Sebastian Hänel
(DE)

Sebastian Hänel was born in 1973 in Halle/Saale, grew up in the former GDR, and came from a strict religious upbringing. Hänel has gradually created more space for himself in his life, and in 2016, after decades as an educator, made a fresh start as a freelance artist. Starting with graphics and bookbinding, he developed several projects in the field of printing, writing and bookbinding, such as the Buchkinderwerkstatt (book workshop for children) Görlitz, which he founded in 2016.

His artistic quest is dedicated to the process based on the feedback between inner experience and external action, using the body, perception, and sensation as tools. This fuels his work in printmaking and cyanotype, musical improvisation, and performance art.

In the course of the interactive artistic process denkmalfrei, of which he was one of the initiators in 2018/19 and which he has shaped with graphics, installations, and performances, he co-founded the typewriter ensemble trio erika and the artist group Görlitzer Sukzession, whose members are dedicated to art with a social commitment. This step into the space itself, but also into the public space and the interaction with the public, paved the way for performance art, which has become increasingly important in his work since 2019.

He has repeatedly participated in the international PAS|Performance Art Studies of BBB Johannes Deimling and has since developed his own, often body-oriented, existentialist performances. With STRE!FEN Performance Art, he has been organizing an international and regional performance art project in Görlitz-Zgorzelec since 2020, which he and other artists are now developing further into an annual and year-round festival and forum until 2030.

Partner: Schloss Königshain, Görlitz, Deutschland