BRENDA I. STEINECKE SOTO
(Artistic Director) *1978 in Medellin, Colombia. Early educated in classical ballet, after finishing school, Brenda went to Germany for educating. After 18 years learning, working and performing in Europe, she returned 2013 to live in Colombia, where she launched the Fundación Espacio Arte, a non-profit organization based in a rural region of Medellin (Colombia) and which approach relies on boosting dynamics of social transformation through multidisciplinary artistic and pedagogical projects.
In Europe, parallel to her studies in philosophy and Literature (MA of the University of Hamburg), she attended classes, workshops and summer academies on contemporary dance techniques and contemporary choreographic work and got involved as a teacher and performer with Argentinian Tango. In numerous projects, participating as a performer, creator and doer, her artistic work emerges through the dialog between choreography and other disciplines, always having a singular relationship to the concrete space and social environment.
Brenda Isabel’s artistic path has developed in an experimental context, exploring different approaches and methods through the body, the word and the image. Her academic background and her concern about the social and political dimension of artistic work have shaped her professional inquiries. She has been engaged with different artist’s collective in Germany and Colombia, an experience which has foster a deep believe in the value of collaborative work.
KIRSTIN BURCKHARDT
(Artistic Director) born in South Africa, is an installation artist working with sound, video, drawings, performance and imagination. Critically drawing upon her background in psychology and neuroscience her art work addresses power dynamics related to the body in context.
She studied fine arts at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (Germany), China Academy of Hangzhou (China) and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Lyon (France). She simultaneously completed her BSc and MSc in psychology at the University of Hamburg. Her work has been honored by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (2008–2015) and her admission to the postgraduate program ‘Goldrausch’ in Berlin (2016). Most recently, her work has been selected for the one-year working grant ‘Arbeitsstipendium’ by the city of Hamburg (2017). She has received traveling and residency stipends from the Karl H. Ditze Foundation and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), and has collaborated closely with performing and visual artists from China and Colombia. Her work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions at Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, Festival of Future Nows 2017->∞ (2017), Centrum, Berlin (2017), Exploratorio in Medellín, Colombia (2017), Kunsthaus Hamburg (2016), Sanshang Art in Hangzhou, China (2013), Kunstverein Hildesheim (2012), and on the occasion of her artist residencies at the Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten in Cuxhaven (2015) and at the Fundación Espacio Arte in Medellín, Colombia (2017).
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