Anke Buchmann

Noting Absence By Anke Buchmann Participatory Performance as part of the ArtSpring Festival 2026 31 / 05 / 2026 11-18:00 Sredzkistr. 46, 10435 Berlin Visit the open studio to see works including performance, sculpture and ceramics. Photo credits: James McKinnon, 2018 #contemporaryfineart #liveart #performanceartist #artspring

Behind each performance lays deep thinking. Scenes from@my sketchbook. #performanceartist #liveart #femaleartistsofinstagram #processart #sketchbookpages

Upcoming Performance: Noting Absence IV As part of ArtSpring Festival, Open Studio on 31 May 2026 Sredzkistr. 46, 10435 Berlin, Performance & Participatory Ritual: 31.05. | 11-6pm Open Studio: 30.05. – 31.05. During @artspring_berlin , I invite you into my studio to witness and join Noting Absence IV. The Body as Site of Reconstruction: In this interactive performance I utilize clay as a medium of re-alignment. In this fourth iteration of the performance, the act of pinching a pot, a traditional craft technique, becomes a high-stakes barometer for presence. My methodology is binary and uncompromising: I activate the material through rhythmic pinching, synchronizing the gesture with the breath: pinching on the inhale, turning on the exhale. I visualize moments of my own dissociation. The moment the mind wanders or the connection to the “here and now” flickers, the process is aborted. Every pot produced in a state of mental absence is immediately dropped. These discarded forms accumulate as a “Counter-Archive” of fragmentation, while only the pieces created in a state of total body-mind unity are preserved. This search for presence is not a solitary endeavor but a response to a contemporary condition. In an era of digital hyper-acceleration and systemic distraction, the need to reconnect the somatic self with the cognitive mind is a universal urgency. Anke Buchmann performed Noting Absence before twice in London and once in Berlin. Photo: 2018 by James McKinnon - Noting Absence III @artspringberlin @galleryweekendberlin @kulturkreispankow @visitberlin @studiovisitsberlin #liveart #performanceartist #interactiveperformance #somaticpractice #openstudio

Born as a left hander in the GDR and raised as a right hander is still informing my day to day today. In the age of 30 I taught myself to write with my left hand. I needed to feel how it would feel to be myself. Since then I am practicing daily to write with my left hand. The process is still happening today. I can see the change in my writing and I can feel the change in myself. It’s a work in progress. On becoming myself. #forcedhandedness #lefthand #identity #identityart #processart

— Scroll für deutsch — The object that “obeys”: The attempt to maintain form. An aesthetic of control. Clear lines broken by controlled traces: They represent the time of my “correction”: my enforced right-handedness. In my work, two states coexist: the search for structure and the necessity of collapse, of letting go. The clear lines in the series ‘Traces of Process’ are documents of learned discipline. The echo of my re-educated handedness and my subsequent adaptation to expectations and structures. Opposite these are the free, imprecise residues: the traces of the process—an attempt at breaking free, of rebellion. A yearning for freedom. The silence of minimalism allows me to make the noise of the rupture audible. It is a field of tension between discipline and liberation. ——- Das Objekt, das „gehorcht“: Der Versuch, Form zu halten. Eine Ästhetik der Beherrschung. Klare Linien gebrochen von kontrollierten Spuren: Sie stehen für die Zeit meiner „Korrektur“ - meiner erzwungenen Rechtshändigkeit. In meiner Arbeit koexistieren zwei Zustände: Die Suche nach Struktur und die Notwendigkeit des Kollapses, des Loslassens. Die klaren Linien in der Serie ‘Traces of process’ sind Dokumente der gelernten Disziplin. Das Echo meiner umerzogenen Händigkeit und meiner daraus folgenden Anpassung an Erwartungen und Strukturen. Denen gegenüber stehen die freien, unpräzisen Rückstände: die Spuren des Prozesses - ein Versuch das Ausbruchs , der Rebellion. Ein Drang nach Freiheit. Die Stille des Minimalismus, erlaubt mir den Lärm des Bruchs hörbar zu machen. Es ist ein Spannungsfeld zwischen Disziplin und Befreiung. #contemporary_art #processbasedart #femaleartists #ceramicsofinstagram #imperfection

I am currently deep in the unlearning phase: accessing memory of my bodies resistance. Especially the one of “corrected” handedness and the friction between digital precision and physical collapse. I am opening my doors for private studio visits throughout the month of May. If you are interested in the intersection of somatic memory and material intelligence, I’d love to host you for a coffee and a casual look through finished work and work in progress. Let’s start the dialog. DM or email me at [email protected] to schedule a time. #StudioVisit #BerlinArtist #AnkeBuchmann #ContemporarySculpture #studioviews

Clay is the only material that can keep up with the shifting consistency of a life in transition. At the same time it’s a constant reminder that nothing ever stays the same. That life is change. I am interested in using the materiality of the clay and the different stages it exists in : soft and wet , leather hard, bone dry , bisqued, glazed. Being able to fire the once soft gestures to transform it into stone hard ceramics allows for a permanent archive of fleeting moments. When looking at the ‘lived moments’ sculptures one can embody the moment of letting go. When the soft clay leans into gravity and Reese’s all tension. The transition between one breath and the next, between the exhale and the new inhale, before a fresh start. #Materiality #texturedartwork #lettinggo #performanceartist #contemporarysculptures

In the vocabulary of contemporary sculpture, we often discuss form, stability, tension. For me, a very interesting moment occurs when the structural limit of the material meets the physical exhaustion of the body. During the performance “A still mind” that I performed 2023 during Berlin Art Week I reached that threshold. I was synchronizing my breath and gestures for hours shaping clay circles with one breath and suddenly my physical energy hit its nadir. At that exact second, the lived moment sculpture collapsed. The shock of the break was my awakening. The sudden release of the material acted as a visceral jolt, returning me to the present and granting me the energy to continue. The work now exists in two parts: one standing, one horizontal. It is no longer a planned form, but a recorded experience. I view my sculptures as a documentation of lived experience. In an era dominated by the rapid, result-oriented efficiency of AI and digital perfection, I choose to honor the “collapse.” My work is an archive of resistance, a testament to the human rhythm of failure and reclamation. Today, I celebrate sculpture not as a finished object, but as the tangible residue of being alive. Happy international sculpture day! #ContemporarySculpture #PerformanceArt #MaterialResearch #somatic #artreview

Elusive Memories 2024 Stoneware series, glazed Berlin, DE Photo: @oliver.schwamkrug #ceramicsculptures #abstractexpressionist #femaleartists #ceramicvessel #functionalartwork

Elusive Memories 2024 Stoneware series, glazed Berlin, DE Photo: @oliver.schwamkrug #ceramicsculptures #abstractexpressionist #femaleartists #ceramicvessel #functionalartwork

In my body and my old adidas Trikot from 1984. East German national teams worn it during 1980s World Cup and here I am - benching. #portrait #selfportraitphotography #femaleartistsofinstagram #streetstyleberlin #adidasvintage

Details of Curious Playfulness 2024 Photo credit: @oliver.schwamkrug #materiality #stoneware #ceramictexture #glazed #ceramicsculptures