Stubborn Shadows / Scáthanna Seasta

With warm thanks to our funders, the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council, Goethe-Insitut Irland and Culture Moves Europe.

Mariechen Danz (Irish/German), born 1980 in Dublin, Ireland, lives and works in Dublin and Berlin, Germany. Danz’s work takes the transmission of knowledge as its starting point, placing the body at the center of her practice. In sculptures, drawings, costumes and installations – often made in collaboration with other artists and musicians – she calls into question the expressive capabilities and incapabilities of language, the legibility and hierarchy of signs, and the primacy of Western conceptions of reason. She hereby combines established systems of knowledge used to understand and describe the world with subjective, alternative and magical perspectives. Danz further activates her installations through staged vocal performances. The human body functions as the primary place of investigation for Danz’ work – the body as a metaphor, as origin and remains. Danz studied at the Universität der Künste, Berlin, the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam and received her Masters in Art & Integrated Media from Calarts, California Institute of the Arts, in 2008. Her work has been featured in institutions such as the Istanbul Biennial, La Biennale di Venezia ; Haus der Kunst Munich ; MAK Vienna; Centre Pompidou Paris ; Kunsthaus Bregenz ; High Line New York; New Museum New York as well as in numerous solo shows. She is a recipient of the Max Klinger Scholarship, Kunstfonds stipend, Berliner Senat work stipend, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff scholarship, the Villa Romana Residency & Fellowship and was awarded the GASAG Art Prize 2024.