TrAIN

Resident Artist

Tehran, Revolution Square, 2002

The artist, writer and curator of film programs is located in Berlin. She studied Fine Art and social sciences at the Gesamthochschule in Kassel. 1995/96 she spent an Academic Year at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. From 1999 to 2004 she was postgraduate student at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe. Presently she is member of the Berlin based group artefakte which is part of Alexandertechnik, a network of social activists, artists and academics, who reject the reconstruction of the Prussian castle in Berlin as much as the current concept of the Humboldt-Forum. From January to June 2010 Schäfer will be the KSB Artist in Residence at TrAIN.

In her artistic work, Sandra Schäfer has previously dealt with themes of representation of gender, urbanity and (post-) colonialism. Schäfer has made repeated visits to Kabul and Tehran since 2002. She has been involved in different collaborative projects with filmmakers, activists and theoreticians. Together with the Berlin based filmmaker Elfe Brandenburger and in cooperation with actresses, filmmakers and activists from Kabul she made the film Passing the Rainbow. It is a film about actresses and strategies to undermine the rigid gender norms in Afghan society. She is co-curator of the film festival Kabul/Teheran 1979ff: Filmlandschaften, Städte unter Stress und Migration (Kabul/Tehran 1979ff: Film Landscapes, Cities under Stress and Migration) that took place 2003 at the Volksbühne Berlin. She is co-editor of a book with the same title, published in 2006 by b_books, Berlin. 2007/08 she co-curated the film festival SPLICE IN and lecture program on gender and society in Afghanistan, its neighboring countries and Europe. SPLICE IN took place in Kassel, Berlin and Hamburg. The festival was continued in Kabul in May 2008 in cooperation with the artist-group CACA-Kabul, the state-run film organization Afghan Film and the organization Open Asia under the title SECOND TAKE. In 2009 her book stagings. Kabul, Film & Production of Representation got published in the series metroZones/media at b_books, Berlin.

Films/videos/video installations/photographies (selection): Urban settings and other kinds too (2002-09), stagings (2008), Passing the Rainbow (2007), Traversée de la Mangrove (2006), The Making of a Demonstration (2004), A country’s new dawn (2001), Die unsichtbare Dienstleistung (The invisible services, 2000), Kontaktfreudig, offen und gewandt im Umgang (The joy of communication, open with an elegant manner, 1999), England-Deutschland (1997), Shift (1996), Doch bin ich wirklich (Of course am I real, 1996).

Links

• Mazefilm website
• Humboldt Forum Berlin