teil meines Familienfotoarchivs auseinandergenommen, etwas 100 Fotos, das bis in die 1930er Jahre zurückreicht und Westasien, den Balkan, Ostdeutschland und das wiedervereinigte Berlin der 1990er Jahre miteinander verbindet. Dann habe ich die einzelnen Details dieser typischen Familienpolaroids - freundliche Augen, Kinderspielzeug, Körperteile meinerselbst und meiner Angehörigen - wieder in dreidimensionale Fotoobjekte verwandelt. Aus Hunderten solcher Objekte in diesem neu entstandenen Fotoarchiv des Alltäglichen habe ich eine Handvoll ausgewählt, um damit in meine eigenen Erinnerungen und Recherchen einzutauchen. In den nächsten Schritten habe ich die Objekte vergrößert, sie auf Archivpapier gedruckt, und auf Kunststoffmaterial (Kapa) aufkaschiert, sie mit einem Skalpell aus dem Material ausgeschnitten und erneut fotografiert.
Seit 2017 inszeniere ich die Objekte für Projekte in Innenräumen und im öffentlichen Raum.

Ausstellungen des Projektes
Up in Arms und Kunst im Untergrund, zwei Ausstellungen der neuen Gesellschaft fuer bildende Kunst nGbK Berlin im Jahr 2019 wo das Projekt in verschiedenen Iterationen gezeigt wurde.
Die allererste Iteration der Arbeit wurde 2017 praesentiert.


Ausschnitt aus Katalog 'Studienpreis 2017'
'Mit Roland Barthes koennte man sagen, dass in dieser Arbeit ein Spiel zwischen 'Punctum' und 'Studium' stattfindet: Je mehr wir der Analyse des in den Bildern Verborgenen zusehen, desto mehr wird uns die Umgebung vertraut und trifft uns im naechsten Bild als Erinnerung. Der im Titel benannte Prozess einer 'totalen Dekonstruktion' dient gleichsam dazu, die vor der gewaltsamen Zerstoerung gerettete familiaere Erinnerung zu bewahren. Exemplarisch wird deutlich, was Erinnerung ist, was kontextualisiert werden kann, aber auch was als Luecke bleibt - und als fortlaufende Ausgrabung eine offene Form erhaelt.'
Text Clemens v. Wedemeyer, 2018


ENGLISH
A media-reflexive, process-based work that layers analog and digital methods to uncover and rearrange the impact of historical political and emotional events on me and my family, such as the Armenian Genocide, Bulgarian and German socialism, family secrets and abuse.


I have an Armenian mother, a Bulgarian father I never met, and a fake German father I never met either, and immigrated from Sofia to Berlin with my mother in 1990. At the age of 23 I started to find out more about my identity, which changed my life forever.


I took apart the remaining part of my family photo archive, about 100 photos, that goes back to the 1930s and connects West Asia, the Balkans, East Germany and the reunited Berlin of the 1990s. Then I turned the individual details of these typical family Polaroids - friendly eyes, children’s toys, body parts of myself and my relatives - back into three-dimensional photo objects. From hundreds of such objects in this newly created photo archive of the everyday, I selected a handful to delve into my own memories and research with. In the next steps, I enlarged the objects, printed them on archival paper, and laminated them onto plastic material (kapa), cut them out of the material with a scalpel, and photographed them again.
Since 2017 I have been staging the objects for projects indoors and in public spaces.


Excerpt from catalog 'Studienpreis 2017'
'With Roland Barthes we could say that in this work there is a play between ‘punctum’ and ‘study’: The more we watch the analysis of what is hidden in the images, the more the environment becomes familiar to us and meets us as memory in the next image. The process of a ‘total deconstruction’, named in the title, serves, as it were, to reassemble the from violent destruction serves to preserve the family memory. Exemplarily, it becomes clear what memory is, what can be contextualized, but also what remains as a gap - and takes on an open form as an ongoing excavation’.' Text about Studienpreis Award at the Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig, 2017


Art in the Underground
Up in Arms and Art in the Underground/Kunst im Untergrund, two exhibitions of the nGbK Berlin in 2019 where the project was shown in different iterations.
The first iteration of the work was presented in 2017.


Exhibition history
2023 Kunstpreis Fotografie (Artprize Photography). Lotto Stiftung/Lotto Foundation Brandenburg. Potsdam, DE
2023 Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents 2023. Fondation LUMA Arles. Rencontres de la Photographie. Arles, FR
2023 analogueNOW! Photoweekend. Berlin, DE
2022 To touch at the edge. KO-OP Art Space. Sofia, DE
2020 Diplom-Rundgang (Graduates Exhibition). Hochschule fuer Grafik und Buchkunst (Academy of Fine Arts). Leipzig, DE
2019 Up in Arms. Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien and neue Gesellschaft fuer bildende Kunst Berlin nGbK. Berlin, DE
2019 Kunst im Untergrund (Art in the Underground). neue Gesellschaft fuer bildende Kunst Berlin nGbK. Berlin, DE
2018 Cultural Memory in the Present. Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts. Leipzig, DE (as Beatrice Peter Schuett)
2017 Studienpreis 2017 of the Freundeskreis der Hochschule fuer Grafik und Buchkunst (Academy of Fine Arts). Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts. Leipzig, DE (as Beatrice Schuett)

Awards
2023 Advancement Award. (Foerderpreis) Kunstpreis Fotografie (Artprize Photography). Lotto Stiftung/Lotto Foundation Brandenburg. Potsdam, DE
2023 Laureate/Nominee. Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents 2023. Fondation LUMA Arles and Christian Dior. Paris, FR
2022 Shortlist Fotohof Calling, Salzburg, AT
2019 Kunst im Untergrund (Art in the Underground) competition winner. neue Gesellschaft fuer bildende Kunst Berlin nGbK. Berlin, DE
2017 Studienpreis 2017 (Award, 2nd 2nd place) of the Freundeskreis der Hochschule fuer Grafik und Buchkunst (Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig). Leipzig, DE

Publications and press
2023 Catalog. Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents 2023. Fondation LUMA Arles and Christian Dior Paris. FR
2023 Artist publication. To touch at the edge. KO-OP Art Space. Sofia, DE
2022 maybe. Magazine #2. Kalamari Klub. Heidelberg, DE
2022 Shortlist Fotohof Calling, Salzburg, AT
2020 Kreuzer Leipzig. 09.10.2021. Britt Schlehahn. Den Nachwuchskuenstlern auf der Spur. Leipzig, DE
2020 Photoworks UK. The Museum of Modern Loss. Marissa Chen. Brighton, UK
2020 The Opposite of Innocence is Ignorance: Public Art and Political Engagement. Wendy M. K. Shaw. Berlin, DE
2019 Leipziger Volkszeitung. 16.10.2019. Kunst gegen Waffen. Leipzig, DE
2019 Up in Arms. Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien. neue Gesellschaft fuer bildende Kunst Berlin nGbK. Berlin, DE
2019 Berlin Art Week Magazine. Draft image for Forensic Excavations Inventory 2019 Part 1/Art in the Underground/Kunst im Untergrund 2019. Berlin, DE
2018 Catalog Studienpreis 2017 of the Freundeskreis of the Hochschule fuer Grafik und Buchkunst (Academy of Fine Arts). Leipzig, DE (as Beatrice Schuett)
2017 Reports about Studienpreis 2017: Kunstforum International, 19.12.2017; Kunstmarkt.com; Leipziger Volkszeitung, 16.11.2017 (as Beatrice Schuett)


Further links
.Art in the Underground/Kunst im Untergrund
.Up in Arms
.Elaboration on Forensic Excavations Inventory


Sped up demonstration of work process