YAMA KOWA

The multimedia artist was born into the world of art, as the daughter of the curator and art historian Wieland Schmied. Seeking distance and identity, she initially focused primarily on theater acting and found her true love in live art performance. She founded ACT.ART.OUT. performance theater in 2013 and is focusing fully on life-art ever since. , video, collage or installations are only appearing as elements of her performative work. A speciality of her artistic practise is the work in performance cycles. So she brings the spontaneous and ephemere of live art performance in alignment with a kontinuity in time that might examine a topic over a dozen years or longer, and since the six weeks ongoing durational 2018 she developed an almost addictive preference to this sort of excessively meditative encounters.

Studies

1993-1997 ERNST BUSCH academy for performing arts and theater (Diploma) 1994-1998 studies with Nan Hoover, and Ellen Cantor video and performance summer academy , (Diploma) 2007 Producers seminar at the bavarian academy for BAF (Diploma)

Assistance

1998 artistic assistant at the Wooster Group Performing Garage New York

Scholarship

2009 the studio Hollywood/LA

Awards

2010 best feature film for DREAMING MALI at the TBFF Dallas, USA Presented in collaboration with the Dallas Museum of Art 2011 best feature nominations at the ÉCU fest and New Jersey filmfest

Theater

1996-1999 actress at the Renaissance Theater Berlin 1999 Maria in "the proof of the soul" by Rudolf Steiner, Documenta X 2001-2002 Monolog "Molloy" Beckett for the Academy of arts Munich 2005-2006 dancing actress in "Takemitsu–my way of life" States-Opera-Berlin touring Paris (Theatre du Châtelét) and Tokyo (Bunka Kai Kahn)

Performance Cycles

2006-2018 UNTIL DEATH DO US PART a performance cycle on existential dependencies since 2013 SEVEN SEALS an exploration of guidance and guiding through the journey of life and personal development (ongoing) 2016-2019 LETTING GO a cycle on overcoming attachment and identification (not closed) Performances/Festivals/Galleries/Public Space

1994 TIME SIGN five hour-landart performance in Salzburg Austria curated by Nan Hoover 1995 MIND AND MATTER performance at the gallery Utaku in Bern 1996 AMOR EST UN ZIETKE at the festival “working for the mental internet”, Bern 2005 video-interlay performance at the Transitstation Berlin 2005 7 VALLEYS choreography and performance "open air Art Museum" Pédvale, Latvia 2007 MIND AND MATTER 2 performance with Markus Schaller, Transitstation Edinburg 2006-2009 TREETALKS site specific performances of the cycle UNTIL DEATH DO US PART 2008 interactive Video-performance in the Watercastel in Bad Rappenau 2009 performance of TREETALKS in Berlin Theater chappel 2010 COME TO MY VENTRICLE Royal Danish academy of arts Copenhagen/Transitstation 2011 Live-art-project WATER WISDOM China/Shanghai/Beijing 2012 E.V.E. fest female performers from New York + Berlin, curated by SilverSilverSilver 2012 SEEDS AND EGGS Cell 63 weekend of performance art berlin by D. Glausnitzer-Smith 2014 BLOOD AND BREATH at Cell 63 Berlin weekend of performance art berlin 2014+2015 SEVEN SEALS at NEW HEALING festival 2015 SEVEN SEALS in New Zealand (Prana festival) + Lithuania (Yaga Gathering) 2015 ABSTRACT BODIES site-specific in the nomansland between Israel and Jordan 2015 SKIN at Cell 63 berlin weekend of performance art curated by Dagmar-Glausnitzer Smith 2016 SEEDS AND EGGS at open-air-arts museum pédvale, Latvia 2016 SEVEN SEALS on Gili Air beach hotel, Indonesia 2016 V.U.P. Live-art during the Berlinale Festival, Berlin 2017 SEVEN SEALS in Nazaré beach, Portugal 2017 PERIPHERIE WITHOUT CENTER at gr_und Berlin, curated by L. Hungh 2017 BREATH IN BLOOD with Collin Edina Leach at weekend of performance art 2018 SKIN, HEART, BRAIN at ANGST festival Paris curated by Francesca Sand and Action Hybrid in collaboration with Ely Daou 2018 I COUNT ON YOU at startepla performance festival Riga curated by Laura Feldberga in collaboration with Ely Daou 2019 VIRGIN MOTHER AT THE CRIB OF AI - ninos consertidos festival Vienna curated by Nina Fountedakis 2019 DECONSTRUCTING AVE MARIA at startepla performance festival Riga 2019 SCIENCE OF SOLITUDE 3 hours public performance in total darkness / Notkapelle, Berlin 2020 COSMIC GRAVITY at international week of performance art Pallazzo Mora European Culture center-dissenting bodies making time - by Marilyn Arsem VestandPage 2020 IN THE NET collaboration with Roland Walter, Anna Moraki and Ananda Nitai at Brandenburger Tor, Berlin

Durational Live-Art

2008 ONEAN(D) OTHER three months intercultural interacting live-art project in Mali, with Markus Schaller, Sidi Sow and others 2014 HEART OF UNITY in Israel during the operation “protective edge” (Tel Aviv, Haifa, Acco) blindfolded 3 days durational 2018 THE CALCULATING MIND CAN NOT BE TRUSTED 42 days non-stop-gallery living installation, Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin 2018-2019 HOMAGE TO DUCHAMP ongoing live-art Berlin, working in old care and videotaping myself cleaning the toilet 2019 LIBERATION IN PANOPTICON a seven weeks durational in total darkness 2020 FAMILY TREE a one year daily land art ritual around the tree under which my father is buried 2020 SUNGATE 5 days durational relating to Richard Long´s stone circle at Art Park MarzonaVerzegnis/

Solo Shows

2002 Videoinstallation SEVEN STEPS AND BEYOND Kunstraum Berlin 2013 SEVEN SEALS interdisciplinary interactive and collaborative performative installation (art.endart and Uferhallen, Berlin) with Zedan Muhannad, Vinzenz Fengler a.o. 2014 MAO+TAO Feature Film on "water wisdom" shown at art.endart, Berlin 2018 UNTIL DEATH DO US PART installation exhibition on the 12 years performance cycle Luisa Cantucci Gallery, Berlin 2019 LIBERATION IN PANOPTICON installation and exhibition on the cycle LETTING GO at Notkapelle, Berlin

Group Shows (Video)

1994-video installation THE REALITY OF A DREAM, Saline Hallein 1998 HEIMKEHR videoinstallation Galerie Meinblau, Berlin 2004 Ifs: real time project with Mike Figgis 2008 Video installation BASIC KNOWLEDGE Bologna, Giardino del Guasto 2016 HOMAGE TO RICHTER videoperformance, presented at Luisa Cantucci, Berlin 2016 INVOLUTION (SHAME SHAME SHAME) video performance at Cantuccy Gallery - both works belong to the LETTING GO performance cycle

Movies

2006 EMPIRE OF PEACE (feature 30 min) for Kunsthaus Wien Austria 2009 DREAMING MALI (movie 82:40 min) best feature in Texas TBFF festival2011 2014 MAO+TAO (movie 108:48 min) presented at art:endart projectspace, Berlin 2016 V.U.P. very unimportant person (feature 30 min) presented at Notkapelle, Berlin

YAMA BARBARA KOWA

After my seven weeks in total darkness for the live-art-project LIBERATION IN PANOPTICON I felt like reborn and decided to wear the name Yama which I received in a meditation. So the guests of the performance SCIENCE OF SOLITUDE in which I shared the experience of total darkness baptised me afterwards inside the DIGITAL PANOPTICON INSTALLATION www.barbarakowa.de