Anton Kats
Anton Kats (r. 1983 Kherson, Ukraine) is an artist, musician and dancer.
Currently based on Earth.
Anton’s practice derives from informal everyday relationships within a vibrant neighbourhood in Kherson, Ukraine and is complemented through necessity and pragmatics of self-legalisation in Europe via entering formal institutions of education. After attending masters programmes in Art in Context at the University of Arts Berlin and Interactive Media: Critical Theory and Practice at Goldsmiths College, Kats finalised his studies through a practice-based PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2016 Kats was invited to join the aneducation team of documenta14 as an artist where he has initiated the Narrowcast House and the A-Letheia projects.
Developing practice-driven research projects, Kats explores ambiguity of art practice as a question of agency and intentionality and develops site-specific work engaging with structures of self-organisation, self-education, marginalised people and the non-normative. Embracing music and art performance, dance, and theater his practice reveals the various forms of learning necessary to generate critical and practical knowledge in the everyday and departs from art practice as a form of investigation. Collaboratively developing learning platforms by the means of Radio and Film his work addresses site-related processes from within of the group and is driven by the context of diverse practitioners. Amongst others he has been working with non-governmental organizations in St. Petersburg, Berlin, Kingston and London developing artistic interventions, programs and exhibitions together with the residents of the cities margins. Kats’s goal is to explore the potential of collaboration within formal and informal social structures and to jointly develop useful methods that enable to independently take action.
Kats is a lecturer and educator with an experience of developing experimental academic curricula with the Weissensee School of Art, Berlin and was a lecturer of Contextual Studies at the Ravensbourne University in London and a guest lecturer at the New York University and the Goldsmiths University of London. His works have been exhibited and performed in venues including the SAVVY Contemporary, Serpentine Galleries, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum, the Showroom Gallery, Bergen Kunsthall, Kochi Muziris Biennale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt and at the documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel.
Selected Publications:
Designing for Health & Wellbeing: Home, City, Society. Ed. Graham Cairns. Vernon Press 2019.
aneducation – documenta14. Archive Books, Berlin. 2018
For a Walk With: Dementia in the City. Serpentine Galleries, London. 2016
Sound Space Downtown: Workbook and User Manual. Studio 174, Kingston Jamaica / London UK. 2015
Selected Interviews:
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
Selected Grants and Awards 2019 – 2020:
Research Grant Fine Art (2021) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Presentation of Contemporary Art Award (2020) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Research Grant Fine Art (2020) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Project Grant ILYICH (2020) Musikfonds e.V., Minister of State for Culture and the Media, Berlin
Artist Residency Grant Fine Art New York (2019 – 2020) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Education:
2014-2017 PhD Goldsmiths University, Goldsmiths University of London
2011-2013 MA Interactive Media: Critical Theory and Practice, Goldsmiths University of London
2010-2011 MA Kunst im Kontext, Gasthörer, UDK, Berlin
Selected Projects
2022
Grounded Outer Space People, – Gallery Wedding, Berlin, Germany (upcoming)
Transmigration Library, – Gallery Wedding, Berlin, Germany (upcoming)
It is all an open sectret, – H.K.W. – House of World’s Cultures, Berlin, Germany (upcoming)
Concrete Listening Show – Refugee Worldwide Radio (ongoing), Berlin
If not now, when? – Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark
2021
Grounded Outer Space People, – Kulturbraurei, Berlin, Germany
Borealis Festival for Experimental Music – MÆKUR, Bergen, Norway
Radio Crystal – Zone2Source, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2020
Vostok 7 – SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
Sound Crystal – SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
Pre-Formance – Deutsches Haus, New York University, New York, US
MÆKUR – Sonic Acts, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Four Before and After Five – ISCP, New York, US
2019
Radio Amateur Ensemble – Helicotrema Festival, Venice, Italy
ILYICH:AND – Flaneur Festival, HKW (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Berlin, Germany
MÆKUR – Lighthouse, Brighton, UK
Radio Stilts – HKW (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Berlin, Germany
Your Craft – Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Radio Amateur Ensemble – Goethe Institute, Minneapolis, US
2018
MÆKUR – Bergen Kunsthall, Norway
After Joy – Muziris Biennalle, Goethe Institute Bangalore, bangaloREsidency at Pepper House, Kochi, India
Radio Stilts – Radiophonic Spaces, HKW (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Berlin, Germany
Mittlungsradio – 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Radio Pedio – Park Fables by Chto Delat & Anton Kats, Commissioned and produced by: Onassis Cultural Center/ Fast Forward Festival 5, Curator: Katia Arfara, Athens, Greece
ILYICH – Concrete Listening, Kherson, Ukraine
Tourist – Journeys Festival International, Leicester, UK
2017
Narrowcast House – Open Radio Studio, Listening Space. documenta14, Kassel, Germany
A-Letheia – Social Sculpture, Site of Learning. documenta14, Athens, Greece
Radio Sound System – Sonic Sculpture, Mobile Radio Station. documenta14, Kassel, Germany
Terminal – documenta14, Kassel, Germany
Giant Steps – documenta14, Kassel and Athens
Another Continuum – documenta14, Athens, Greece
Place of 100 Places – documenta14, Kassel, Germany
2016
Narrowcast Radio – Tate Modern, London, UK.
For a Walk With: Dementia in the City – The Serpentine Galleries, London, UK.
Take Over: FFTV Gallery as a Neighbourhood Model – The Showroom Gallery. London
Site – Sonic Acts Academy. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The Shipyard Take Over – The Alternativa 2016: Damage and Los. Gdansk, Poland.
Radio Sound System – Studio 174, Kingston, Jamaica.
Unwritten Handbook – Serpentine Galleries, London, UK.
2015
Sound Space Downtown: Workbook and User Manual – Studio 174, London, Kingston, Jamaica.
Artistic Research as Pedagogy – Goldsmiths College. London, UK
Sound Space Downtown – Studio 174, Kingston, Jamaica.
Sound Alphabet – Studio 174, Kingston, Jamaica
Corridor Residency – Westmead Elderly Resource Centre, The Serpentine Galleries, London, UK
For a walk with… – Westmead Elderly Resource Centre, The Serpentine Galleries, London, UK
Fourth Feathers TV – The Showroom Gallery and Fourth Feathers Community Centre, London, UK
Radio Delo – Displaced Film Festival, Berlin, Germany
Radio Delo – Alternativa Art Festival, Gdansk, Poland
2014
Sound Space Downtown, research space (ongoing), Studio 174, Openvizor, Kingston, Jamaica
ABC of Sound, publication, Openvizor, Kingston Jamaica, London UK
Radio Sonar (ongoing) Serpentine Gallery, London
For a walk with…, (ongoing) Edgware Road Project, Serpentine Gallery, London
Fourth Feathers TV, (ongoing) the Showroom Gallery and Fourth Feathers Community Centre, London
2013
For a walk with…, (ongoing) Edgware Road Project, Serpentine Gallery, London
Fourth Feathers TV, (ongoing) the Showroom Gallery, as Part of re-projecting London
Stops in motion, V&A Museum, Sackler Centre Digital Studio, London
One Eye Closed, Photography, Goldsmiths College, London
Character Research Tool, Centre for Possible Studies, Serpentine Gallery, London
Radio SO.N.A.R., (ongoing) Centre for Possible Studies, Serpentine Gallery, London
Greenlight Filmclub, (ongoing) OpenVizor, London
Berta, photography, video, Berlin
To learn what you know, workshops, Goldsmith College, London
2012
Cycling Antenna, moving installation, workshops, Goldsmith College, London
Serpentine Gallery, Butter, Chicago Boys (initiated Hiwa K.) performance, London
Royal College of Art, Chicago Boys (initiated Hiwa K.) performance, London
Snowflake, new media, Goldsmith College, London
Radio Delo, video
Becoming surplus value, video
2011
Radio Delo, photography
Group Affinity, Chicago Boys (initiated Hiwa K.) performance, summer school Kunstverein Muenchen,
Munich
Systemchange Studygroup with Claudia Hummel and Anneta Krauss, Berlin
Alternativa, Participant at Art-Festival, Gdansk, Poland,
Butter, Chicago Boys (initiated Hiwa K.) performance, photography, New Gallery, London
V Krugu HipHopa, music tour in St.Petersburg and N.Nowogorod, with adolescent young People from Berlin,
Goethe Institute St.Petersburg, Gangway e.V
A Chto Delat?’s 48 hours Seminar-Commune and Learning Play “Where has Communism Gone?”. Smart Project Space, Amsterdam.
Tourist, Photography
2010
Chicago Boys: While We Were Singing They Were Dreaming, ongoing performance and research project initiated by Hiwa K., Serpentine, London
Legal Leben, exhibition with former detained adolescents, Archiv der Jungedkulturen, Gangway e.V., Berlin
Dimitry Vilensky was ist zu tun?, video discussion with Dimitry Vilensky (Chto Delat?) about forms of
self-organisation and self-education of an artist
Blohina Street 18, anthropological video research about Lenins thesis on communal living
2009
Estrangement Project, Gdansk/London/Berlin “Kolja and Dasha”, Showroom London, documentary project, St. Petersburg
Top 9 Russian Breaking Foundation, documentary film, St. Petersburg
2008
A Walk with a Hat, choreography for the Circus Upsala, St. Petersburg
Meeting of Styles, documentary film, Graffiti Festival, Mainz
Act Bloom, performance
2007
Die Füchsin, short film, storyboard
Curiouserfilms, video research, film production company
Japan Ska. Kultur und Globalisierung, documentary film.
2006
The Skaliners, music arrangement and artistic support during Japan tour of the band