CV in English

 

Irene Maag was born in Liestal Switzerland in 1972. Her main area of work is in performance art and installation/intervention. Since 1998 she has been involved individually and collectively in performance festivals and exhibitions in Switzerland and since 2001 internaltionally in various countries including Georgia, Armenia, Myanmar (Burma), Poland, Finnland, Germany, France and Spain. 2014 she was awarded the culture prize of the canton Basel-Landschaft in the category fine arts. Irene Maag enjoys creating new interpretations for everyday familiar materials. Her work is often site specific: she seeks to reflect the space, locality and content of the places of actions in her artistic work. Other points of emphasis are: Public spaces, the public, art as a strategy, art as mediation, collaboration as well as the participation of people with similar or diverse talents. She is a founding member of several performance collectives such as the performance group GABI (1998 – 2005) and the Swiss performance collective Kollabor (2005-2015, www.kollabor.ch). Between 2001 and 2009 she was co-managing, curating and initiating projects at Kaskadenkondensator Basel. Since 1996 she is initiating art mediation projects with people of different ages and abilities. Since 2016 she is engaged with local culture politics in the association Verband Kultur Baselland (www.vkbl.ch) of which she is a founding member, co-president until 2018 and since 2019 managing director.

 

Education and further education

  • 2008 – 2012: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, FHNW Academy of Art and Design (HGK), Institute Art and Design Education: Master of Arts FHNW in Art and Design Education (MA): Teachers certificate Secondary II level.
  • 1997 – 2000: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, FHNW Academy of Art and Design (HGK), Institute Fine Arts, Swiss diploma Artist HGK (BA)
  • 1990 – 1994: Apprentice Stone Sculptor with Lorenz und Helen Balmer in Basel, Swiss diploma in stone sculpture.

 

Grants / Artist in Residence / Prizes

  • 2019: Winner of the two-stage kulturelles.bl project contest about Carl Spitteler – 100 years of Nobel prize in Literature: Performance Lecture Reala at Kunsthalle Palazzo Liestal in the exhibition Imago. Geschichtsbilder, Frauenbilder, Spiegelbilder.
  • 2017: Performance artist in residence (P.A.I.R) of PANCH (Performance Art Network CH) in NAIRS, Switzerland. Nairs in Movimaint, 26.11.-3.12.2017
  • 2015: Reunion of Performance artist Rencontre des artistes: France, Château de Monthelon
  • 2014: Culture prize of the canton Basel-Landschaft in the category fine arts
  • 2014: kult&co – contest for artmediation projects, city of Basel, artcouncil: Das Kleid der Performance (The dress of performance-art) – Texycling
  • 2009: Artist in residence with the performance collective LABOR, German situated Artist village Schöppingen, 19th – 21st January 2009
  • 2007: Project grant with the performace collective LABOR in Progr Bern
  • 2006: Artist in residence in NAIRS, Switzerland for four months (www.nairs.ch)
  • 2005: The View, Georgia 2003, Video, DVD without sound, limited edition of ten copies. First purchase at Regionale 6 via kulturelles.bl
  • 2002: Artist in residence in Georgia, Tbilissi iaab (international exchange studio programm Basel) Christoph Merian Stiftung, five months
  • 2002: Prize for performance-art, Alexander Clavel Foundation, Riehen, Switzerland

 

Statement

Places of actions

Mostly it’s the spacial and the content challenge of the interventions environment which is the starting point of my iconographic process. My emphasis is on performance and intervention. Daily life and myself as an individual are the sources of my work. I am constantly inventing new answers to questions which sometimes haven’t yet been asked. To create art and to lead an artist’s life is for me a possibility to gain insight.

I. Maag