BREMEN.- On the occasion of the 4th DAM DIGITAL ART AWARD |DDAA| Kunsthalle Bremen is showing the survey exhibition “Lynn Hershman Leeson. Seducing Time” from 2nd June to 19th August 2012. The American artist and filmmaker is regarded as a pioneer of interactive art. In Bremen her works interact not only with visitors to the exhibition, but also with the Kunsthalle’s permanent collection.

Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Work
Since the 1970s, Lynn Hershman Leeson (born 1941) has been one of the leading proponents of media art. On the basis of the visual arts, film and popular culture, she has been investigating issues of identity, memory and history for more than 40 years now. She explores themes that emerge in connection with consumerism, the private sphere, surveillance and personal power, consistently incorporating the viewer as an active participant in the work of art. To this purpose, Hershman Leeson employs continually developing digital technologies and repeatedly provides decisive impulses to feminist discourse. She is responsible for a number of technological innovations, for example Lorna (1981–1983), the first interactive artwork on a video disc, or Deep Contact: The Sexual Fantasy Videodisk (1984–89), the first work of art in which touch screens were employed.

Her works are represented in numerous collections, incl. the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Tate Modern in London, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, or the ZKM, Karlsruhe. She is director of the Faculty of Film at San Francisco Art Institute and Professor Emeritus of Electronic Art in the Department of Art at the University of California. She received the |DDAA| in 2010 as a consequence of her pioneering work in the field of interactive, computer- and Internet-based media art.

The Exhibition “Lynn Hershman Leeson. Seducing Time” and Cooperation in Bremen
“Lynn Hershman Leeson. Seducing Time” is her first exhibition to be staged in a German institution. It comprises photographs, installations and videos, placing an emphasis on interactive works. 55 works outline a creative period of more than 40 years, giving insights into both her development and diversity as an artist. Following the spirit of her own interest in interaction and the relations between memory, identity and technologies, the works are distributed around the permanent collection of the Kunsthalle. In this way, masterpieces from 600 years of art history meet with 21st century media art.

In the context of her film productions for the cinema, Lynn Hershmann Leeson has worked together with stars such as Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton and prize-winning actor Jeremy Davies. The artist’s award-winning cinema films Conceiving Ada (1997), Teknolust (2002) and Strange Culture (2008) will also be shown in cooperation with “City 46”.