Artists
Ehrenstein, Anna

Artists

Anna Ehrenstein

*1993 in Germany to Albanian parents.

About Anna Ehrenstein

Albanian-German artist Anna Ehrenstein explores forms of knowledge and their construction. Vivid sculptural and virtual post-photographic installations question networked objects, ideas, communities and epistemologies in a post-digital and neo-colonial world. In various forms, including image-based media, textiles, sculptures, installations, social interactions and writing – with a focus on research and collaboration – she explores how technology and digital-material culture change power relations. How do photographic legacies flow through virtual and physical realities?

Anna Ehrenstein pursues an approach she calls 'precarious assemblage' and works intensively with diverse materials and groups, particularly through South-South collaborations, redistributing resources from the global North. She understands critique as an act of love and sees radical possibilities in spiritual coalition, ritual, neuroplasticity, collective unlearning and constant renewal.

Anna Ehrenstein was born in Germany to Albanian parents. While her mother received a work visa, her father left Germany after his asylum application was rejected and started a new life in Tirana. Anna Ehrenstein grew up as a commuter between Albania and Germany and now works in both Tirana and Berlin. She has developed her artistic and socio-political tools from this particular biography.

She studied photography and media art in Dortmund and Cologne, but then radicalized her imagery into a highly staged version that aggressively flaunts this character. Her works traverse material cultures of the periphery, combining media of different technologies with performance, text or installation. Anne Ehrenstein is eloquent. She masters the language and terminology of the digital age and moves through current theories on de-colonialization, extractivism, digital labour, gender, ecological dependencies and unequal power relations in the digital world with great aplomb and clear positioning.

In 2024, she was appointed as one of the youngest professors of photography in the field of contemporary art at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig.

  • Anna Ehrenstein, Tupamaras Technophallus Sculptures, 2020
  • Anna Ehrenstein, Tools For Conviviality, 2021, Francisco Carolinum Linz
  • Anna Ehrenstein, Tools For Conviviality, 2021
  • Anna Ehrenstein, Nail Saloon, Kunstraum Bethanien Berlin, 2021
  • Anna Ehrenstein, Wahala Performance, Albanian Conference Team, Lagos Biennale 2024

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