MAGDALENA KOVARIK

Dates of residency: March till April 2019
Born:  1985
Nationality: Austrian
Lives and works: Berlin, Germany
Education: 
2016 MFA Interactive Media Arts / Interactive Telecommunication Program (ITP),  New York University, Tisch School of Arts
2012 MFA Industrial Design, University of the Arts Berlin
Selected shows:
2020  Fire is the Air the Poet Breathes, Transmediale Vorspiel, Lacuna Lab, Berlin
2020  Un/Natural Surrogates, Online Exhibition, The Internet
2018  International Symposium for Electronic Arts (ISEA), Durban University, Durban
2017 Old Possessions, New Myths, Y Art Space Athens

THE ARTIST
Magdalena Kovarik is an Austrian media artist and designer working with emerging technologies between intervention, political engagement and experimental storytelling. Her work takes place where the analog meets the digital, man meets machine and outrage becomes art. Between humor and seriousness she tries to engage her audience. The emotional response to very current socio-political issues in a globalized world drives her artistic efforts. Therefore she develops interactive installations, tells stories through sensors and crafts virtual worlds. Kovarik was selected as a Google Newslab fellow in 2017 and for IDFA’s DocLab Academy 2018. She collaborates internationally in multidisciplinary projects and artist residencies. Based in Berlin, she works as a creative director and designer for multimedia exhibitions and experiences, as well as an educator and researcher at the ‘University of Applied Sciences Potsdam’.

THE RESIDENCY
During her time at BAR, Kovarik researched the patriarchal structures and gender stereotypes in Lebanon, and women’s rights and role within it. She was consumed by the paradoxes that exist in Lebanese society which is seemingly open and liberal yet, abortions are strictly forbidden.  At the same time she viewed Lebanon as a capitalist country taking part in Western hyper-consumerism and sexualized imagery. With her mixed-media video collage My Manousha, My Choice she comments on this discrepancy: various pregnant women merge with a Manousha - the traditional Lebanese flat bread - instead of their belly. Lebanon is all about food, and a Manousha a great metaphor for Lebanese culture. Together with 3D-scans, GIFs and recorded audio, Kovarik uses visual material directly from Google Image Search to point out the contrast of women's restricted rights over their own body, while the public has access and can edit, exploit or consume it just as she did with the video.