Bjoern Schuelke pursues a creative style that is equally influenced by modern abstraction and instruments of scientific measurement. The slow deliberate movements in his sculptures spatially consider mass and weight of form. Also influenced by the Dadaist tradition and Jean Tinguely, the theme of an absurd machine is key in Schuelke's work. Playfully transforming live spatial energy into active responses, his objects experiment with solar panels, infrared surveillance, and propelled wind power. Many of his larger kinetic sculptures combine elements of surveillance technologies, robotics, interactive video and sound. Schuelke's active sculptures question the way in which we interact with modern technology: on entering the installation site, the audience becomes part of the 'system' as the works (some freestanding, others suspended) monitor or react to the human element. (bitforms)

Bjoern Schuelke, born 1967 in Cologne

1997-2000 Research artist at the GMD- German National Research Center for Information Technology, Sankt Augustin

1996-1999 Postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Art (KHM), Cologne, class Valie Export.

1988-1993 Studies and diploma in photo and film design, Bielefeld


awards

2002 German Video-Installation-Award for "Drone#2", Marl

2000 Biennale Arte Emergente Torino, Italy, Amica Special Award for "Modulator #1


solo exhibitions

2018 Sentinel is Watching You Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

2018 Later today I fly - Kinetische Skulpturen von Björn Schülke, Luftmuseum Amberg, Germany

2017 Björn Schülke - Vision Instruments, bitforms gallery, NYC, USA

2015 Wunderkammer, Kunstverein Worms, Germany

2014 Bjoern Schuelke, BCA, Burlington, Vermont, USA

2012 Luftraum, bitforms gallery, NYC, USA

2008 Ueberschall, bitforms gallery, NYC, USA

2006 Bjoern Schuelke: Kinetic-Interaction-Robotic, Kornhaus Gallery, Kirchheim/Teck, Germany

2003 Aerosalon, Galerie Rachel Haferkamp, Cologne, Germany

2003 European Media Art Festival> Bjoern Schuelke: Video- and Soundsculptures, Gallery Anette Roehr, Osnabrueck, Germany

2001 Controlled Voltage, Gallery Rachel Haferkamp, Cologne, Germany

1999 Modulator #1 y otras installaciones, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain

1998 Bjoern Schuelke - Medieninstallationen, Gallery 68elf, Cologne, Germany

1996 bar jeder Zeit, 10th International Photo - Scene, Cologne, Germany

1995 Zoetrope and other works, Gallery "Artists Unlimited", Bielefeld, Germany

1994 In Progress, Exit Art, Cologne, Germany

1994 Landung, KAOS-Gallery, Cologne, Germany


group exhibitions (selection)

2019 Kinetic Machines, MMIII Kunstverein Mönchengladbach, Germany

2019 Kinetic Machines, Krefelder Kunstverein, Germany

2019 AND YET IT MOVES, San Quirino’s Church, Parma, Italy

2019 KUNST BEWEGT - 8 Positionen kinetischer Kunst, Galerie Tobias Schrade, Ulm

2018 Swarm, Moss Art Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, USA

2017 Erwarten Sie Wunder, Museum Ulm, Ulm, Germany

2017 Virtual Views, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, USA

2017 Nothing to Hide? Art, Surveillance, and Privacy - Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT

2017 Payer Gabriel + N 48° 11’ 47.038" O 16° 21’ 59.259" - Christine König Galerie, Vienna

2016 bitforms gallery - Fifteen-Year Anniversary Exhibition - Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA

2016 THE VIEW - Sommeraussellung THE VIEW CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE Salenstein, Switzerland

2016 SCRIPT - Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul

2016 Magie und Macht - von fliegenden Teppichen und Drohnen, Museum Marta Herford, Germany

2016 Where are we going? Björn Schülke / Marion Anna Simon, Kunstverein Emsdetten, Germany

2015 Heaven and Hell - from magic carpets to drones, Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium

2015 playing future, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany

2014 thingWORLD, International Triennial of New Media Art, NAMOC, Beijing, China

2014 Szenarien des Unheimlichen, Kunstverein Neuhausen

2013 Kinesthetics: Art Imitating Life, Pratt Gallery Manhattan, New York, USA

2013 Transposition: Motion is Action, National Art Museum, Beijing, China.

2012 Segment#3, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey

2012 Dankmal an Wagner, Kunstverein Worms

2012 Klang, Künstlerverein Walkmühle, Wiesbaden

2012 Art HK 11, bitforms gallery, Hong Kong

2011 Segment#1, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey

2011 PULSE: Art and Technology Festival, Telfair Museum Savannah, USA

2009 Sound and Tone in the Contemporary Art, Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot

2009 tech-no-tech, Martin-Mullen Gallery, SUNY Oneonta, New York

2008 Vision in Motion - Motion in Vision, Verbeke Foundation, Stekene, Belgium

2007 chapter2, gallery think21, Brussels, Belgium

2007 Summer Group Show, bitforms gallery, New York, USA

2007 ART COLOGNE, Gallery Brigitte Schenk, Germany

2006 War in the world: Artists respond to the last five years, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, USA

2006 Cybernetic Sensibility, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul, Korea

2006 Peter Vogel/Bjoern Schuelke, bitforms gallery, Seoul, Korea

2006 Sound of Music, Maison Eclusiere, Toulouse, France

2006 Dubois/Schuelke, bitforms gallery, New York, USA

2006 STRP,Strijp-S, Eindhoven, Netherlands

2006 ARCO, with bitforms gallery NYC, Spain

2005 ART COLOGNE, with Gallery Brigitte Schenk, Germany

2005 Roboter, Opelvillen, Ruesselsheim, Germany

2005 ArtBots, Saints Michael and John Church, Dublin, Ireland

2005 Field Research, Gallery Brigitte Schenk, Cologne, Germany

2004 TAINMENT, NGBK, Berlin, Germany

2004 Sequences, Peterborough Art Museum, Peterborough, England

2004 BEAP 2004, Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth, Australia

2004 Rauma Biennale Balticum, Rauma, Finland

2004 Privatgruen, Fuhrwerkswaage Kunstraum, Cologne, Germany

2004 FEEL, tactile media art, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium

2004 Deutsche Video Kunst, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany

2004 Ohlo Ciclico (cyclic eye), Museu Paulista/Ipiranga, Sao Paulo, Brazil

2003 Monitoring, Kulturbahnhof, Kassel, Germany

2003 jeune creation, exposition internationale d'art contemporain, Paris, France

2002 Sentient Cog, 5th. Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

2001 Koeln Quartett 01, Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage, Cologne, Germany

2001 Skif-5, Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival, St.Petersburg, Russia

2000 Biennale Arte Emergente, Torino, Italy

2000 Stein der Weisen, Bonn, Germany

1998 Edison-Station, Leipzig, Germany

1998 Licht, Museum Jena

1998 Brueckengang, Container-Project, Art Cologne, Germany

1997 Gute und Boese Maschinen, KHM, Cologne, Germany

1997 1997...., Cologne, Germany

1996 International Symposium of Shadows, London, England

1996 Bewegtes Licht, Atelier Soemmering, Cologne, Germany

1995 Essen und Trinken, KAOS-Gallery, Cologne, Germany


collections

THE VIEW CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE, Switzerland

Borusan Art Collection, Turkey

City of San Jose, USA

Bank of America, USA

21c Museum, Louisville, KY, USA

Progressive, USA

Neiman Marcus, USA

Sharjah Art Museum, United Arab Emirates

Sculpturemuseum Glaskasten, Marl, Germany

Research Center Juelich, Germany

Private collections in Europe and the United States