Peter Welz was born in Lauingen (DE) in 1972, he lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin (1993-1995), at the Cooper Union in New York (1997) and at the Chelsea School of Art in London (1995-1998). Since the beginning of the 2000s, he developed a personal kinetic perspective using the video as a sculptural expression on moving bodies. His work is characterized by multimedia choreographic installations including sculpture, painting, video, art and dance. The artist’s interest in architecture and movement led him to work on the series “Portrait”, an ongoing visual study based on four subjects: Francis Bacon, Casa Malaparte, Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti, AA Bronson. The encounter with William Forsythe, a leading figure in contemporary dance, has been significant for the launch of the Portrait #1 and the making of the installation “Retranslation | Final Unfinished Portrait (Francis Bacon)” presented at Musée du Louvre in Paris in 2005. The unfinished portrait left by the artist before his death in 1992 is the central point of the work. Portrait #2 is dedicated to Casa Malaparte, a masterpiece of modern architecture designed by architect Adalberto Libera on the island of Capri and residence of poet and writer Curzio Malaparte. Peter Welz portrays the house not only as an architectural structure but as a choreographic space set in isolated landscape, intervening on the frames of the film “Le Mépris/Il Disprezzo” shot by Jean-Luc Godard in 1963.

Portrait #3 pays homage to Monica Vitti and Michelangelo Antonioni, among the major Italian film directors who has redefined the concept of “narrative cinema” favouring contemplation and focusing on image over story. With the support by the Museo Michelangelo Antonioni and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea of Ferrara, Peter Welz worked on “Red Desert” movie’s frames (1964), Antonioni’s first film in colour. The artist focuses on a very crucial and private scene, when Monica Vitti is asked to cry, that finally Antonioni neglected in the final version. Lastly, Portrait #4 is dedicated to Canadian artist and curator AA Bronson, cofounder of the artist collective General Idea and explorer of alternative ways of living together and education. The main video installation, complemented by sculptural and photographic studies, portrays AA Bronson alone at the center of two rotating cameras that film it from different perspectives reproduced on self-supporting projection screens, set opposite each other. The circular cut-outs on the screens recall the rotating movement of the cameras and the inevitable passing of time. In 2020, Peter Welz is invited artist in residence at Casa degli Artisti in Milan. He has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in important institutions, such as: Maiiam Contemporary Museum, Chiang Mai (2019), Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern (2010), National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome (2009), Museum für Moderne Kunst Weserburg, Bremen (2008),

Musée du Louvre, Paris (2006), The Renaissance Society, Chicago and Museum for Modern Kunst, Goslar (2005), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2004), Goethe Institute, St. Petersburg (2003). Peter Welz took part in group exhibitions in institutions, such as: Hoffmann Collection, Berlin, Falckenberg Collection, Deichtorhallen-Phoenix Hallen, Hamburg and Marta Herford Museum, Herford (2019), Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Oslo (2018), Le Tripostal, Lille (2017), La Cinémathèque Française, Paris (2015), Museum für Moderne Kunst Weserburg, Bremen (2014, 2008), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2013), Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2011), Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg (2010), Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen (2007), Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2006), Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2005), Vincent van Gogh Institute, Venray (2002), ICA Institute for Contemporary Arts, London (2001). The collaboration between the artist and Galleria Fumagalli began in 2005 with the participation in the group exhibition “VISIONI, 20 artists in Sant’Agostino” at Sant’Agostino’s church in Bergamo, curated by Annamaria Maggi. It continued in 2009 with the opening of Peter Welz’s first solo show at the gallery, followed in 2014 with the exhibition “Portraits | Installations” and in 2016 with “Portrait Malaparte” presented in the new gallery venue in Milan.

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS

PETER WELZ
Portrait Malaparte

Opening 16 November 2016
17 November to 20 December 2016

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PETER WELZ
Portraits | Installations

Opening 13 November 2014
14 November 2014 to 6 January 2015

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PETER WELZ

Opening 10 October 2009
13 October to 30 November 2009

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GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Visioni. 20 artisti a Sant’Agostino

9 April to 11 June 2005

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