In his installations frequently resembling experimental configurations Christoph Keller uses the discursive possibilities of art to investigate the themes of science and its utopias.
The “Cloudbuster-Projects" involve reenactments of Wilhelm Reich’s experiments to influence the atmosphere with orgone energy. In “Encyclopaedia Cinematographica" and "Archives as Objects as Monuments”, Keller focuses upon the archeology of scientific film, the impossibility of objective documentation, and the problem of the archival urge to bring order to comprehensive knowledge. In spite of all methodological objectivity, a selective and deliberate design is always at work here. In “Expedition-Bus and Shaman-Travel”, a mirrored camper van for research trips, the ethnographic viewpoint of science is exposed as a projection of its own culture. The viewer is drawn into the installation and becomes a field investigator, for Keller is ultimately concerned with linking the methods and procedures of scientific work with a spatial but also psychological-physical experiencing of art.
Christoph Keller first studied math, physics and hydrology, before continuing his studies at the art academies in Berlin and Cologne with a focus on photography, film, and digital media.
His works have been featured by many international art institutions, among others, by the Berlin Biennale, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Performa Biennial in New York, Bienal del Fin del Mundo in Patagonia, Musé des Abattoirs in Toulouse, Bienal do Mercosul in Porto Alegre, LIAF Lofoten, Lyon Biennale, Sharjah Biennale, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Galeria Nazionale di Arte in Rome.
The exhibition “Æther – between cosmology and consciousness” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris was his first large-scale artistic and curatorial project in an institutional context.
He has received several awards and grants, such as the Ars Viva-Preis for art and science, the P.S.1 studio-grant in New York, Residences Internationales aux Recollets, Paris, BM Suma in Istanbul, Capacete in Sao Paulo, Villa Massimo in Rome and Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.