Video Artist Julia Weißenberg: Shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition, York St Mary’s

Video artist Julia Weißenberg is one of eight finalists selected for exhibition in the Aesthetica Art Prize show, taking place at York St Mary’s – York Art Gallery’s contemporary art space, in partnership with York Museums Trust, from 4 April – 22 June.

Weißenberg, born in 1982 in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, graduated from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne in 2012. She works mainly with video and has taken part in several exhibitions and festival screenings, including Bundeskunsthalle Bonn and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Currently she is a scholarship holder in Schloss Ringenberg.

The starting point for Weißenberg’s video travelogue, featuring in the Aeshtetica Art Prize exhibition, There is no real way of knowing, was an article in an Icelandic newspaper, which reported on the discovery of a 5,300 year-old tree in Iceland. Weißenberg is inspired by trees for their ability to store information about natural history, such as the climatic conditions during their lifetime. As scientists can date archaeological excavations by using historical wood, we can consider trees as a major part of our historiography.

Interested in this tree in Iceland for it appeared to be around 500 years older than the previously known oldest tree in the world, Weißenberg started to search for it. Eventually, her quest turns into a research project that meanders between fact and fiction, knowledge and myth. Inspired by the processes of current scientific projects, Weißenberg’s way of working may be described as artistic research.

For more information on the works of Julia Weißenberg visit www.juliaweissenberg.de.

Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition, 4 April – 22 June 2014, York St Mary’s, Castlegate, York, YO1 9RN. For more information visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/artprize and www.yorkstmarys.org.uk.

Credits
1. Julia Weißenberg, There is no real way of knowing (2013).