Peter Behrbohm explores future conflicts and utopian societies through collaborative, site-specific and context-based research. His works are surgical interventions in public spaces, routines and discourses, often aiming at revealing the constructedness of realities and demonstrating the possibilities of alternative forms of coexistence.
After interdisciplinary studies at University of the Arts Berlin and the Royal Technical Institute Stockholm, Peter received his diploma degree in architecture at UdK. Among others, he has been granted the «BDA-SARP Award» (2014) for the best German graduation project, the «MAK Schindler Scholarship Los Angeles» (2018) given by the Museum of Applied Art / Contemporary Art Vienna and the «Elsa Neumann Scholarship»(2015-16). 2022-23 he received the «AI Anarchies Fellowship» of Akademie der Künste Berlin, 2019-20 he was invited to Berlin's «Forecast Festival» by Mentor Jerszy Seymour while he is currently fellow of the European «LINA programme».
«Transformator», «Fahnenflucht», «Verberge», «Bank» and many other works are implanting alternative realities in everyday life. The cinematic portrait «Kobuto» (2016) about a highrise, its architect and his road cruiser was screened and awarded on film festivals and architecture conferences internationally. Slowly, the urban interventions grew into complex site specific performances, orchestrated with made up companies or institutions, vehicles, premises and personell, such as «Habbakuk»(2018) and «Urban Cosmetics»(2023, with Anton Steenbock as SONDER) or «Walhalla2» (2018), «Frankfurt New Delphi»(2020), the «Emission Evidence Center», «Feed the Rich» and «Orangerie der Fürsorge» as «PARA International» ). On his search for alternative modes of coexistence, Peter is conducting extensive research that leads him to projects understood as case studies for upcoming societies. «The Technate», follows the traces of the Technocrat movement to the origins of the Internet while «Total.Earth» looks after the Cosmists and the short-lived science of Tektology, both highly influential prior to the October revolution. Based on these ideas, «Total.Earth» is released as a divine socialist app. «Berge Versetzen» tries to restitute the peak of Mt.Kilimanjaro that was stolen by a German in 1889. To buy back the peak that we traced back to a antique dealer in Vienna, we turn the ethnological museum of Leipzig into a stone pit. In a production line, the very institution is turned into dust from which visitors produce replicas of the mountain top that are sold as «Scruples» to buy back the actual peak.
Hand drawings play a major role in his work as they prepare the projects in countless leporello strips. On the website excerpts from these drawings fly over texts, pictures and videos, refering to drawn parallel realities.
Collaborations:
SONDER is an amoebic company, offering tools to refine conflicts. It was found by Peter Behrbohm and Anton Steenbock in 2008. Peter is a co-founder of PARA, an artist group questioning phenomena of globalization and politics of memory in an interdisciplinary, research-based manner and with performative means. In 2020 Peter found the Institute for Sessile Studies in Halle (Saale) that is since publishing the Encyclopædia on specialized Sitting. His label UnitedErrors produces objects and spaces for potential barricades that are released in limited editions. Additionally, Peter is co-founder of the design collective UND.STUDIO.
Teaching:
Since 2020, Peter as been teaching at Technical University Berlin and Berlin University of the Arts. Besides he has been invited for lectures, talks and screenings to Bartlett School of Architecture London, Burg Giebichenstein, EPFL Lausanne, Palm Springs Film Festival, Istanbul Architecture Film Festival, Triennale Milano, ArqFilmFest Chile, Sandberg Institutem, LINA Conference Sarajevo ...
Follow:
@peter_behrbohm @para_international @flyingholes
@sonder.solutions @und.studio @unitederrors (...)
Contact:
post [at] peterbehrbohm.net
