Wolf Nkole Helzle
Participant in
4th edittion of Cologne International Videoart Festival
participates in
VideoChannel – One Minute Film Collection
media artist from Stuttgart takes photographs of people’s faces all over the world. At last count (September 2006) his database contained just about 20.000 portraits of people from various countries in Europe, and from Japan, Korea, and Zambia-and the number continues to grow. Helzle pursues the question that has moved him for a very long time: “How can I understand the relationship between myself as an individual and all of humankind, these six billion human beings?” The question originates from 1963, the year in which the first photograph of our planet was beamed to Earth by a satellite. This opened up a space for the public at large beyond all previously known boundaries. And our familiar relationships to the family, to work, to the town, region, and country we live in, etc., were extended by precisely this question. What does it mean to be one six-billionth of the world’s population? How can I picture humankind in its entirety? How does this affect my life in a practical way?
It is not enough that the economy, technology, terrorism, etc., have taken hold of this space; it is advisable that we work out ideas about how we deal with it as individuals. This “global” space contains opportunities and potentials that do not exist within known (national) boundaries. And because artists are responsible for images…
“In the process of understanding and interpretation, part and whole are related in a circular way: in order to understand the whole, it is necessary to understand the parts, while to understand the parts it is necessary to have some comprehension of the whole.”
David Couzens Hoy, cited in Ken Wilber, The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1997), p. 96.
Curriculum Vitae
Born 1950 in Göppingen, South Germany 1970 Studied Art in Stuttgart and Kassel with Prof. Harry Kramer. 1976 work in the Soft- and Hardware industry. Since 1984 freelance media artwork. 1998 Lecturer for Art and Media, Art seminar at the Freie Hochschule, Metzingen,
2000 University lecturer for Media Art, Fachhochschule für Gestaltung, Schwäbisch Hall.
Exhibition shortlist
2006 “visual music – audiovisuelle Positionen I” Galerie fluctuating images Stuttgart withMasayuki Akamatsu
2006 “…and I am a part” Kunstprojekt Vorfahrt, Stuttgart
2006 “…und ich bin ein Teil” Stadtkirche Göppingen in collaboration with Kunsthalle Göppingen
2005 CGIV 2005 International Conference Computer Graphics, Image and Vision in Beijing, China. Online Gallery
2005 “CHIMANSOMANSO part 2”, Zambia National Visual Arts Council, Lusaka, Zambia
2004 Ogaki Biennale, IAMAS Institut for Advanced Media Art and Sciences, Japan
2004 “e-Europe4all” Derry, Northern Ireland
2004 Gallery 22, Stuttgart
2004 “Biennale media_city seoul 2004” Seoul, Südkorea
2003 “Festival of Film and New Media” Split, Croatia
2003 “art bytes”, Festival Schloß Balmoral, Bad Ems
2002 Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
2002 Kulturamt Lahr, city-performance-project
2001 “FUTURE CITY” Building art project, Stuttgart
2001 Foro artistico, Hannover
1998 European Media Art Festival,Osnabrück
1998 “Inner spaces” Staatsmuseum, Poznan, Poland
1998 Gallery Guth Maas & Maas, Reutlingen
Wolf Nkole Helzle is participating in the media art project
://selfportrait – a show for Bethlehem – a show for Peace
Selbstportrait, 1999, Fotocollage, 80 x 80 cm