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
2023 Cosmos, bitforms gallery, San Francisco, USA
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)
2024 Herren heute - Carl Theodor, Kunstverein Schwetzingen, Germany
2021 Solar Mesh Dance, LRRH, Düsseldorf, Germany
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