Christian Falsnaes

UHD video, 10:41 min; stage molton on wood frame, 200 × 450 cm

I is a video installation comprising a single-channel UHD video and a large black fabric wall piece. Both elements were created in collaboration with audience participants during a live performance at Le Bicolore, Paris.

Graphite on paper, 70 × 50 cm

A series of graphite drawings depicting layers of graffiti tags, throw-ups, and pieces found on urban surfaces in Berlin. The drawings capture the accumulation of marks from multiple writers, rendered in detail on paper.

Performance, 4 performers
Presented as part of the Art Basel Paris program, curated by Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou.

GLITCH is a performance featuring four performers who embody four distinct art fair roles: a collector, a gallerist, an artist, and a curator. Initially behaving normally, their movements gradually become fragmented and malfunctioning, resembling glitches. The work highlights the choreographed behavior of bodies in a public art context.

Performance workshop, instructor, 20 participants

COLLABORATION is a workshop format developed through experiments conducted at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. Under guidance, participants collectively develop and perform a new piece based on their own proposals. A video of the first iteration at Andersen’s, Copenhagen, documents the process and serves as a reference for future versions.

Glass, children’s clothing; 1125 × 450 cm

A site-specific installation located in the central staircase of the Hermine-von-Parish elementary school, Munich. The work consists of children's garments pressed and arranged between glass panes to create a 13-meter-long continuous gradient of colors. The project was commissioned by the City of Munich’s Department for Building and executed through the Art in Architecture program.

LOOK AT ME (2020)

4K video, 37:53 min

LOOK AT ME documents a series of staged performances involving different groups of participants in various locations, including an outdoor festival, a film studio, an art fair, and a nightclub. The video shows a choreographed interplay between performer, camera, and audience.

Performance, white room, mirror, assistant, visitor

Conceived and first presented during the COVID-19 lockdown, SOLO was developed for the exhibition State of The Arts (2020) at Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn. The performance is designed for a single visitor at a time, who is enclosed in a white room facing a large mirror. Without instructions or restrictions, the visitor’s spontaneous actions constitute the work.

Copper, 200 × 600 × 15 cm

TOUCH is a wall installation composed of five large copper elements forming the letters T, O, U, C, and H. The work invites viewers to physically touch the copper surfaces, resulting in the accumulation of marks over time as the copper oxidizes.

UHD video, 7:46 min

ICON consists of a video documenting an exhibition opening during which visitors were instructed to destroy and rearrange male post-war modernist works by Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Imi Knoebel, Bruce Nauman, Blinky Palermo, Reiner Ruthenbeck, and Franz Erhard Walther.

Performance, white room, mirror, costumes, sound, visitors

FORCE is an ongoing performance in which exhibition visitors change into black costumes and enter a white room with a large mirror. Once inside, they follow instructions played over speakers and perform a sequence of movements, becoming performers of a choreography while remaining its sole audience.

2-channel video installation

SELF is a two-channel video installation showing a single performer in one channel and a group in the other. Each moves through the streets of Berlin following choreographed actions and gestures. The work contrasts the spatial and physical presence of an individual with that of a collective.

Cut clothes on wooden frames, 3 × 160 × 120 cm

PORTRAITS consists of three textile assemblages created during Vienna Contemporary 2017. Under instruction, fair visitors cut the clothing worn by artist Christian Falsnaes, gallerist Sabine Schmidt, and collector couple Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt and Stefan Pfandt, then attached the fragments to wooden frames.

Camera with headlight, live-feed projection, camera operator, instructor, visitors.

FEED is a real-time video installation and immersive performance. The piece requires an instructor and camera person who are to guide visitors to perform in front of the camera. Whatever the visitor does is simultaneously shown in real-time on a screen in the room. In FEED, the material filmed is never actually recorded, and is never intended to be shown elsewhere, consequently encouraging presence in the production process.
In FEED, a sort of laboratory is created, in which one submits to a hierarchy in order to experience certain power structures and social dynamics. Participants are given a space to both feel this submission, and watch themselves go through it via the real-time footage; their awareness of their individual choices and responsibility are heightened, and as a result the piece becomes a space for self-reflection.

Performance with six dancers and audience

FALL is a performance created in collaboration with choreographer Martin Forsberg and the dance company Corpus. First performed at The Royal Danish Theatre, the piece brings together six professional dancers and a participating audience. Under instruction, the combined group performs a movement-based choreography centered on the act of falling.

The performance maintains in its structure the collaborative nature of the commission by making an ordinary audience join forces with a group of six professional dancers in order to create an artwork. In FALL the involvement of the audience collides with a certain awakening of the dance company, all within an open framework whereby unexpected physical and psychological reactions of the audience define the image and character of the piece.

Falsnaes leads the audience through a choreography developed in collaboration with Forsberg, centered around the act of falling as an effective dramatic resource that enables an awareness of the weight and structure of the self, both as singular cells and as part of a collective.

Stage, stage light, audio on headphones, visitors

STAGE is an ongoing performance in which exhibition visitors are invited onto a stage and instructed via headphones to carry out a series of movements. The stage becomes a pedestal shifting forms as each participant interprets the choreography differently.

Performance, film studio, video display, instructor, visitors

FIRST is a performance in which the first visitor to the exhibition each day is filmed following a series of instructions. The resulting video is displayed for the duration of the day and deleted afterwards. If the first visitor declines participation, no video is produced for that day. This cycle repeats daily throughout the exhibition.

Performance, 2-channel video installation, hired instructor, visitors

MOVING IMAGES is an ongoing performance in which visitors enter a room with two opposing video projections displaying pre-recorded performances, images, and color panels. Visitors receive vocal instructions to engage with the projections through movement or reflection. A hired instructor facilitates the experience and leads group discussions regarding the relationship between live and mediated viewing.

Single-channel audio on speakers, one hired instructor, visitors

A GOOD REASON IS ONE THAT LOOKS LIKE ONE is a collective performance where instructions related to social and physical interactions—such as singing, dancing, or kissing—are delivered through loudspeakers. A hired instructor ensures that visitors follow the instructions in the exhibition space.

App for Android tablet, YouTube channel, visitors

In THE TITLE IS YOUR NAME, visitors enter a spotlight-lit room to interact with a tablet and perform a private action recorded by the tablet’s webcam. A video named after the visitor is uploaded to YouTube, unless they opt to delete the recording immediately, never being able to watch it.

Performance, mobile phone, visitors

AVAILABLE is an ongoing performance in which a telephone with a direct line to the artist is placed in the exhibition space. The artist makes himself available throughout the entire exhibition period to give callers instructions for actions to perform within the exhibition. Each caller receives different instructions, becoming active participants in the artwork’s development.

Paint on canvas and on different surfaces in public space
Photo   

Surface Memory is an ongoing body of work involving painting, photography and public space. The idea is that a white canvas is prepared with several layers and colours of paint, and is then used as a tool to paint on surfaces in public space; be it a bus shelter, a concrete wall or side of a train. The respective canvas is then displayed next to a photo of the painted surface in public space.

Performance
Marker on paper
Photo

Time/Line/Movement is an ongoing series of drawings which removes any barriers between the artist and the collector. When one of these drawings finds a new home, the new owner is to make a hand drawn copy of the original work before proceeding to burning it. Ultimately, the interpretation of the original is what becomes the artwork; one that probes a collective action between two pillars of the art world.

5-channel audio on wireless headphones, two hired performers, visitors

JUSTIFIED BELIEFS is an ongoing performance where participants wear one of five wireless headphone sets, each delivering unique but synchronized instructions. The ensemble of participants, including two hired performers, follows the instructions to create choreographed collective behavior, exploring social dynamics and individual interaction.

Performance, spray-painted OSB plates on wood structure, approx. 300 × 1500 cm

FRONT is a performance involving a large wall spray-painted, torn down, paraded, and rebuilt by an audience under the artist’s instructions.

Oil on canvas, visitors

ONE is an ongoing series of paintings created by exhibition visitors under the artist’s guidance. Visitors perform brushstrokes that embody painting gestures, allowing the artwork to emerge through their actions. The resulting collective paintings explore the gestures and expressions of the collective participants rather than those of the artist.

Performance, HD video, 14:35 min

RISE is a performance first realized at the Akademie der Künste Berlin in 2014. The work consists of a sequence of instructions given by the artist to the audience, ranging from sitting to standing, remaining silent to chanting, and dancing to finally storming the stage. The performance investigates power relations and audience behavior within a theatrical setting.

3-channel video installation

SYNTAX ERROR is a three-channel video installation documenting performances at exhibition openings in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Altkirch. In each, groups of men disrupt the event by interrupting speeches and attacking visitors, then proceed to dance among the crowds before exiting.

Performance, cut clothes on stretcher bars, HD video, 17:35 min

OPENING is a performance presented at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. Visitors participated in the filming of a music video, engaging in choreography before moving into the streets. During the opening speech, they cut pieces from the artist’s clothing, which were then attached to a wood frame to create a new artwork.

4-channel video installation

MALE DEMEANOR AS A CONSEQUENCE OF SOCIAL POWER RELATIONS BETWEEN ARTIST AND AUDIENCE is a four-channel video installation documenting four performances. Each channel shows a performance in which the artist leads a group of twenty visitors through a scenario where he assumes a distinct role: teacher, commander, star, or aggressor. These roles represent different forms of male authority identified within the artist’s own practice.

HD video, 12:25 min

INFLUENCE is a performance exploring the artist’s ability to guide an audience into states of submission and enthusiasm. The work takes place in two distinct locations: at a festival for contemporary art where the artist holds a position of authority and the audience expects a performance, and at a local folk celebration in Bavaria where the intervention is unanticipated and perceived as a disruption. The differing contexts highlight how social expectations affect the dynamics between artist and audience.

Music video by Amos Angeles, Søren Berner, and Christian Falsnaes

LOVE AND SECURITY is a music video exploring the subway as a symbol within graffiti culture and urban life. The video features naked protagonists interacting with subway cars and infrastructure, highlighting themes of vulnerability and exposure amid surveillance and control.

Performance, installation, HD video, 14:45 min

ELIXIR is a performance involving two groups of visitors assigned to separate spaces: a white cube gallery and a cinema room showing a live stream from the gallery. The group in the gallery participates in rituals including wall painting, choreography, and finally breaking through a wall to join the second group. The combined group then spray paint an unauthorized mural outside before concluding with a group meditation led by the artist.

Performance, acrylic paint on canvas, 200 × 280 cm, DV video, 07:00 min

EXISTING THINGS is a performance in which the artist performs in front of projections of earlier works before directing the audience to use him as a paintbrush in the creation of a large painting. The crowd then moves outside where spontaneous dancing occurs and collectively sings "Lose Yourself" by Eminem.

Performance, installation, HD video, 10:55 min

THERE AND BACK is a performance inspired by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The artist and audience undertake a series of self-imposed challenges within the exhibition space transformed into a film set. The audience follows tasks assigned by the artist, culminating in a recorded film shown with the remaining set pieces.