About
Alexandra
Meijer-Werner
BY GLENDA DORTA
Alexandra Meijer-Werner was born on April 6th, 1972 in Caracas, Venezuela. After attending the Humboldt School in Caracas, in 1991 she moved to the United States to study film & video at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where she graduated in 1995. She completed her academic studies in 1998 with an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies Expressive Art Therapy, at Lesley College, Graduate School of Arts & Social Sciences in Cambridge Massachusetts.
Between 1993 and 2002 her artistic work focused on creating video installations with multiple projectors, and combining sound, texture and interaction with the public. She also produced a number of documentaries which evidence her profound interest in personal transformation and the awakening of human consciousness.
From 1999 to 2001 she worked at The Interfaith Center's Department of Art and Culture in New York City, where she developed and produced Bright Lights - a video project with youth from different religious and social communities of New York.
Alexandra died in an airplane accident on May 30th, 2002, while preparing a project involving a series of aerial films of different cities around the world together with filmmaker Robert Fulton.
Exhibitions / Performances
Since 1995, Alexandra Meijer-Werner’s work has been a part of various group and solo exhibitions and performances in both Caracas and the United States.
Urban Aboriginal Video Ball, interdisciplinary performance, Mobius Centre for Experimental Work, Boston, MA, USA (October 1995).
Confessions of a Sin-eater, by Debra Bluth, performance-dance video, Dance Complex Theater, Cambridge, MA, USA (March 1996).
Kreislauf, video installation, III Salón Pirelli de Jóvenes Artistas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Venezuela (October 1997).
Ouroboros Project, interdisciplinary performance, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela (November 1997).
Nest, video installation, De Cajas Relucientes y Universos Proyectados VIART, Centro Cultural Corp Group, Caracas, Venezuela (November 1998).
The Moon is Watching Me, by Luz Marina Diaz, dance video, Context Studio, New York, NY, USA (July 1999).
Cosmogonic Games, video installation, VI Bienal de Artes Visuales Christian Dior, Centro Cultural Corp Group, Caracas, Venezuela (November 1999)
Your Feet my Feet, video installation, Video Hábitats VIART, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela (May 2000).
The Invisible Loom, video installation ¿Es Venus o Caracas? Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela (November 2000).
Osmosis, video installation, with the colaboration of Kirstin Childs Burke (New Hampshire, USA 1969), V Salón Pirelli de Jóvenes Artistas Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Caracas, Venezuela (November 2000).
In 2002 Alexandra worked on Ouroboros IV bringing together concepts and resources developed in the Ouroboros Project, Nest and Cosmogonic Games, but she did not live to see the work exhibited. Ouroboros IV was first shown to the public at the exhibition Alexandra Meijer-Werner, Luz sobre Luz in 2006.
Osmosis was re-staged at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofia Imber (MACCSI) in the context of Videoarte ( an anthology of Venezuelan video art) while the video Osmosis (2001), edited from its first exhibition at the Salón Pirelli, became part of the MACCSI Immaterial Art Collection, making it one of the collection’s founding works. In
November 2003 Kreislauf was exhibited at the MACCSI as part of the exhibition Arte Venezolano del Siglo XX, La Megaexposición.
In 2006 the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo did a retrospective of her work titled Alexandra Meijer-Werner, Luz sobre Luz.
In 2007 the Centro de Arte Lía Bermúdez, Maracaibo Venezuela, presented six of her works:
Kreislauf , Your Feet my Feet, The Invisible Loom, Osmosis, Ouroboros IV and the documentary of Project Ouroboros.
Acknowledgements:
Documentation videos of all works courtesy Tuki Jenckquel.
Technical installation of all works courtesy Germano Arcesilai.
Documentaries
The Wheel of Time, 1993
In Praise of Darkness, 1994
Ouroboros Project, 1997
The Circle War by Manintonquat – Medicine Story, 1999
Video installations
Kreislauf
cycle ... revolution ...circulation
1997
Circular Screen (metal and fabric structure) and three videos, variable dimensions
Your Feet my Feet
2000
Wooden box with a mirror inside, closed circuit camera and video, variable dimensions
The Invisible Loom
2000
Six fabric screens, mirror and video, variable Dimensions
Osmosis
2001
Five lightskins (figures created with wire and fabric) and three videos made with archive material, variable dimensions
Ouroboros IV
2002
Two fiberglass eggs, sand stones and two videos, variable dimensions