Philipp Modersohn's sculptures, animated films, and interdisciplinary projects highlight the vibrancy of things and matter. By confronting these with man-made structures and systems of social organization, he questions the division between biology and geology, life and non-life, and the resulting hierarchy of forms of existence. The non-human actors appear as alien and emancipated: In the video work a reporting rock, a stone has to respond to questions from an immigration officer; in Stone Trek, drill cores develop a life of their own at daylight; and in the fountain-like Autonomous Algae Plant, microalgae are brought into negotiations about their harmful bloom. In the short film Convict Concrete (work-in-progress, with Kasia Fudakowski), concrete is sued within a fictional courtroom drama.
After studying art at UdK Berlin and Columbia University New York, Philipp Modersohn currently lives and works in Berlin. He had solo exhibitions at Oldenburger Kunstverein (cement & weather, 2016) and Galerie Guido W. Baudach in Berlin (e.g., attitudes of heat, 2020), among others. Participation in group shows, including ones at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Kunstverein Göttingen, Stiftung Planetarium Berlin, and, upcoming in the summer of 2022, at Lantz'scher Skulpturenpark Düsseldorf.
From April to June 2022, Philipp Modersohn is resident artist in the program Zu Gast bei Urbane Künste Ruhr in Dortmund.
