Follow Fluxus 2018 /

Assaf Gruber

The Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus 2018 grant for young contemporary artists called by the Hessian State Capital of Wiesbaden and the Nassauische Kunstverein Wiesbaden goes in its eleventh year to Assaf Gruber (*1980, Jerusalem).

Since 2008 Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus supports young international artists whose work suggests ideas inherent to the Fluxus art movement in order to further develop the movement. The endowment of 10,000 Euro is provided annually for a residency in Wiesbaden from June 2018 through August 2018. The work stipend concludes with an exhibition of the artist’s created work in the same year between August 2018 and May 2019 and includes a publication.

The jury of five persons consisted of Christina Lehnert (Curator Portikus, Städelschule - Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt / Main), Bazon Brock (Founder of Denkerei / Amt für Arbeit an unlösbaren Problemen und Maßnahmen der hohen Hand in Berlin and Emeritus Professor for aethetics and cultural mediation, Bergische Universität Wuppertal), Michael Berger (Collection Berger, Wiesbaden), Dr. Isolde Schmidt (Cultural Department of the city of Wiesbaden) and Elke Gruhn (Chairwoman, Artistic Director and Curator, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden). Assaf Gruber was proposed by Jarosław Lubiak, Artistic Director of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warschau, for the grant.

The jury choose from 44 nominations:
“Assaf Gruber deals with the interplay between the ideologies of individuals and their personal biographies, and the way in which they shape and influence private and public spheres. He pays special attention in examining relationships between cultural institutions, and subjects who had experiences that turned them against their own artistic creation and cultural establishments. In his films, photographs and sculptures, he enacts a fluctuating focus on crucial choices made by individuals, their daily lives, and their realities affected by global politics, culture, religion and nature. All narratives are fictional, using black humor and but always with an affectionate touch. This applies to both: the protagonist and to art history in general. Wisdom lies in the self-evident, but this only applies if you are able to recognize it as highly unlikely and therefore precious.†
 

About the artist /
Assaf Gruber (*1980, Jerusalem) lives and works in Berlin. He studied fine arts at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Ghent and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris. His work has been shown all over Europe, most recently in 2017 he received the Feature Expanded Development Award of the Lo schermo dell'arte Film Festival in Florence.