J&K

Live and work in Berlin (Germany) and Copenhagen (Denmark)

The artist duo J&K are Janne Schäfer (b. 1976 in Darmstadt, Germany) and Kristine Agergaard (b. 1975 near Copenhagen, Denmark). They have been working in collaboration since 1999 and are based in Berlin and Copenhagen, respectively. J&K have had numerous international solo shows and participated in many group exhibitions at, among other places, Mathaf, Doha; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; IVAM, Valenica; Museum for Egyptian Art, Munich; Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga; NGBK+ Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin; Kunsthal Nikolaj, Copenhagen; Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin; Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen and the Liverpool Biennial.

Mammal Matrix (MaMa) is a new video work by J&K created for KB17. The video consists of a looped animation of still photography images showing a colourful and vividly textured composition of bedding materials, fabrics and objects in constant transformation seen from a bird’s eye view. The painterly scenarios reference death and birth beds, and bear witness to possible rituals and stages of passage that are lived and performed in them. The image sequence is accompanied by spoken text taking the audience on a cosmic journey through multiple states of birth and death, from the edge of the universe into a womb on planet Earth. The protagonists of this journey are a basilosaurus, a chicken, a sesame seed and a meteorite: phenomena that are all loosely referencing the ancient cultural and geological history of the region that makes up today’s Pakistan. Mammal Matrix (MaMa) is offering a zoomed-out perspective on life as a continuous cycle in which being-hood shifts and where the man-made categories and borders between human and animal species, plants, minerals and things are questioned and explored. The work is shown as a projection within a full-floor installation composed from various soft materials allowing the audience to sit or lie down and experience the work as a form of guided meditation on the transient mysteries of life and death. The floor installation partly references the aesthetics of the video and blends it with local materials creating a communal patchwork. Mammal Matrix (MaMa) was created while J&K were personally facing actual birth and dying processes and the artists wish to thank Linards Kulless (production assistance) and Fritz Stollberg (photography and edit) for their great personal and artistic support. Text for the video was written with and spoken by Jonathan Bonnici. The work was realised with financial support from the Danish Arts Foundation.