17/03/2021 – 14/05/2021
THEY CAN´T KILL OUR LIVES
mia florentine weiss lives and works in berlin. the artist works in the field of performative conceptual art, incorporating her statements, poems and objets trouvés.
“what is your place of protection?” this question marks the beginning of the first decade of mia florentine weiss’s artistic work in 2006. she initiated the content-related examination of individual spaces of protection and their antithesis (the motor of her art) as early as 1999, when she took up the performative search for answers.
over the course of time, she has interviewed people on five continents. often in situations in which they find themselves outside social acceptance or in precarious, defenceless places, such as homeless people and people on the run. but also tribal elders in africa and monks whom she interviews in monasteries in india, russia and europe. the poetic nucleus of her worldwide performances has been summarised in a multimedia installation with 54 video works under the name art protector.
at first, mia florentine weiss was sceptical about art. “in the beginning, art was not what i wanted to study. my mother is an artist and designer herself and although she is my role model, i wanted to go my own way.” due to her father’s profession, the family lives in moscow. the upheaval of this country fascinates weiss and she extends her stay with a professional internship before she travels around the world with her backpack for a year. “i am a nomad in a worldly garb. i always wanted to be self-sufficient, not dependent on anyone.” she begins to study journalism, fashion and media communication, which she completes in hamburg in 2004. this (re)path is similar to that of some other female artists whose work has influenced weiss, such as valie export, tracey emin and rebecca horn.
