wiss. Mitarb. Edgar Lissel

Since March 2016 Edgar Lissel heads the arts-based research project Reset the Apparatus! Retrograde Technicity in Artistic Photographic and Cinematic Practices, funded by the Austrian Science Fund’s program for artistic research (PEEK) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Department of Media Theory.

Edgar Lissel works with different types of photography with a conceptual focus. His works are not committed to classic photography, but rather the photographic, and always link back to the roots of this medium, translated into a practical form of photographic research. By focusing on the process of production, his work offers a way of (re-)interrogating the photographic apparatus from the perspective of production. In his interdisciplinary artistic projects in collaboration with microbiologists, archaeologists, and biomolecular engineers he seeks out the field of tension between natural science, archaeology, art history, and artistic work.

After receiving a scholarship from the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo at Casa Baldi he moved to Vienna, where he has lived since 2005. Since the early 1990s Edgar Lissel has been working as a visual artist. His works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Städelmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, the Kunsthalle Krems, Austria, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna Bologna, and the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. His projects are featured in numerous international publications, both artistic and academic, and his work is represented in various public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Victoria & Albert Museum London; Staatliches Museum Schwerin, and the German and Austrian Bundeskunstsammlungen (Federal Art Collections). Edgar Lissel has received several awards for his artistic work, including the 2010 Austrian State Stipend for artistic photography. Since 1998 he has taught art and photography at universities in Austria (2005–2009 University of Applied Arts Vienna; 2012 and 2014 visiting professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna) and Germany (2010 visiting professor at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen).

Contact

Office Hours: by Appointment

Phone: +43-1-71133-2323
Email: edgar.lissel[at]uni-ak.ac.at

Edgar Lissel’s Web-Site

Edgar Lissel, Mnemosyne II, Vienna, 2007, Installation

Projects with international cooperation partners

2016 „Anima Vitae“ (working with the anthrenus museorum), Cooperation with Dr. Rüdiger Plarre, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung (BAM) in Berlin (DE)
2007 „Quorum Sensing“ (communication between bacteria), Cooperation with Prof. Paul Williams, Dr. Steve Diggle and Dr. Stephan Heeb, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham (UK), funded by the British Art Council
2006 „Rote Halle, Lichtkuppel – Pergamon“, Cooperation with Dr. Felix Pirson, German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in Pergamon (Turkey), funded by the DAI
2005 „Domus Aurea“, Research with archaeologists and biologists in the Domus Aurea, Rome. Cooperation with Prof. Patrizia Albertano, Universitá di Roma and the Sopraintendenza di Roma (Italy), funded by the Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo
Exhibitions (selection)

2015
“TO DRAW A BOW TO BEND A LINE”, Fotogalerie Wien
“Visualising Life Science”, Gwacheon National Science Museum Seoul, South Korea
2014
“Positionen der Zeitgenössischen Fotografie”, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Germany
2013
“Genuss und Vergänglichkeit – Essen in der Kunst”, Kunsthalle Krems, Austria
“CUT/PASTE/GROW”, The Observatory & Genspace New York, US
2012
“Resistance – contemporary artists working against the camera”, The Fine Art Society – Contemporary, London, UK
“Tag- und Nachtbilder”, Rupertinum, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria
“Points of View · Orte der Fotografie”, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, Germany
2011
“TECHNIK & METHODE – Künstlerische Prozesse der Bildfindung”, Fotogalerie Wien, Austria
2010
“MIKRO FOTOGRAFIE – Schönheit jenseits des Sichtbaren”, Museum of Photography Berlin, Germany
Collections (selection)

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Victoria & Albert Museum London
Museum der Moderne Salzburg
Kunstsammlung des Bundes, Austria
MUSA Museum, Collection of Contemporary Art of the City of Vienna
Museum of Contemporary Art, Klosterstift Admont
Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Collection Ströher, Museum Küppersmühle Duisburg
Staatliches Museum Schwerin
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
Participation in conferences (selection)

2014
34. Bielefelder Fotosymposium “Strukturen in der Fotografie. Strukturen des Tektonischen – Strukturen des Lebendigen”
2013
“Grenzgänge zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst”, Österreichische Forschungsgemeinschaft Wien
2012
“Der Apparat als Werk”, Congress at the University of Art and Design Offenbach in collaboration with the Städelschule in Frankfurt and Ray
“Materialität / Immaterialität in der Fotografie”, Europäische Gesellschaft für die Geschichte der Photographie (ESHPh), MUSA Museum Vienna
2011
“ArteFakte. Wissen ist Kunst – Kunst ist Wissen. Synthetische Biologie. Leben – Kunst”, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin
Publications (selection)
Publications about Edgar Lissel (selection)

“Edgar Lissel: Aus Höhlen und Petrischalen. Bilder in Versuchsanordnungen zwischen wissenschaftlicher Methode und künstlerischen Strategien.” In: Grenzgänge zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst, edited by Otto Neumaier, 95. Vienna: Lit Verlag, 2015.
Martha Blassnigg, Gustav Deutsch, and Hanna Schimek (eds.), Light Image Imagination. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2013.
Marcel Finke, “Aus der Fliegenperspektive. Facetten der Fotografie als theoretisches Objekt.” Fotogeschichte 129 (2013): 39.
Edgar Lissel in: Resistance: Subverting the Camera. Exhibition catalog, The Fine Art Society Contemporary. London: Artquarters Press, 2012.
Torsten Scheid, “Grammatik des Kosmischen.” In: POINTS OF VIEW. Orte der Fotografie, edited by Torsten Scheid. Heidelberg, Berlin: Kehrer Verlag, 2012.
Edgar Lissel, “Bakterien-Bilder”. In: Gegenworte. Hefte für den Disput über Wissen 27 (2012): 43–45.
Edgar Lissel in: Technik & Methode – Künstlerische Prozesse der Bildfindung. Vienna: Fotogalerie Wien, 2011.
Ludger Derenthal and Christiane Stahl (eds.), Mikro Fotografie: Schönheit jenseits des Sichtbaren. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2010.
Horst Bredekamp, “Animation und biofaktische Organik.” In: Horst Bredekamp, Theorie des Bildakts. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2010.
Ingeborg Reichle, “Bacteria, Art, and Talbot’s Heirs.” In: Ingeborg Reichle, Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art. With a preface by Robert Zwijnenberg, translated by Gloria Custance. New York: Springer, 2009.
Edgar Lissel in: inside//outside — Innenraum und Ausblick in der zeitgenössischen deutschen Fotografie, edited by Walter Smerling and Simone Förster. Cologne: Wienand Verlag, 2008.
Claudia Weinzierl, “Edgar Lissel — Verortung und Verwandlung.” In: Eikon 62 (2008): 26–31.