Veronika Merklein (*1982) is a German performance and photo artist, political activist and author, located in Vienna, Austria.

EDUCATION / STAY ABROADS

2007 - 12 Fine Art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT) with a focus on Performance Art
2004 - 07 Fine Art studies at the School of Art and Design Kassel (DE)


 

2025 Preview: Artist in Residence, Cité internationale des arts, Paris (FR) - Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport (AT)

2024 Preview: Artist in Residence, MASSIA, Massiaru (EE)

2023 Artist in Residence, Popp's Packing, Detroit (US)

2022 Artist in Residence in Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto (CA)
2014 / 2015 Artist in Residence in Chicago (US), Austrian Federal Cultural Ministry (AT)


2012 Traineeship within the artistic-scientific project archiv performativ, Zurich University of the Arts (CH)
2002 - 03 Backpacking in Australia and Indonesia

 

 

GRANTS / COLLECTIONS / MEDIA COVERAGE

  • Austrian State Grant for Fine Arts, Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sports (AT)
  • Travel fund Austrian Cultural Forum Ottawa (CA / 2022) and project funding by the Austrian Federal Cultural Ministry (AT / 2022)
  • 1. prize Weight Stigma Conference (Poster, Prague, 2017 / Lecture, Berlin, 2022)
  • Project funding by the City of Vienna and by the Austrian Federal Cultural Ministry (AT / 2020) 
and the district Josefstadt, Vienna (AT / 2021)
  • Project funding and bilateral artist exchange between Dublin (IE) - Vienna
  • by the Austrian Federal Cultural Ministry (AT / 2014, 2015, 2019)
  • Project funding by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York City (US / 2015)
  • Abundia Empowerment Fund scholarship, Chicago (US / 2014)
  • Project funding of the Diplom thesis Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen (You forgot the colour film) by the Federal Ministry for Science and Research AT / 2012)
  • Project fundings by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Austrian Student Union (AT / 2009, -10, -11, -12)
  • Creative Writing Class, annual Authors‘ Support Programme, Schauspielhaus Vienna and UniT Graz (AT / 2010)

Represented in private collections in Germany, Austria and the USA, public collection: City of Vienna (AT) and the State of Austria

 

Newspaper articles and interviews in international media

 

PROJECTS / WORKSHOPS / LECTURES / TEXTS (selection)
PJ = Project, W = Workshop, L = Lecture, T = Text

 

since 2017     

Publications in BILDPUNKT, Vienna (AT)

 

2022

Von A wie Adipositas bis Z wie Zucker – Apostils of Fat Studies, Transkript (DE) _T


2021        

Casual Encounters—Catalyst: Cindy Baker, Catalyst Book Series (US) _T


2020        

FAT ART, DFG network Fat Studies - Doing, Becoming and Being Fat (DE) _L
Fat acceptance and antidiscrimination, Ästhetikreferat Uni Wuppertal (DE) _L


2018        

Performance, Essen, Körperbilder (Performance, food, body images), Workshops at Stellwerk Weimar and in the framework of the festival Sommerfrische Böhlen (DE) _W
Riots Not Diets, documentary, Director: Julia Fuhr Mann _PJ


2016

PAS #47 - Performance Art Studies - Co-Workshopleitung mit BBB Johannes Deimling, Wien (AT) _W

CurVienna - Plus-size fashion market & talk with Virgie Tovar, organisation with Bobby Hermann-Thurner and Rhea Krcmàrovà, Vienna (AT) _P


2014         

Torvald, theatre play (excerpts), Das Gut-Ensemble, TAG, Vienna (AT) _T


2011

PANik3 - Performance as documentation, Performance evening with discussion - organisation and moderation withThomas Geiger, Performance Art Network Vienna, depot, Vienna (AT) _PJ
Die kleinen Tode vor dem ERROR (The little deaths before the ERROR), story in „Verhältnisse“, Band II     „Zusammenbruch“, Turia + Kant, Vienna (AT) _T
Tatsachenbericht (factual report), Article in the catalogue “Performing Memory” Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna, 2011 (AT) _T


2010         

PHLEGMA-LOOP, scenic reading of Katharina Vana, Schauspielhaus Vienna (AT) _T

Performance 2, „                “, “This Sentence is Now Being Performed”, die bildende 06, 2010, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Magazine (AT) _T

ARTISTIC PROJECTS (selection)
S = solo show, G = group show, P = performance,
D = performative dinner, F = film screening

 

2024

Preview: Fett in der Medizin - Gesundheit vor Gewicht? (Fat in the medical world - Health before weight), Brick 15 (AT) _P

Preview: WU Gender and Diversity Conference 2024, University of Economics Vienna (AT) _P


2023

konform-NON-konform / faces of a new time, Städtische Galerie Nordhorn (D) _G

Parallel Vienna, Vienna (AT) _S

Parc/ours, Mönchengladbach (D) _G

We are back & scratching on the surface, gallery michaela stock, Vienna (AT) _G

Meal, Dom Museum, Vienna (AT) _G

 

2022
FAT Life, Vienna Art Week, Vienna (AT) _P
Meal, Dom Museum, Vienna (AT) _G
Luminous Bodies, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Island (CA) _G
     

A fat person goes to the doctor, Weight Stigma Conference, Humboldt University Berlin (DE) _P
Garden Eden (with E. A. Sattler) in the framework of Pickle Bar, Wiener Festwochen, Spitzer, Vienna (AT) _P

The Fatter The Better, SPARK-Fair, gallery michaela stock, Marxhalle Vienna (AT) _S

 

2021

Der wunde Punkt (The sore spot), Salon Real / Virtual, gallery michaela stock, Wien (AT) _S
Circus Salto Morale, public space, Kultursommer Wien & as part of Circus Sodomelli, Vienna (AT) with Barbara Ungepflegt _P

Chocolate weighing machine in the framework of the festival Banal Complexities, Philomena+, Vienna (AT) _P


2020         

No Pity!, gallery michaela stock, Vienna AT) _G
       FAT Life, Every Body In-Festival, Reaktor, Vienna (AT) _P

Deep States, Nun's Island Theatre, Galway (IE) _G


2019  

Equilibrium in the framework of the EMBODIMENT / capture performance focus: IRELAND, gallery michaela stock, Vienna (AT) _G, P


2018         

Pin me up - turn me around,  gallery michaela stock, Vienna (AT) _G

Emotional Journey, Bildraum Bregenz (AT) _G


2017         

DIE HARD, gallery michaela stock, Wien (AT) _S, P
Liebevolle Schimpfwörter (Affectionate Terms of Abuse), gallery michaela stock, Wien (AT) _G
23. Gabrovo Biennial of Humour and Satire in Art, Museum House of Humour and Satire, Gabrovo (BG) _G
Frau_Mann_Transgender photographs: Feminism, Museum of Perception, Graz (AT) _G


2016         

Fat Positive Summer Festival, film screening Fat Positive Shorts, Berceley Public Library, San Fransisco (US) _F
The Body of Work: Resisting Strategies as part of The Inefficient Body - Anti-Capitalist Strategy, a symposium, WUK Performing Arts, Vienna (AT) _P


2015       

Fat Pig, Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago (US)  _S, P

dinnertime (2014-2016), artist dinners, my apartment, Chicago (US) & Vienna (AT) _D
APPROPRIATION | PERFORMANCE | PART 1, performance festival, gallery michaela stock, Vienna (AT) _G, P
erdbeermilch (strawberry milk) as part of Hotel Obscura (Die Fabrikanten), Magda's Hotel, Vienna (AT) _P


2014         

KOMPROMISSQUALITÄT DEUTSCHLAND- fundamental gescheiterte Künstler & die Ästhetik der Maßlosigkeit, 
Gallery AA collections, Vienna (AT) _G
EIGHT, Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz (AT) _G

Tête-à-tête (with Julia Kujat), Die NÄHMASCHINE, Mönchengladbach (D) _G
Daddy‘s little girl invites for dinner (Woman laughing alone with salad), Das YIX, Vienna (AT) _D

 

2013         

Life-Long Weight-Gaining, Neuer Kunstverein Wien (AT) _S, P

The Art of Encounters - Life-Art festival, Tabakfabrik, Linz (AT) _P

Life-Long Weight-Gaining - Try to beat the record, bb15 - Space for Contemporary Art, Linz (AT) _P


2012         

Posen in the framework of Xposit, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT) _S

Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT) _S

Don‘t worry, be ha-ha-ha, Garage X, Vienna (AT) _P
Performing Documentation, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT), Kaskadenkondensator, Basel (CH) and JENNYFAIR, Vienna (AT) _P
Ich hab‘ größere Brüste als deine Mutter (I‘ve got bigger boobs than your mother), public space as part of AktionsTheaterKassel, Kassel (D) _P
You can be my double if I can be yours with William Knaack and Michaela Schweighofer, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT) _D, F


2011        

DIE STILLE NACHBARIN (The silent neighbour), my apartment Gschwandnergasse 59, in the framework of the festival Tatort Hernals, Vienna (AT) _P
Documentary Intervention, Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna (AT) -P

Ich habe nichts gesagt. (I didn’t say nothing), Ida Nowhere, Berlin (D) _P


2010         

The Hands That Feed You with Bernadette Anzengruber and Teresa Novotny),  Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT) _D
essen, lesen, essen. lesung, festessen. festessen. (eating, reading, eating, reading, feast.), Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT) _D


2009      

hasen/blasen/enten/hähne/eisenbahn  (rabbits/bubbles/ducks/roosters/railway), series with Toni Schmale, Secession Vienna, sound- and project gallery „A und V“, Leipzig and Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Wien (AT/D) _P
„...und dann war ich an Fasching als Fliegenpilz verkleidet“ (“... and then I was dressed up as a fly agaric for carnival”) with Bernadette Anzengruber in the framework of Performancebehandlungsraum, Fridericianum, Kassel (D) _P

Kalter brauner Kaffee (Cold brown coffee), Semperdepot, Vienna (AT) _P


2007        

Bestandsabnahme Murhardstrasse 14 / Zeig das Dokumentationsfoto (d)eines Kunstwerks (Murhardstrasse 14, amount decreased, Show the documentation photo of your art work), 
my apartment Murhardstrasse 14, Kassel (D) _S, G, P


2004-2006         

Tischlein, deck dich! (The wishing table) with Katarina Corbet, School of Art and Design Kassel (D) _D

Defragmentierung (Defragmentation), School of Art and Design Kassel (D) _P

zeit beschreiben (describing time), Stellwerk, Kassel (DE) _P

Ein Euro für Deutschland (One Euro for Germany) with Thomas Scherl, public space Kassel, 
Alte Feuerwache Cologne (DE) _P, G