“I believe both mentor and mentee can be greatly inspired by dialogue around the development of artistic process and that the mentorship role is a great instrument to support younger artist at the beginning of their career. Key points of mentoring would cover the territory of positioning one’s self, self-reflection, artistic development and bringing the work out to the world.”
About Katrin Korfmann (1971)
Katrin Korfmann grew up in West Berlin, Germany and lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, where she specialized in photography and continued her research with residencies at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Cittadellarte in Biella, Italy and the Chinese European Art Centre in Xiamen.
Owing to her background in photography, Katrin Korfmann likes to work in various media – photo-works, videos and installations. Korfman is concerned with concepts of framing, perspective, and the social dimensions of perception by pushing the boundaries of photography and representation. An important determinant in her works are observations of people in specific public places. This is made visible through the presentation of different sequential incidents that have been registered within a given period and location, in one single spatial arrangement. The issue of responsibility for the existence of an image, the choice of the right moment and the framing that determines an image also play an important role in her work. Korfmann’s work may be characterized by a formal level of composition, structure and spatiotemporal experience, that is aimed at the registration and investigation of social constructions and behavior in public space.
Since the late 1990s her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries, museums, alternative art institutions and public spaces as Three Shadows Art Centre, CN; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, US; Aperture Foundation, New York; Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem,NL; Kopeikin Gallery Los Angeles and Akademie der Künste, Berlin. Following her interest in public spaces she realized numerous public art works, amongst others in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Moreover, Katrin won several prizes for her work, including Radostar Prize (CH), Prix de Rome (2nd prize) and the Esther Kroon Award (NL) and received grants from international institutions like Robert Bosch and Würth Foundation (DE), Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and Mondriaan Fund (NL). Her work is represented in many private and public international collections.
Additionally to her artistic practice she is a tutor at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague and an advisor for art in public space.
Katrin Korfmann on mentoring
When I was a student I had the chance to do an internship with the artist Ulay. This exchange gave me the opportunity to widen my horizon in visual art/live work whilst growing under the guidance of an established and renowned artist. Aside from having the direct experience of benefiting from a mentor, I have been working as a tutor for eight years and have accrued enough experience to trust in this exchange as a methodology.
I believe both mentor and mentee can be greatly inspired by dialogue around the development of artistic process and that the mentorship role is a great instrument to support younger artist at the beginning of their career.
As a mentor, I can provide guidance in making artistic/conceptual choices but also share my knowledge around practical issues such as collaboration, process and building up an international network to support and realize artistic work. Key points of mentoring would cover the territory of positioning one’s self, self-reflection, artistic development and bringing the work out to the world. Other points include details that are important for developing a practice such as sources of inspiration, dealing with struggles and finding priorities to guide one’s research and practice. I see all of these aspects as vital aspects of developing an arts career with longevity that can only be learned from experience.