bankleer (Karin Kasböck & Christoph Maria Leitner)

Live and work in Berlin (Germany)

bankleer are Berlin-based artists Karin Kasböck and Christoph Maria Leitner. In their work, the duo develops installations and videos that address and expand documented performances and their settings. Using interventions and Happenings as a starting point they produce documentary-fictional videos, objects and spacial installations about distortions in society and about processes of transformation. A key component of bankleer's artistic practice is the interplay between documentary and fiction, social reality and artistic autonomy, art and non-art contexts. Recent shows and performances include Berliner Herbstsalon/Maxim Gorki Theater (2013, 2015, 2017), die Irrenden/Max-Joseph-Platz München (2016), into the city/Wiener Festwochen, compeung/Chiang Mai, Steirischer Herbst/Graz (2015) and transit/Bratislava (2014).

Of their work for KB17, The Thing, bankleer write: “In the city center around the Biennale, or nearby the exhibition building, we will place a meteorite - as it crosses the atmosphere, coming from the universe and reaching earth. Depending on the possibilities, the situation recreates an impact, with damage, a hole, or deformation. The meteorite is a sculpture that rests and becomes a performative element after some time. The sculpture is motionless and silent for quite a while, then slowly begins with sounds to speak to the audience, while body parts, such as arms or legs, become visible.”