{"id":56132,"date":"2017-09-15T16:02:21","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T14:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=56132"},"modified":"2017-09-15T16:02:21","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T14:02:21","slug":"anja-kaiser-leipzig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/anja-kaiser-leipzig\/","title":{"rendered":"How Leipzig\u2019s Emancipatory Nightlife is Shaping the Young Art Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Leipzig the new Berlin? In a word, no. But the recent influx of young creative migration has shaped the city into something it\u2019s never been before. For young artists like feminist typographist, Anja Kaiser, Leipzig is the more affordable, small-town alternative to Germany\u2019s creative capital. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kaiser grew up in Cottbus, another East German city, but one which couldn’t be more different from present-day Leipzig. \u201cGrowing up there were some very right-wing extremist kids,\u201d she recalls. Luckily, she was accepted into the only squatted housing in Cottbus, to which she credits her “wokeness” \u2014 \u201cit socialised me and equally educated me about sexism, discrimination and racism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s this social awareness that characterises Kaiser\u2019s graphic work, as well as its grounding in typography, which was her focus at university in Halle. After graduating, she moved to Amsterdam for her master’s degree, and it was during these studies that Kaiser really found her feet. \u201cI got into visually and theoretically investigating feminism,\u201d she explains. Here, her project \u201cSexed Realities \u2014 To Whom Do I Owe My Body?\u201d was also born. A labour of love for Kaiser, the project has been ongoing since 2014, and deals with the commodification of bodies from a feminist point of view.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

After graduating, Kaiser left Amsterdam in favour of Leipzig, \u201cI had a craving for unknown territory\u201d, she explains.<\/span> “Amsterdam\u00a0<\/span>felt too closed off to me to easily build an own infrastructure, and I had a hard time making a living.” Kaiser was drawn to Leipzig\u2019s left-wing emancipatory clubs like Conne Island and Institut fuer Zukunft. \u201cThese kind of places were always some kind of shelter to me\u201d, she shares. And while these spaces were a far cry from growing up in Cottbus, Kaiser was no stranger to club culture \u2014 s<\/span>he was involved in a female DJ collective in Cottbus, and has immersed herself in the techno scene ever since. <\/span><\/p>\n

There’s a clear connection, especially in small cities like Leipzig, between underground music, or as Kaiser calls it, the “micro music scene,” and art. Kaiser describes her “great network of friends IRL and online, who set up daring club concepts, prepare unpredictable DJ-sets, invest their time in experimenting between the arts and club culture.\u201d The whole micro club culture lends itself to these new, digitalised art forms, such as visuals and graphic design. For the main part, these scenes are also unified by left-wing ideologies, progressive attitudes, and “safe space” policies. \u00a0Leipzig’s club culture truly embodies this. Kaiser is careful not to sensationalise, though. \u201cI don\u2019t want to over-hype the city, it\u2019s not a left-wing haven, nor a super contemporary art surrounding. I think Leipzig is, compared to larger cities in Germany, a good place if want to choose the projects you\u2019re working for and make a living without running three side jobs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaiser is responsible for the visual concept and graphic posters behind “Balance”, the techno-series conceived by Kyle Van Horn, Jordan Davidson and Franz Xaver Thiem. Her bold and striking typography is distinctive and instantly recognisable. She also provides visuals to accompany DJ sets and clearly enjoys a challenge, using Mac’s Keynote program as a VJ platform. Beyond this, her own digital-based work is largely influenced by pop-culture. <\/span>\u201cSampling and collaging references like pop songs, blog posts and feminist theory helped me to bring together different ideas”, she explains. “The translation into text affects also my visual practice and the other way around. It\u2019s a constant process of re-translating to draw connections and at the same time oppositions, which can coexists and create paradoxes.\u201d<\/span>
\n
\nKaiser shares her work digitally and has also exhibited “IRL”, as she calls it. “The internet provides a perfect access to connect with like-minded bodies, feminists, artists and musicians not geographically centred \u2013 which is awesome”, she affirms. “But I would argue there is no different condition online or in ‘real’ life, the internet mirrors and reproduces the social relation in which we are living.”<\/p>\n

Right now, it\u2019s all go for Kaiser.\u00a0<\/span>Alongside her work, Kaiser also teaches typography at\u00a0Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design.\u00a0<\/span>She\u2019s also heading to South Korea this month to exhibit “<\/span>Sexed Realities”, <\/i>then heading back to Leipzig for the next “Cry Baby” event which will\u00a0 <\/span>be presented together with “No Shade”, <\/i>a DJ training program for female and non-binary DJs. She also elusively tells us about potential upcoming work with a certain \u201cvery talented musician\u201d. Watch this space<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Check out Anja Kaiser on instagram<\/a>.
\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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