Tris Vonna-Michell

Selected Works

Biography

Born 1982 in Rochford, UK, Tris Vonna-Michell currently lives and works in Stockholm. He stages installations and performs narrative structures, using spoken word, sound compositions, film and photography. Through live performances and installations, Vonna-Michell creates circuitous, multilayered narratives, characterized by fragments of information, detours, and repetitions. The artist performs narratives and constructs installations through the layering of these narratives, photographs and mementos, presented using antiquated technologies and slide projection. With his energetic performances, Tris Vonna-Michell adds a whole new chapter to the age-old tradition of storytelling. Developing in parallel and occasionally intertwining, his performances function as episodes within an over-arching, non-linear story. Vonna-Michell tells his tales inside installations that he has created, interweaving projections, texts and objects as theatrical props. During these performances, he takes his audience with him on a mental and physical journey, through which the objects in the gallery space acquire additional layers of meaning. With his tales, he tries to unravel and articulate various real and fictional histories. His practice is at once structured and spontaneous. Working with a premeditated scenario, Vonna-Michell’s performance is influenced by the situation in which he finds himself, and new stories, images and associations come into being. The incredible rapidity with which he speaks changes the words and sentences in to a baffling rhythmic and abstract composition. His artistic practice shows traces of vocal experiments from the early 1920s, such as Kurt Schwitters’ sound poem Ursonata. The post-war Spoken Word compositions of Allen Ginsberg or William S. Burroughs are also recognizable in Vonna-Michell’s work. He ingeniously combines personal facts and fiction in a style reminiscent of an MC's verbal freedom.

Gallery Exhibitions

Other Venues

Selected Press

12/2010
FLASH ART
Tris Vonna-Michell

CV

Education

2005 – 2007

Städel Schule, Frankfurt am Main

  1. 2002 – 2005

Glasgow School of Arts, Glasgow

2001 – 2002

Falmouth College of Arts, Falmouth

Solo exhibitions

2023

The Surveyor, Galeria Francisco Fino, Lisbon,

2022

‘Back segments’, Jan Mot, Brussels.

2021

‘No More Racing in Circles – Just Pacing Within Lines of a Rectangle’, Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra, Portugal

2019

‘Balustrade: Endless Tapes’, KMAC Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, United States

2018

‘Walking Sonic Texts – Sound Poetry and Movement in Space’, with a contribution by Marc Matter, Jan Mot, Brussels
‘Material Longevities’, Galeria Francisco Fino, Lisbon
‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, Local Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago

2017

‘From The Serralves Collection: Tris Vonna-Michell’, Museu Serralves, Porto
‘PUNCTUATIONS & PERFORATIONS’, La Verrière, Brussels

2016

‘Register’, T293, Rome

2015

‘Wasteful Illuminations: Distracted Listening’, Jan Mot, Brussels
‘Capitol Complex’, Appleton Square, Lisbon
‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, Overduin & Co., Los Angeles
‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver

2014

‘Turner Prize 2014’, Tate Britain, London
‘Postscript III (Berlin)’, Metro Pictures, New York
‘Capitol Complex’, TPW, Toronto
‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, VOX Centre de l’image contemporaine, Montreal

2013

‘Postscript II (Berlin)’, Jan Mot, Brussels
‘Pebble Dash’, T293, Rome
‘Capitol Complex’, Jan Mot, Mexico City

2012

‘Ulterior Vistas’, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (in collaboration with Inheritance Projects)

2011

‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, Metro Pictures, New York

2010

‘Wasteful Illuminations’, T293, Naples
‘Not a Solitary Sign or Inscription to Even Suggest an Ending’, Overduin and Kite, Los Angeles
‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, Capitain Petzel, Berlin
‘No more racing in circles – just pacing within lines of a rectangle’, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea

2009

‘Capstans’, Halle fur Kunst, Lüneburg
‘Finding Chopin: Endnotes’, Jeu de Paume, Paris
‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm
‘Auto-Tracking: Ongoing Configurations’, Jan Mot, Brussels
‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, X Initiative, New York
‘Auto-Tracking-Auto-Tracking’, Kunsthalle Zurich
‘Studio A: Monumental Detours / Insignificant Fixtures’, GAMeC, Bergamo

2008

‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, Cabinet Gallery, London
‘Auto-Tracking’, Kunsthalle Zurich
‘The Trades of Others’, T293, Naples

2007

‘Tall Tales and Short Stories’, Cubitt, London
‘Puzzlers’, Kunstverein Braunschweig Cuboid, Braunschweig, Germany
‘Tris Vonna-Michell’, Witte de With, Rotterdam

2006

‘Faire un effort’, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
‘Down the Rabbit-Hole’, Milliken Gallery, Stockholm

Group exhibitions

2022

‘Austerlitz was his name, TLÖN PROJECTS,  Rotterdam, NL.

2020

‘No more racing in circles – just pacing within lines of a rectangle’, Jan Mot, Brussels, BE2019

‘Constellations: a choreography of minimal gestures’, The Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon

Refracted Realities, Kunstmuseum Bonn, German

IFFR, l’International Film Festival, Rotterdam

2019

Videonale.17 – Refracted Realities, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn

Constellations: a coreography of minimal gestures, Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisboa,

PT. Chopin, International Film Festival Rotterdam, NL.

2018

‘Involucri pittorici rigidi. A descriptive evening of a publication’, Istituto Italiano di Cultura ‘C. M. Lerici’, Stockholm
‘Back to the Future! Im Karussell der Diakonservierung’, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

2017

‘Performance lecture’, Lothringer13, Munich
‘Artist’s Books’, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
‘Rosebuds’, D21 Kunstraum Leipzig
‘twoninethree in-residence at Luciana Brito Galeria’, São Paulo
‘Morphogenesis’, Galeria Francisco Fino, Lisbon

2016

‘Par Tibi, Roma, nihil’, Palatino archeological area, Rome
‘VI x VI Positionen zur Zukunft der Fotografie’, Landesgalerie Linz, Linz
‘… und eine Welt noch’, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg
‘Poésie Balistique’, La Verrière – Hermès Foundation, Brussels
‘This Is Your Replacement’, Sies + Höhe, Dusseldorf
‘New-Self-Portrait-Paradox’, MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38, New York

2015

‘A story within a story’, 8th Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA)
‘The day will come when photography revises’, Triennial of Photography, Kunstverein in Hamburg
‘Digital Voices’, Oxford Library and the Language Center, Oxford

2014

‘Society Acts – The Moderna Exhibition 2014’, Moderna Museet, Malmö
‘Against the grain’, Centre de la photographie, Genève
‘T293-in-residence’, Sadie Coles HQ, London
‘Un Nouveau Festival’, Centre Pompidou, Paris
‘Return Journey’, MOSTYN, Wales

2013

‘The Story Behind’, NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona
‘Lecture-Performance: New Artistic Formats, Places, Practices and Behaviours’, MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León
‘Unrest of Form. Imagining the Political Subject’, Secession, Wien
‘I knOw yoU’, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
‘The Butterfly Image’, Mudam, Luxembourg
‘Only here’, Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn

2012

‘Reactivation’, 9th Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai
‘CARA DOMANI opere dalla Collezione Ernesto Esposito’, MAMbo, Bologna
‘Storytelling as Craft’, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville
‘Ephemeropterae’, TBA21 Augarten, Vienna (performance)
‘Swans, Amputees’, Fondation Cartier, Paris (performance)
‘Searching for the fountain’, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
‘Soundworks’, ICA, London
‘Setting the Scene’, Tate Modern, London
‘OEI/Letterism’, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (performance)
‘Descriptive Acts’, San Francisco MOMA, San Francisco
‘enfolds: books I & II’, Mount Analogue, Stockholm
‘Never odd or even’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde (performance)

2011

‘Balustrade: endless tapes’, Milliken Gallery, Stockholm
Fotofestival 4, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg
‘Folk Variations’, Radar, Loughborough (performance)
‘The Other Tradition’, Wiels, Brussels
‘La Casa Encendida’, Madrid (performance)
‘Subtext Part II’, Un Projects, Melbourne
‘British Art Show 7: In the Days of the Comet’, touring; Nottingham Contemporary, Hayward Gallery, London, Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Art, and Plymouth Arts Centre

2010

‘New Frankfurt Internationals’, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt
FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Troyes
‘Fun Palace’, Centre Pompidou, Paris
‘Manifesta 8’, Murcia, Spain
‘Exhibition, Exhibition’, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli
‘Performance’, Museo Marino Marini, Florence (performance)
‘Balustrade’, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Dusseldorf (performance)
‘Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance’, Guggenheim Museum, New York (performance)
‘Finding Chopin’, performance Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (performance)
‘NineteenEightyFour’, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
‘ACT VII: Of Facts and Fables’, Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam
‘Leipzig Calendar Works’, Project Kaufhaus Joske, Leipzig (performance)
‘A Performance Cycle’, Nomas Foundation, Rome (performance)

2009

‘Lecture Performance’, Cologne Kunstverein, Cologne (performance)
‘Accecare l’ascolto / Aveugler l’ecoute / Blinding the ears’, Artissima, Turin (performance)
‘5×5 Castello 09’, Espai d’art contemporani de Castello EACC, Valencia
‘This World & Nearer Ones’, Creative Time, New York (performance)
‘Ars viva 08/09. Inszenierung / Mise en scene’, Atelier Augarten Contemporary, Wien
‘Spatial Works’, Färgfabriken, Stockholm
‘Critical applause 3: Tris Vonna-Michell’, CCA, Glasgow (performance)
‘Finding Chopin’, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
‘Art Cologne / Open Space’ (with Cabinet), London
‘The Generational: Younger than Jesus’, New Museum, New York
‘Just in the dark/Solo al buio’, Mercati di Traiano, Rome
‘The Front Room’, Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Louis
‘Ars viva 08/09. Inszenierung / Mise en scene’, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
‘The Space of Words’, Mudam Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-Due Jean, Luxembourg
‘I Repeat Myself When Under Stress’, MOCAD Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit
‘Iaspis Open House’, Iaspis, Stockholm
‘Altermodern: Tate Triennial’, Tate Britain, London
‘A spoken word exhibition’, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Gateshead, Gateshead

2008

‘Speak and Spell’, performance at Vienna Art Week, Vienna (performance)
‘Storyteller – Organizing Time and Space’, 0047, Oslo
‘Lieber Kunstler, erzahle mir!’, Kunstverein Hildesheim, Hildesheim
‘Stone-Paper-Scissors’, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU), Berlin (performance)
‘Kunst Im Heim’, Capitain Petzel, Berlin
‘Ars viva 08/09. Inszenierung / Mise en scene’, Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg
‘Bending the Word / MATRIX 226’, BAM/PFA – UC Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley
‘Time Crevasse’, Yokohama Triennial 2008, Yokohama
‘ICA:60 Past, Present and Future’, performance at ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
‘Fia Backstrom: That social space between speaking and meaning’, White Columns, New York (performance)
‘The Store’, Tulips & Roses, Vilnius
‘Experiment Marathon Reykjavik’, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik
‘Oral Culture’, performance at Jan Mot, Brussels (performance)
‘Tate Triennial 2009 Prologue 1’, Tate Britain, London (performance)
‘Self-Storage’, CCA – California College of the Arts, Metro Self Storage, San Francisco
‘Of this Tale, I cannot Guarantee A Single Word’, Royal College of Art, London
‘5th Berlin Biennial’, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

2007

‘Monumental Detours / Insignificant Fixtures’, performance at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (performance)
‘Performa 07’, The second Visual Art Performance Biennial, New York (performance)
‘Playground’, Stuk Performance Festival, Leuven
‘The Year of the Human Sciences’, performance at Hebbel am Ufer (HAU), Berlin (performance)
‘Experiment Marathon’, Serpentine Gallery, London (performance)
‘Floating Territories’, Evens Foundation, Transbiennial Project, Istanbul and Athens (performance)
‘The Present Order’, Museum de Hallen, Haarlem
‘The Moment You Realise You Are Lost’, Johann Konig, Berlin
‘Köln Show2’, European Kunsthalle, Cologne