Simone Kessler

SHIVER Trust, 15 meters below the surface. In these image, Cristina Zenato dives among Caribbean reef sharks in the Bahamas and removes a hook. Each hook used in the artwork Shiver was removed from a shark. For over three decades, Cristina has cultivated a rare form of interspecies relationship: calm presence, repeated encounters, gentle touch. Sharks that could leave but don’t. A shiver of shark is a group of sharks.🦈 Shiver is also a sensation. Photo 1: Cristina helping a shark by @kewinlorenzen Photo 2 + 3: Exhibition views by @fotografie_dorfmueller_klier @cristinazenato #SimoneKessler #CristinaZenato #SharkConservation #OceanAdvocacy InterSpecies MarineConservation ContemporaryArt #ArtAndActivism WomenInArt

Was einst eine gebauten Architektur in der Münchener Akademie war, ist nun in Teile zerlegt und bildet eine Anordnung an der Wand. Ob Wand oder Fläche erzählen die Spuren, Furchen und Risse von dem Prozess der Entstehung. Erst nass und später getrocknet, sind nicht nur die Zellulosefasern Teil der Arbeit sondern auch die Eisenpartikel, die durch die Feuchtigkeit gerostet sind. @simone__kessler Fotocredits @annelefty

"Amity Parts" cellulose fiber, corroded iron left to right: Amity Part 28 x 33,5 cm, Amity Part Nr.5 122 x 178 cm, Amity Part Nr.6 156 x 110 cm, Amity Part Nr.13 109,5 x 76,5 cm The "Amity Parts" series by Simone Kessler consists of grey cellulose fiber plates coated with iron particles. In her process-oriented approach, Kessler allows the materials space and time for drying, compression, crack formation, and oxidation. Some cracks break through the freshly formed red rust layer, revealing the underlying grey carrier material and the forces acting upon it. From these transformations, relief-like, almost tectonic surfaces emerge, in which compression and displacement create shattered yet powerful structures. The works recall geological strata that spread along the wall – a sensual interplay of color, material, and time that has grown through the process. Thank you for the picture @annelefty currently to be seen @galeriekaufmann #amity #simonekessler #artinstallation #process #material

SHIVER — Wall Tableau / Installation Views 52 hooks, once piercing Caribbean reef sharks, now traced in delicate photograms on baryta paper. Each hook comes from @cristinazenato collection — freed by her hands over decades of calm, ritualized encounters with the sharks. Through gentle touch and patience, she built bonds with sharks that needed help. 11 black photograms mark sharks that never encountered hooks as well as those that couldn’t be freed. Each imprint transforms these instruments of harm also into traces of care, connection, and interspecies trust. The light, paper, and shadow of the tableau invite the viewer to feel the shiver: awe, fragility, and the delicate bond linking human and shark. 📸 @freddott #SimoneKessler #CristinaZenato #Phototableau #shark #Photogram ContemporaryArt ArtAndEcology MarineConservation InterSpecies WomenInArt

SHIVER — Process For Shiver, I worked with 52 fishing hooks — each one carefully removed from living Caribbean reef sharks by @cristinazenato over the past three decades. Every single hook I used comes from a shark that was freed through her hands. Cristina generously entrusted me with part of this precious collection for ten days — a gesture of immense trust. These hooks are not objects one simply handles. They are charged with stories of encounter, survival, and care. In the darkroom, the process was deliberately slow and analogue: Each hook was placed directly onto high-quality baryta photographic paper. Exposed to light. Developed manually. Washed. Dried. No camera. No lens. Only object, light, chemistry, and time. A photogram is not a reproduction — it is a direct imprint. A one-to-one trace. The hook touches the paper. Light defines its contour. What emerges is presence rather than depiction. The title Shiver carries a double meaning: it is the collective noun for a group of sharks — and it describes a bodily sensation. A shiver of fear, but also of awe, intensity, recognition. Through Cristina’s work, fear transforms into relationship. Through the darkroom process, instruments of harm transform into delicate fields of light and shadow. Shiver is about this shift: from extraction to care, from fear to trust, from object to connection. #cristinazebato #Shiver #shark #Photogram #contemporaryart MarineConservation InterSpecies ArtAndEcology WomenInArt

SHIVER Meeting the incredible Cristina Zenato was a true honor, a great pleasure and a real inspiration 🦈 With her inspirational input and work we developed the artwork SHIVER. Over the past three decades, she has carefully removed hundreds of fishing hooks from the bodies of lifting Caribbean reef sharks, often with her bare hands. Each hook marks an encounter between human and shark: one moment of capture, another of release. Although sharks are legally protected in the Bahamas, they are still targeted — out of fear, as trophies, for their fins, or because they are seen as competitors. Globally, more than one third of shark and ray species are now considered threatened, primarily due to overfishing. Shiver refers both to a group of sharks and to the visceral reaction they provoke in us. This work begins with care, trust, and the possibility of a different relationship between species. @cristinazenato @kewinlorenzen thank you for the beautiful pictures! #SimoneKessler #CristinaZenato #Shiver #SharkConservation #OceanAdvocacy ArtAndActivism ContemporaryArt MarineConservation InterSpecies WomenInArt

Short sneak peek into: Marine Snow, 2026, video installation one- ore multichannel, 60‘ loop, full HD, stereo, dimensions variable Marine Snow, a one-hour video installation, immerses viewers in footage from twenty day and night dives in the Atlantic conducted aboard the research vessel Celtic Explorer on its journey from Cádiz to Cork. I mounted a custom camera rig onto a CTD instrument, which measures conductivity, temperature, and the vertical profile of the water and recorded sound. At 80 meters below the surface, particles of marine snow drift through the dark waters, accompanied by tiny and larger lifeforms, revealing a hidden vitality and a secret choreography of the ocean that is usually invisible to the human eye. #artsandscience #simonekessler #ocean #marinesnow #conservation #snowdays #blue #anthropogenicnoise #current #biodiversity @marineinstituteireland @atugalwaycity @irishwhaleanddolphingroup @ieocadiz #AMIGOSII #STRAITSProject #MarineScience #RVcelticExplorer #OceanResearch #Cetaceans #MarineBiodiversity #Shiptime2025 The biggest thank you to everyone that helped to make this work possible 🤍 to @maria_ptadeo @joanne_o_brien5 @amigos_survey @dandelahaye @irishwhaleanddolphingroup @emilie_deloose @amigos_survey @lena_beja @ricardo.a.mendes @maar_leon_ @louiseconstandt @alv_ogts @brogatron @beanioo @ellenwhite22 @albaharo_04 @lorena___vidal @__haree @gomeywan @declan.h.photos @neuekunstinhamburg

Marine Snow, 2026, video installation, 60‘ loop, Full HD, Stereo Sound, dimensions variable, (exhibition views) Marine Snow, a one-hour video installation, immerses viewers in footage from twenty day and night dives in the Atlantic conducted aboard the research vessel Celtic Explorer on its journey from Cádiz to Cork. The artist mounted her custom camera rig onto a CTD instrument, which measures conductivity, temperature, and the vertical profile of the water. At 80 meters below the surface, particles of marine snow drift through the dark waters, accompanied by tiny and larger lifeforms, revealing a hidden vitality and a secret choreography of the ocean that is usually invisible to the human eye. Photographs by @freddott for @neuekunstinhamburg in @kunstvereinhh curated by @fabianschoeneich The biggest thank you to everyone that helped to make this work possible 🤍 to @maria_ptadeo @joanne_o_brien5 @amigos_survey @dandelahaye @irishwhaleanddolphingroup #ocean #saveourocean #marinesnow #krill #artandscience

40 Jahre NEUE KUNST IN HAMBURG e.V. Am Freitag, 23. Januar eröffnet um 19 Uhr die Ausstellung „40 Jahre Neue Kunst in Hamburg“ im @kunstvereinhh Gezeigt werden die neuen Arbeiten der aktuellen Reisestipendiat:innen Katja Pilipenko @katjapilipenko , Nicholas Mboya @nikomambomboya , Anna Stuedeli @anna_stuedeli , Simone Kessler @simone_kessler & Mohammad Poori @mo_poori . Kuratiert von Fabian Schöneich (CCA Berlin) @fabianschoeneich . Ausgehend von intensiven Reisen in die USA, Kenia, China, Georgien, Bulgarien und die Republik Nordmazedonien sowie einem Aufenthalt auf einem Forschungsschiff in europäischen Meeren zeigen die Künstlerinnen, wie sie Gegenwart in ihren jeweiligen künstlerischen Praxen verorten. Außerdem feiert NEUE KUNST IN HAMBURG e.V. sein 40-jähriges Jubiläum mit einer kleinen Ausstellung von Werken ehemaliger Reisestipendiat:innen. (Dauer bis 1. Februar ) #art #simonekessler #kunst #kunstinhamburg #artinstallation

Heute teile ich mit, welche KünstlerInnen mit auf die Messe @art_karlsruhe kommen. Den Anfang macht @simone__kessler ! Eine Künstlerin, die sehr naturwissenschaftlich arbeitet. Ihre Werke entstehen nach einem langen und intensiven Forschungszeitraum. Kritisch und behutsam zugleich macht sie auf Umständen in der Natur, im Zusammenspiel aus Mensch und Tier, uns darauf aufmerksam wie wir mit der Welt umgehen und was mögliche Konsequenzen sein werden. #artkarlsruhe

Lots of interesting work on show at the opening of ‘HAIE’… too many to post so go and see it yourself! thanks to all that came for a drink, a chat and some art. #kunstHamburg #vernissage

Really excited about the group show „HAIE” (SHARKS) that @simone__kessler put together! Thanks for sharing your passion/obsession with sharks and for bringing together such a great bunch of artists — I’m really happy it’s happening in a space that feels/ is home. OPENING TODAY, 19:00 at Studio45 @wendenstrasse45 I’ll be showing the piece “AUA!” (German onomatopoeia for “Ouch!”) — hand-stitched German army handkerchief, stains, holes, 47 × 47 cm, 2025. Haie ist eine Einladung, dem geheimnisvollen Ruf des Meeres zu folgen: eine Reise zwischen Angst und Faszination, gestaltet durch Fundstücke, persönliche Arbeiten und Werke von über 40 Künstler*innen, die Simone Kesslers Sammlung bereichern. Künstler*innen aus der Sammlung und Leihgeber*innen: Edward Beierle, Anne Bracht, Rahel Bruns, Malte Bruns, Mela Dávila-Freire, Guy Delisle, Felix Demmer, Sandra Hauser, Nicola Joy Hardy, Tanja Hehmann, Enver Hirsch, Tim Huys, Marcel Grosse, Milla Jung, Simone Karl, Simone Kessler, Nico Kiese, Christian F. Kintz, Ines Könitz, KR. Kunak, Sanna Leone, Alan Long, Kewin Lorenzen, Julian Mader, Jesse Magee, Julia Maiquez Esterlich, Elisa Maning, Paula Markert, Philipp Meuser, Julia Münstermann, Elena Pastor, Bärbel Praun, Domino Pyttel, Paul Riches, Marijose Sánchez, Cordula Schieri, Lena Schierling, Aika Schnake, Jana Schuhmacher, Ellen Vrijsen, Viktoria Wald, Salvador Yáñez, Christina Zenato, unbekannte Künstler*innen und weitere. *Einladung Bild: Enver Hirsch