Virtual tours of past exhibitions – vernissages, artist talks, highlights, and more.
Deep Paradise in St.Konrad / Bärenkeller
Making of and Vernissage on November 3 2023
Music: Ratko Pavlović
3:45 min
House of New Realities – Making of & Tour & Vanitas to-Go
Interaction with the audience, House of New Realities, Augsburg
23.07.2023
7:00 min
Utopia on the Horizon
12.5. – 2.07.2023
Special exhibition on the occasion of the Augsburg County Art Award 2022. Swabian Gallery in the Museum Oberschönenfeld, Gessertshausen / Germany
5:10 min
Uncanny Valley // Das unheimliche Tal
9.02. – 26.03.2023
New Gallery in the Höhmannhaus, Municipal Art Collections Augsburg / Germany
5:28 min
Exhibition https://kunstsammlungen-museen.augsburg.de/uncanny-valley
rika Kassnel-Henneberg – Exhibition Practice of a Contemporary Media Artist
Erika Kassnel-Henneberg works as a conceptual and media artist at the intersection of art, technology, and society. Her exhibition practice focuses on urgent questions of identity, memory, and human presence in a digital age. Kassnel-Henneberg examines the conditions of a new humanism at a time when algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence increasingly shape perception and decision-making. Her exhibitions place the human experience back at the center.
Artistic Focus: Humanity in the Digital Age
Across her exhibitions, Erika Kassnel-Henneberg investigates how digital technologies alter perception and self-understanding. She explores how identity forms when images become mutable and memory shifts from lived experience to external storage. Her works address the erosion of authenticity as well as emerging forms of emotional proximity mediated by artificial systems.
Kassnel-Henneberg conceives exhibitions as spaces for thought and experience. Viewers encounter works that invite reflection rather than provide answers. Through moving images, animated photographs, and constructed visual environments, her exhibitions challenge audiences to question their relationship with digital images and simulated realities.
Media Art Between Analog Trace and Digital Simulation
A defining aspect of Kassnel-Henneberg’s exhibition practice lies in the deliberate fusion of analog and digital techniques. She combines video, CGI, artificial intelligence, and interactive media with Polaroid photography, collage, and mixed media. This approach creates productive tensions between material trace and virtual construction.
Within the exhibition space, documentation and fabrication intersect. Kassnel-Henneberg never treats technology as an end in itself. She employs it as a critical tool to visualize social transformation and to make abstract developments perceptible. Her works consistently navigate the threshold between reality and simulation.
National and International Exhibitions
Erika Kassnel-Henneberg presents her work regularly in national and international exhibitions as well as media art festivals. Her artistic presence extends across Europe and South America, positioning her firmly within global contemporary media art discourse.
Key venues and festivals include:
- FILE – Electronic Language International Festival, São Paulo (BR)
- BIDEODROMO – International Experimental Film and Video Festival, Bilbao (ES)
- IVAHM – International Video Art House Festival, Madrid (ES)
These platforms showcase her video works, experimental formats, and spatial installations that critically address contemporary technological and social developments.
Awards Recognizing Exhibition Practice
Several art awards acknowledge the sustained quality and relevance of Kassnel-Henneberg’s exhibition work. In 2013, she received the Art Prize of the City of Krumbach for her work Home Is Elsewhere. The award marked early recognition of her conceptual clarity and thematic depth.
In 2022, she received the Art Prize of the District of Augsburg for her overall artistic practice. This distinction highlights the long-term impact of her exhibitions and her contribution to contemporary art in Bavaria and beyond.
Professional Networks and Institutions
Kassnel-Henneberg’s exhibition activity benefits from close collaboration with artists’ associations and cultural institutions. She maintains active membership in organizations that support professional exchange and exhibition opportunities, including:
- BBK Schwaben Nord und Augsburg e.V.
- GEDOK Munich
- Kunstverein Aichach
These networks foster curatorial collaboration and interdisciplinary dialogue, strengthening her continuous exhibition presence.
Education as Foundation of Artistic Practice
Erika Kassnel-Henneberg studied conservation and restoration at the Bern University of the Arts. This training shaped her sensitivity to materiality, preservation, and historical traces.
She later completed a degree in Interactive Media at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. The combination of these disciplines forms the conceptual backbone of her exhibition practice, where technological innovation meets critical reflection.
Teaching and Knowledge Transfer
Alongside her exhibitions, Kassnel-Henneberg engages in academic teaching. She lectures at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences and at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Her teaching informs her exhibition work and vice versa. Dialogue with students sharpens her focus on current media practices and sustains the relevance of her artistic research.
Exhibition Concepts as Narrative Spaces
A distinctive feature of Kassnel-Henneberg’s exhibition activity lies in her development of coherent spatial narratives. Each exhibition follows a clearly articulated conceptual framework that unfolds through space and media. She designs exhibitions as unified environments rather than collections of isolated works.
Video projections, photographic elements, sound, and installations interact deliberately. Kassnel-Henneberg orchestrates light, rhythm, and spatial sequencing to guide perception. This strategy intensifies the experiential dimension of her exhibitions and reinforces thematic coherence.
Audience Engagement and Critical Reception
Audience experience plays a central role in Kassnel-Henneberg’s exhibitions. Her works resist passive viewing. Animated photographs, AI-generated imagery, and hybrid formats confront viewers with familiar content in unfamiliar forms.
This approach shapes critical reception within contemporary media art discourse. Reviews and discussions often emphasize the emotional resonance of her exhibitions and her reflective use of technology. Kassnel-Henneberg positions her practice between aesthetic experience and cultural analysis.
Curatorial Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Dialogue
Curatorial collaboration constitutes another pillar of her exhibition practice. Kassnel-Henneberg frequently develops projects in close dialogue with curators who support and expand her conceptual thinking. These collaborations result in complex exhibition formats that integrate media art, sound, text, and spatial installation.
Participation in thematic group exhibitions further situates her work in dialogue with other contemporary positions, enriching interpretive contexts and expanding visibility.
Sustainability and Long-Term Impact of Exhibitions
Kassnel-Henneberg understands exhibitions as ongoing processes. Many works continue to circulate through documentation, publications, and re-installations in new contexts. Video and digital formats allow flexible presentation and repeated international exposure.
This sustainability strengthens her professional profile and reinforces the continuity of her exhibition practice. Each presentation contributes to an evolving body of work.
Outlook: Future Exhibition Projects
Looking ahead, Erika Kassnel-Henneberg continues to focus on media-based exhibitions that address societal transformation. Artificial intelligence, digital memory culture, and posthuman image worlds remain central themes.
