Honi Ryan

Born in 1978 in Melbourne (Australia)
Lives and works in Berlin (Germany)

Honi Ryan is an interdisciplinary artist with a nomadic social practice. Her work has intercultural concerns and deals with the present body in relationship to others and their environment. Working with long term social performance projects at the core of her practice, Ryan builds relationships as works of art by creating mindful encounters in everyday life — encounters between people and place — as a living art practice. 

Born in Melbourne, Australia, and based in Berlin, Germany, Ryan has performed, exhibited, published, presented and taught in the arts and at residencies and conferences across Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, and the US. She has been the recipient of numerous scholarships, holds a Bachelor of Visual Art from Sydney College of the Arts where she was valedictorian in 2008, and a Master of Fine Art in creative practice from the Transart Institute in Berlin and New York. Ryan was awarded the Transart achievement award in 2016. 

Honi Ryan writes of her project on view at KB17: “The Silent Dinners are a performance art project based around a three course meal. A Silent Dinner is a normal dinner party except the guests are requested not to speak, read or write; not to use technology; and to stay for at least two hours. These social sculptures have been hosted in more than ten countries over the past ten years, for between two and two hundred participants at a time. A platform for experimenting with peaceful exchange, the Silent Dinners break down intercultural barriers such as language, while celebrating cultural expression through food. Each host city fills the experience with a meaning particular to that society, time, group, and individual. The Silent Dinners are an intimate, embodied, cross-cultural portrait of an epoch, highlighting globalisation, the changing nature of communication, and the essential space between people. And, they are a lot of fun.”