janet grau

As an artist, I thrive on collaboration and exploring themes that resonate with people, such as language, culture, and human connection. I rarely work alone, preferring to team up with other creatives or to create participatory projects.

Since the early 2000s, my artistic practice has focused on experimental, interdisciplinary, performance-based projects, that often involve diverse social groups and cultures. I use participatory methods to connect people outside the arts to the creative process, and have conducted a number of outreach activities to encourage active cultural expression among disadvantaged children and adults (not depicted on this website).

I have developed numerous participatory projects focusing on socially relevant issues that can be categorized as follows:

• Collections, archives and cultural identity
  • M.o.M. (Mammalia ohne Mütter): Ein Pflegeprogramm
  • Rückblick / Re-Viewing
  • Pflege: Zwischen Zwangshandlung und kultureller Heldentat
  • public attic / ausgestellter speicher
  • Mal schauen! Laien wählen Kunstwerke aus dem Depot
• Access to culture / cultural heritage
  • Irmtraud Morgner Lesen. A memorial to the writer
  • Seit ich ihn gesehen – Reflexionen zu Robert Schumann in der Kunst
  • Mein lieber Schwan! Ein Wechselspiel mit Richard Wagners ‘Lohengrin’
• Interpersonal communication and understanding
  • Freiraumnutzung. Recherchen vor Ort
  • I Think I Know What You Want to Say
  • Sag mir wo die Blumen sind. A guided tour
  • extrem interessant
  • Das LEBEN SPIELEN. A social parlour game for the neighborhood
• Intercultural spaces and conversations across genres/fields
  • Break it Down
  • Wunschbilder

Recently, I have begun to create lecture-performances that explore key issues in cognitive science, such as cultural transmission (in Learning Machines) and “mattering theory” (The Mattering Instinct) by making these concepts accessible through performative and visual media.