Toni Brell
CV
hi@tonibrell.de

Made up of wood, screenprints and an audiopiece the installation Did I imagine the landscape—or did the landscape imagine me conjures a hallucinatory landscape, in which fact and fiction begin to mix. 

It tells the story of a hiker, who while walking through the repetetive scenery of a forest looses their sense of what is real. Sinking down in a pond that exists on the border of reality and fiction, they imagine to see their father, who recently passed away. 

The work reflects on the question to what extend we are agents of our own narratives and how the gaze, but also the hopes and believes of others affect who we become. 


Installation view from the exhibition <em>Roots and Wings,</em> Het Hem. Photos by Sander van Wettum Installation view from the exhibition <em>Roots and Wings,</em> Het Hem. Photos by Sander van Wettum Installation view from the exhibition <em>Roots and Wings,</em> Het Hem. Photos by Sander van Wettum Installation view from the exhibition <em>Roots and Wings,</em> Het Hem. Photos by Sander van Wettum
Installation view from the exhibition Roots and Wings, Het Hem. Photos by Sander van Wettum

Toni Brell works with scenography, auto-fiction and performance to investigate the instability of their own position. Hosting rather than presenting, Brell likes to create situations, in which an audience can react and relate to what they see. For this, Brell often uses landscape as a stage or container where this exploration unfolds.

Work
CV

Education

2021

MFA, Sandberg Instituut, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, NL

2018

BA, Visual Communication, Weissensee Academy of Art, Berlin, DE

2009

BA, Theatre and Media Studies, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, DE

Grants

2023

Mondriaan Fonds, Artist Start Grant

2022

Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, for the realisation of three events with Brackish, NL

2022

TakeHeart research grant, funding for performance research, with Kati Masami Menze and Daria Nazarenko, DE

2021

Project grant, Student Council, Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, NL

2020

Project grant, Student Council, Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, NL

2017

Project grant, Mart Stam Stipend, Berlin, DE

Residencies and Research

2023

Upcoming: Uniarts Helsinki Research Pavilion #5 at Saari Residency, with Angeliki Tzortzakaki, FI

2023

Participant of In Pursuit of Otherwise Possibilities (IPOP), Queer Performance Pedagogy and Feedback Sessions at DAS graduate school, Amsterdam, NL

2022

Ando Future Studios, Research Residency, with Kati Masami Menze and Daria Nazarenko, TAKEHEART Residency hosted by PACT Zollverein, DE

2022

Østfold International Theatre, Norway, Artist in residence, with Scores for Gardens, NO

Selected exhibitions and performances

2023

Upcoming: Brackish—Artistic research project, with Brackish, NL

2023

Zone2Source, A liquid performance tasting, curated by Simulacrum Magazine, with Brackish, Amsterdam, NL

2022

Zine Fest Rotterdam, performance, with Brackish, NL

2022

Affect Aliens & Revolutionary Despair, reading at Motto Berlin, curated by Lilly Markaki, DE

2022

Brackish, KunstHub Bink, group exhibition and performance, with Megan Hadfield, Lila Bullen-Smith and Catalina Reyes, NL

2022

Worlds that World, Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, performance with Scores for Gardens, NL

2021

Roots and Wings, group exhibition, Het Hem, Zaandam, NL

2021

The Plottery, installation and workshops, at Rietveld Pavilion, Amsterdam, NL

2020

It’s dark, I lie awake again, performance, at The Grey Space in the Middle, Den Haag, NL

2017

Declaring Reason, group exhibition, Museum Meermanno, Den Haag, NL

2015

Bring out your death!, lecture performance at Verein der Gestaltung, Berlin, DE

Selected teaching and workshops

2023

Design Academy Eindhoven, Fundamentals Tutor, NL

2023

Maschinenhaus Essen, Exercises for Ungrounding as part of “Showcase 2023”, workshop with Kati Masami Menze and Daria Nazarenko, Essen, DE

2022

Fictions and Forecasts: Orbiting a collective body—Workshop with Scores for Gardens, Movement Lab, KABK, Den Haag, NL

2022

Materialising Materials—Storytelling and writing workshop on materiality with Naomi Credé, Sandberg Instituut, NL

2022

Tutor for digital design in the Visual Communication Department, Weissensee Academy of Art, Berlin, DE

2021/2022

Tutor for experimental zine-making for the course Undisciplinary Learning, with District Berlin, Academy of Art Leipzig, Leipzig, DE

2021

Ghosts in the family—Storytelling workshop—with Amy Suo Wu, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, NL

2015

Think Twice Before You Think, Co-organiser of the discussion and prototyping workshop on the proposition of setting up a new design school. At Antiuniversity Now, with Sophie Dyer, London, UK

2015

Inside Out School, workshop on critical education at the Glasgow School of Art, with Sophie Dyer, Thom Swann and Rosen Eveleigh, Glasgow, UK