Romans + Romans

Nina and Torsten Römer (2010, made with self-timer)

Römer + Römer (Torsten and Nina Römer) are a German-Russian artist couple who live and work in Berlin.

Biographies

Torsten Römer was born in Aachen in 1968 , studied painting at the Münster Art Academy with Udo Scheel and at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Rissa , Siegfried Anzinger , Helmut Federle and AR Penck . In 1996 Torsten Römer was awarded a travel grant from the Kunstverein Düsseldorf .

Nina Römer was born in 1978 as Nina Tangian in Moscow . She is the granddaughter of the Soviet writer Yuri Walentinowitsch Trifonow and great-granddaughter of the Ukrainian-Russian-Soviet painter Amshey Nurenberg. She studied painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Helmut Federle and AR Penck .

Nina and Torsten Römer got to know each other while studying painting at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, where they both became master students of AR Penck . They have been working together on their artistic projects as the artist couple Römer + Römer since 1998 and have lived and worked in Berlin since 2000. In 2011, Römer + Römer received the special prize of the Lucas Cranach Prize from the city of Kronach .

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Römer + Römer "Party Convicts", 2014

Römer + Römer "General Strike", 2015 (excerpt)

The work of Römer + Römer includes painting , photography , digital art , printmaking and performance . They also curate exhibitions. Her reflection on the nature of digital images in photography and on the internet led to the painterly technique that defines the character of all of her works. The transfer of self-made photographs into large-format panels takes place in many abstraction steps. The couple breaks down their motifs on the canvas into areas of color and thousands of painted points, which combine to form a sharp image in the eye of the beholder from a certain distance. The closer you get to the work, the more people and objects get lost in the abstract play of colors. The image that appears realistic reveals itself to be an illusion. In contrast to impressionistic pointillism , the color pixels can be interpreted as a reference to the digital flood of images in the age of selfiezism .

In 1998 Römer + Römer started their long-term project M ° A ° I ° S, which ran until 2006 and was mainly implemented in bunkers . Historical and political references are often reasons for their topics and projects. For example, the Berlin exhibition Der Freie Wille (2005) is taking place on the 20th anniversary of glasnost with an opening speech by Mikhail Gorbachev and HA KYROPT! (To the spa!) - Russian Art Today 2004 in the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden establishes relationships with the Russian spa guests of the Tsarist times. Römer + Römer do not analyze history, but rather reconstruct it with aesthetic means. Accompanied by the spirit of optimism and change in Berlin, for the artist couple the view of urban life and the attitude towards life of the younger generations in the picture cycles Café Bistro Capital , Barefoot You Can't Go In Here and Sense of Life is of particular interest. Triggered by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , Römer + Römer experimented with painting, computer graphics, screen printing and etching in their project Infinite Justice with the NATO logo, the Arabic script from the Koran , the Bundeswehr emblem and their self-portraits. In fantasy burqas specially made for them , a thematically appropriate performance takes place in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Turin, Miami and Vladivostok. Römer + Römer achieved a wider audience in 2003/2004 with their German-Russian kissing performance . They also pursue the subject of love in other projects, such as the interactive cube they built called Blind Date Adam & Eve Lottery .

Since 2008 they have been concentrating on motifs that they capture and collect in a subtle way while traveling through Asia , South America , North Africa , the Middle East , Russia and various European countries. They integrate into the peculiarities of the various social contexts in order to formulate core ideas of the globalized world and to implement them in painting. Larger series of images are created via Cosplay in Beijing (2009), via Japan with the cycle 50 Views of Mount Fuji Viewed from a Train (2009) as an homage to Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige , about the port city of Busan in South Korea ( The Flood , 2010) , the Banlieus of Paris (2010), Israel (2011) and the Gay Pride in Brighton, England (2011). The work cycle Sambódromo (2013) about the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro , which shows costumed dancers and actors before their appearance in the area of the stadium, the Concentraçao, emerged from the research trip to Brazil .

Between 2013 and 2016, Römer + Römer will deal with the music festival Fusion , which takes place every year at a former Soviet military airport in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. They reflect in their pictures the temporary community in a collective state of emergency, which the organizers Kulturkosmos eV themselves as holiday communism call. In 2017 the artist couple will travel to the desert of Nevada , USA, to do picture research about the legendary Burning Man Festival . Fire, light and LED productions, freaky installations, art cars, burns and parties in the middle of the ephemeral city of Black Rock City are focused in her painting.

Exhibitions (selection)

(GA = group exhibition)

2019 Burning Man - Electric Sky , Haus am Lützowplatz , Berlin
2018 Face to Face - Faces of the Hense Collection , Kunsthalle Hense, Gescher (GA)
2018 Sturmhöhen , Schafhof - European Artists' House Upper Bavaria, Freising (GA)
2017 general strike , Kunstverein Münsterland, Coesfeld
2017 ¿Qué dices? Espronceda, Barcelona
2017 Kiss - From Rodin to Bob Dylan , Bröhan-Museum , Berlin (GA)
2017 Wilhelm Morgner Prize Exhibition , Museum Wilhelm Morgner , Soest (GA)
2017 Under Construction , Schau Fenster, Berlin (GA)
2017 Painting is dead. Long Live Painting , CCA Andratx , Mallorca, Spain (GA)
2016 Party convicts , Kunstverein Kunstkreis Hameln
2015 56th Venice Biennale , National Pavilion of Mauritius (GA)
2015 hamster - hipster - cellphone. Under the spell of the mobile phone , Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main. (GA)
2014 Party Löwe , Freight + Volume Gallery, New York
2014 Everything for Everyone , Richard Haizmann Museum, Niebüll
2013 Face to Face , Zhan Zhou International Center of Contemporary Art in Beijing, China
2013 Russian Berlin , as part of the White Nights festival, Central Exhibition Hall, Perm, Russia (GA)
2013 Sambódromo , Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin
2012 Point Systems - From Pointillism to Pixel , Wilhelm-Hack-Museum , Ludwigshafen (GA)
2012 Images of People - The international Lucas Cranach Prize , Cranach Foundation, Wittenberg (GA)
2012 Megacool 4.0 - Youth and Art , Künstlerhaus Vienna (GA)
2011 salondergegenwart , Hamburg (GA)
2011 Biennale of Contemporary Art, DO ARK Underground (in the former Tito bunker), Konjic, Bosnia-Herzegovina (GA)
2011 Monte Verita , Kunstverein Montez, Frankfurt (GA)
2010 Don't do this to me , Kunsthalle Rostock
2010 Fighting for freedom , Gwangju Art Museum, Gwangju , Korea
2010 Inter-cool 3.0 - Jugend Bild Medien , Hartware MedienKunstVerein , Dortmund (GA)
2009 Terrorist No 1 , Heidelberger Kunstverein
2009 Based on a true story , Today Art Museum, Beijing
2009 Second life in Beijing , Mathias Kampl Gallery, Munich
2009 Moving Together - Contemporary Art from Germany and China , Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan, China (GA)
2007 Sense of Life , Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2006 Café – Bistro – Capital , Michael Schultz Gallery, Berlin
2005 Emergency Biennale in Chechenya - a suitcase from Paris to Grozny , Palais de Tokyo , Paris (GA)
2005–2008 Another 10 stops at the Emergency Biennale : Matrix Art Projects, Brussels / Belgium; Eurac-European Academy of Bolzano / Italy; Isola Art center, Milan / Italy; Neatliekama Biennale, Riga / Latvia; Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn / Estonia; Vancouver International Center for Contemporary Asian Art, Vancouver / Canada; Plataforma, San Pedro Museo de Arte, Puebla / Mexico; Istanbul Biennale / Turkey; World Social Forum & CCA Playspace Gallery, San Francisco / USA; Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok / Poland (GA)
2005 M ° A ° I ° S VI - Free will , bunker under the arena, Berlin (GA)
2004 HA KYPOPT! Russian Art Today , State Art Gallery Baden-Baden (GA)
2004 Paradise - International Forum of Art Initiatives , New Manege, Moscow (GA)
2003 M ° A ° I ° S V. Paradies , bunker under Alexanderplatz, Berlin (GA)
2003 International Festival of new technologies in contemporary art , St. Petersburg's Center of Visual Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia (GA)
2002 Liverpool Biennale , Liverpool (GA)
2002 Big Torino , Torino Biennale, Turin (GA)
2000 Eight Days A Week 2000: Eurocard: Torsten and Nina in Liverpool , Graphic House, Liverpool

bibliography

Römer + Römer: Burning Man - Electric Sky , Verlag Kettler, Dortmund 2019, ISBN 978-3-86206-723-7 .
Summer of love , with essays by Anthony-Haden Guest, Peter Frank, Samir Nedzemar and Nick Lawrence, ed. by Freight + Volume Gallery, New York 2018
bitchMATERial , catalog for the exhibition in Studio 1, Kunstquartier Bethanien, ed. by Saralisa Volm, Britta Helbig, Berlin 2018
Kiss, From Rodin to Bob Dylan , catalog for the exhibition in the Bröhan Museum Berlin, ed. by Anna Grosskopf, Tobias Hoffmann, Wienand Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86832-375-7 .
Under Construction (exhibition catalog), ed. by Torsten and Nina Römer, catalog funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin 2017
Wilhelm Morgner Prize Exhibition , ed. from Förderverein Wilhelm Morgner eV, Soest 2017
56th Venice Biennale , National Pavilion of the Republic of Mauritius, ed. by Ministry of Arts and Culture of the Republic of Mauritius, Mauritius 2016
All the World's Futures: 56 International Art Exhibition . La Biennale di Venezia, Okwui Enwezor, Venice 2015, ISBN 978-88-317-2128-8 .
Römer + Römer: Where is yesterday actually , ed. by Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-939983-64-4 .
Black Bandits , ed. von Haus am Lützowplatz, Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen / Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-8030-3372-7 .
Römer + Römer: Sambódromo , ed. by Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-939983-84-2 .
OFF SPACES & SITES . Exceptional exhibition venues away from the established art market, ed. by Julia Brodauf, GKS - Society for Art Promotion and Sponsoring mbH, Bad Honnef 2013, ISBN 978-3-9808298-0-9 .
Infinity: Neo-expressionism / Contemporary Art , ed. by Zhan Zhou Center of Contemporary Art, Beijing, China 2013
B Lines , NLB Gallery, Skopje, Macedonia 2013
Wilhelm Hack Museum. Point systems. From pointillism to pixel , ed. by Reinhard Spieler, Barbara J. Scheuermann, Kehrer Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86828-350-1 .
Megacool 4.0 - Youth and Art , ed. by Birgit Richard, Heinz-Hermann Krüger, Peter Bogner and the Künstlerhaus Wien, Kerber Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86678-744-5 .
Römer + Römer: Pride in Brighton , ed. by Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-939983-51-4 .
Römer + Römer: Travelers , ed. from Galerie von Braunbehrens, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-922268-67-3 .
Salon Presence , ed. by Christian Holle, Kerber Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86678-637-0 .
Transformations , ed. from Galerie Kampl, Munich 2011
Römer + Römer: Sea of Friendship , ed. by Peter Funken, Prestel Verlag, Munich / London / New York 2011, ISBN 978-3-7913-4508-6 .
Reconstructions. Positions of Contemporary Art , ed. by Gerhard Charles Rump, B&S Siebenhaar, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-936962-36-9 .
Römer + Römer: Fighting for freedom , ed. from Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea 2010, OCLC 781461234 .
Römer + Römer: The Flood , ed. by Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-939983-37-8 .
Römer + Römer: Second life in Beijing , ed. from Galerie Kampl, Munich 2009
Römer + Römer: Based on a true story , ed. by Today Art Museum, Beijing 2009
Römer + Römer: You can't get in here barefoot , ed. by Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin 2008
Close-up , ed. by Por Amor A Arte Galeria, Porto 2008
On the way into the light , ed. by Arie de Knecht, Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-939983-14-9 .
Eroticism 21c , ed. by Artsonje Center, Seoul, 2007
Römer + Römer: Sense of life , ed. from Gallery Hyundai, Seoul 2007, ISBN 978-89-958998-7-8 .
Römer + Römer: Café Bistro Capital , ed. by Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin 2006
M ° A ° I ° S 6 - The free will (exhibition catalog), ed. by Torsten and Nina Römer and arena Berlin, Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89930-069-6 .
HA KYPOPT! Russian Art Today , ed. by Mathias Winzen and Georgy Nikitsch, Wienand Verlag, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-87909-835-2 .
Paradise , ed. by Moscow committee for Culture & International Forum of Art Initiatives, Moscow 2004
M ° A ° I ° S 5 - Paradies (exhibition catalog), ed. by Torsten and Nina Römer, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-00-013874-9 .
1. Berlin Art Salon , ed. by Edmund Piper, 2004
Not in the sky & not on the earth , ed. by Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje 2004
Reconnaissance Art , ed. by Moscow committee for Culture & International Forum of Art initiatives, Moscow 2003
Flowers from No Man's Land , ed. by President of the Berlin House of Representatives, Berlin 2003
International festival of new technologies in contemporary art , ed. from Saint-Petersburg´s Center of Visual Arts, St. Petersburg 2003
M ° A ° I ° S 4 - The good and the bad (exhibition catalog) Liverpool Biennale, ed. by Torsten and Nina Römer, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-00-011075-5 .
Motherland / Fatherland , ed. by Moscow committee for Culture & International Forum of Art initiatives, Moscow 2002
Global Fusion 2002 , ed. by Claudia Maria Luenig and Maggie McCormick, Vienna 2002
International Flag Art Festival , ed. from Department of Worldcup Cultural Affairs, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul 2002, OCLC number 690519642
M ° A ° I ° S 2 - The death (exhibition catalog), ed. by Torsten and Nina Römer, Berlin 2001
5th International Congress for Performance and Visual Arts. ed. by Gallery SOTODO and Schloß Bröllin, Berlin 2000

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ In the ranking of artfacts.net Römer + Römer are in the top percent of all living artists.

↑ Vera Block: Snapshots for the painting, Nina and Torsten Römer in portraits. In: Deutschlandradio Kultur . September 15, 2011; Peter Funken: Römer + Römer. Sea of friendship. Prestel, Munich et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-7913-4509-3 , p. 142.

↑ Mathias Winzen, Georgy Nikitsch (ed.): HA KYPOPT! Russian art today. Cologne 2004.

↑ Peter Funken: Römer + Römer "You can't get in here barefoot", Galerie Michael Schultz, June 14th – July 26th , 2008 , in: Kunstforum International , Volume 192, 2008, exhibitions: Berlin, p. 261.