Tatjana Stürmer’s (*1993) works oscillate between graphic design and multimedia installations. They examine how spoken, written and visual languages affect our social and political experiences. Stürmer’s current focus lies on different sources of writing by female authors from the early Middle Ages, which she relates to the present in order to deconstruct social relations of power and powerlessness. Stürmer holds a degree in Communication Design, Media Art and Art Studies from the HfG Karlsruhe. Her works have been part of exhibitions at Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle Basel, Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig, MEWO Kunsthalle Memmingen, and Ornamenta24 among others.
CONTACT
mail@tatjanastuermer.de
STUDIES
2020 Diploma in Visual Communication, University of Arts and Design (HfG), Karlsruhe, Germany
2013–2020 Studies of communication design and media arts at the University of Arts and Design (HfG), Karlsruhe
2018 Studies of graphic design, critical theory & visual culture at Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), Estonia
PRACTICE
upcoming »Wovon träumt der Stein, wovon die Wand«, Hospitalhof Stuttgart, 18.09.25
upcoming »Stipendium 4.0«, Kunstmuseum Wiesbaden, 25.09.25
2025 »Rebellion des gemeines Mannes«, Kunsthalle Heilbronn
2025 »Transitions«, Kunstverein Friedberg
2024 »Patterns of Accumulation«, Oberfinanzdirektion Frankfurt am Main
2024 »Binding Chapel«, Ausstellung (Duo), ORNAMENTA24, Wildpark Pavillon Pforzheim
2024 »HEX«, Ausstellung (Gruppe), MEWO Kunsthalle Memmingen
2024 »You Loved an Image«, art direction of Charlotte Rohde's publication, DISTANZ, Berlin
2023 »Medea am Fenster« (Solo), Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg
2023 »Kunstpreis junger Westen«, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen
2023 »Looking for A New Foundation«, GfZK Leipzig
2022 »333«, booklaunch, REDO event, Pristina, XK
2022 »Typographic Nights«, Page Not Found, Den Hague, NL
2022 »BEING SOMETHING IN ESSENCE OR EFFECT, THOUGH NOT ACTUALLY OR IN FACT«, Deutsches Museum München, 1e9 Festival
2022 SVS Collisions Ausstellung and Festival, Muffatwerk München, DE
2022 »Ornamenta 24«, Pforzheim, Transferium: Bad Databrun, Stadtmuseum Pforzheim, DE
2020–22
artistic assistant of Metahaven (Daniel van der Velden Vinca Kruk), Amsterdam, NL
2021 »... von neuen Welten« – Kunsthalle Basel, CH
2021 »À rebours, la ville compte«, CEAAC, Straßburg, FR
2021 »Death by Landscape«, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, DE, DE
2021 SVS Collisions, residency in Canfranc, ES
2021 »Genius Loci«, workshop and exhibition in monastery ruin Klosterstuben, Bremm, DE
2021 »Nischen«, MEWO Kunsthalle Memmingen, DE
2020 »C at The End of A Line is A Whisper«, Pavillon at the Karlsruher Brauerstraße – ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe, DE
2020 »Bad Reading Table«, in the exhibition Bad Readings, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, DE
2020 »BREKEKEX«, Sound-Performance with luxxuryproblems , Kunsthalle Darmstadt, DE
2019 »Heartwarmer« for Metabolic Museum-University, 33. Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, SI
2019 »This is not a Lovesong, it’s a Jelly Thing«, Lecture-Performance, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Tallinn, EE
2019 »Heaven of the Female Rap Fanbase«, with Mara Ittel, FLORIDA, Lothringer 13, Munich, DE
AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
2024 Walter Tiemann Preis, Honorary Award, Open Book Society
2023/24 travel grant New York City by Hessische Kulturstiftung
2023 12-month Stipend of the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg (DE)
2023 The most beautiful Dutch Books for "333" (NL)
2022 work stipend NEUSTART Kultur, Stiftung Kunstfonds
2021 Preisträgerin, Federal Art Award for Art Graduates – Bundespreis für Kunststudierende 2020 (DE)
2021 Grant by the Fördergesellschaft ZKM / HfG for »C at the End of A Line is A Whisper« (DE)
2016–20 Stipend of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (DE)
2018, 2020 Erasmus stipend (Estonia, Netherlands)
2018 100 Beste Plakate for »I Love Dick – Autofictional Concepts of Storytelling in Feminist Discourse«
2017 The Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2016 for Intrus Sympathiques Zürich, CH
2017 Bronze Medal, Schönste Bücher aus aller Welt 2017 for »Intrus Sympathiques«, Stiftung Buchkunst, Leipzig, DE
2017 Grant Award der Fördergesellschaft ZKM/HfG for Reciprocal Turn
PUBLICATION & PRESS
2025 »maecenas«, Hessischen Kulturstiftung, Interview with Seda Pesen
2025 Artisttalk with Angelina Balandin Kunsthalle Vogelmann Heilbronn
2024 Artisttalk together with Manuel Sékou (luxuryproblems) and Axel Städter at Kunsthalle Memmingen
2024 Interview, in: »Unfolding Fractious Material« with Viola Dessin on questions of female anger
2024 »Materie als Gegenstand–On the practice of Max Brück and Tatjana Stürmer« by Seda Pesen
2023 »Alle am Fenster« von Charlotte Rohde, Einführungsessay zur Ausstellung »Medea am Fenster«, Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg
2022 »Mergin the Unpredicted: Verkörpertes Wissen, weibliches Schreiben und Zeitgenössische Konzeptionen bei Tatjana Stürmer« von Didem Yazici
2021 Artisttalk in der Kunsthalle Basel, im Gespräch mit Hannes Eckstein, Dezember 2021
2021 Artikel über Weibliches Schreiben und mittelalterliche Manuskripte, »Blut & Tinte«, in FORM Magazin 293, September 2021
2021 Interview with Genius Loci collective, collide24.org
LECTURING
2021–now researcher and lecturer at the University of Arts and Design Offenbach (HfG)
2025 class lecturer at Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE), MA Geo Design
2025 jury at Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB), Visual Communication, Bachelors exams
2023 guest lecture at Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (KABK), graphic design
2022 guest lecturer at Bauhaus University Weimar, Typography
2021 guest lecture at Kunsthochschule Kassel, KlasseRedGes
ARTIST STATEMENT
In its traditional understanding, the academic discipline of historiography is concerned with the discovery, analysis, and contextualization of written sources. However, since human existence is uniquely shaped by cultural overlays that are constituted not only through language but also through objects, the material world increasingly came into focus for cultural scholars toward the end of the 20th century. Through the development of the material turn, material and materiality were no longer understood merely as proof of the written word or as a physical counterpart to it, but rather as vital manifestations in and of themselves—recognized for their inherent agency as things. Objects, in their historical situatedness, stand in a reciprocal relationship with the respective subjects; the material world shapes us just as we shape it.
My artistic and design practice follows precisely this material understanding. Rather than using objects merely as substrates for a work, I seek to situate them within their historical context, to essentialize and to critique them. At the core of my interest are sources of female writing from the early Middle Ages, which, when set in relation to the present, reflect gendered societal dynamics of power and powerlessness. In doing so, I draw on both historical and fictional sources. The histories of art and design are embedded within my artistic productions, so that in my projects, layers of color and form accumulate—drawing from different meanings and origins—overlaying one another like the sediments of our history.
Ornament plays a central role in my work. In art theory, in particular, it has had a rather rocky path—consider Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos, who criticized ornament in art and architecture as culturally regressive. I distinguish between an ornamental mode of working and ornament as a graphic design element. Ornamental work requires an excessive, creative potential—an abundance of time and attention. For me, an ornament is not a symbolic placeholder. I am interested in it as something that functions like a sign—capable of a certain ambiguity and of expressing more than it ostensibly contains. Ornament, for me, stands in contrast to a line of text. It inserts itself in between, nestles in, and breaks open: its readings allow for chronological shifts and entanglements. Suddenly, there is no longer a single interpretation but many possible readings. I search for ways to reveal fragments of a language that is open but not incomplete, interwoven but not confused.
WEBSITE
featuring New Edge 666 typeface by Charlotte Rohde
IMPRINT
Tatjana Stürmer
Leibnizstraße 3
60316 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
CONTACT
mail@tatjanastuermer.de
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