Bettina Pousttchi (born 1971 in Mainz, lives in Berlin) has been realizing monumental site-specific installations for building facades and large scale sculptures in public space over the last 15 years that reference the architectural, social and cultural implications of their respective settings. For several years now, in her sculptures, Bettina Pousttchi has used objects that structure the physical experience of the urban space, such as guardrails, crowd barriers and street bollards. By applying techniques such as bending or pressing, and reconceiving their coloring, Pousttchi relieves these everyday objects of their regulatory function and detaches them from their context of meaning, turning them into signs of change, fluid structures and dissolving boundaries.
Equally, with her extensive photo project World Time Clock Pousttchi presents a philosophical image of synchronicity and a globalized reality. She has been traveling since several years to different time zones around the world. In each place she takes a photograph of a public clock always at the same time to build this planetary piece about the political and social organization of time and space in a poetic and performative, lifelong endeavor.
Education
1999/2000
Whitney Independent Study Program, Whitney Museum, New York
1995–1999
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Prof. Rosemarie Trockel and Prof. Gerhard Merz)
1992–1997
Studies in philosophy, art history and film theory, Universities of Cologne and Bochum
1990–1992
Studies in fine art, Université de Paris
Grants and Awards
2016
Villa Aurora, Los Angeles
2014
Wolfsburg Art Prize, Junge Stadt sieht Junge Kunst
2008
TrAIN, Research Center for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, University of the Arts, London
2007
BBAX - Berlin Buenos Aires Art Exchange
2005
Provinzial Förderprojekt
2000
Kunststiftung NRW
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Progressions, Museum Haus Konstruktiv Zürich
42 Tage, European Capital of Culture Chemnitz, Schwarzenberg
2023
World Time Clock, Aurora Museum, Shanghai
Constellations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai
In Transit, Buchmann Galerie Berlin
Station to Station: Bettina Pousttchi, Vertical Highways, Central Station Berlin
2022
The Curve, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
Fluidity House, Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden Wuppertal
2021
Amplifier, Konzerthaus Berlin
Directions, Buchmann Galerie Berlin
Fluidity, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen
2020
Vertical Highways, Buchmann Box Berlin
2019
In Recent Years, Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Modern Art, Berlin
Panorama, KINDL - Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Block, Kunsthalle Tübingen
2018
UNN (United Nations Nuremberg), Pavilion, Neues Museum Nürnberg
Allee, Buchmann Galerie, Berlin
Protection, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen
2017
Daniel Buren & Bettina Pousttchi, Kunsthalle Mainz
Metropolitan Life, Museo Nivola, Orani
Suspended Mies, The Arts Club of Chicago
2016
World Time Clock, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Ceramics, Buchmann Galerie, Berlin
Double Monuments, The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.
2015
Plano Piloto, Buchmann Lugano
Curtain Wall, Buchmann Galerie Agra
2014
Sightings: Drive Thru Museum, Nasher Sculpture Center Dallas
The City, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg
2013
Off the Clock, Buchmann Galerie, Berlin
2012
Framework, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/Main
2011
World Time Clock, Kunsthalle Basel
Echo Berlin, German Embassy London
2010
World Time, Buchmann Galerie, Berlin
2009
Echo, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin
2008
Blackout, Triangle Gallery, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
Tomorrow was yesterday, Buchmann Galerie, Berlin
2007
Reality Reset, Von der Heydt Kunsthalle Wuppertal
Parachutes, Buchmann Galerie, Berlin
2006
Landing, Buchmann Galerie, Berlin
2005
Ihr Museum, Leopold-Hösch-Museum, Düren
Take Off, Buchmann Galerie, Cologne
Limits, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund
2004
CineRoma, public art project, Rome
2003
Screen Settings, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
2002
Locked, Chelsea Kunstraum Köln
2001
My artificial nature, Verein Junge Kunst e.V., Wolfsburg
Die Katharina-Show, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen