LOT 109
| Technique | Photography |
| Size | 30 x 30 cm |
| Availability | Available |
| Donation | 50% |
This photograph is one of twelve production stills from Karen Russo’s 16mm film TET-Stadt, which takes the viewer on a journey through a deserted city of pharaohs. It’s actually a recreation of a model of a 1917 Egyptian-themed urban project, conceived by the German biscuit manufacturer Hermann Bahlsen and designed by the Expressionist artist Bernhard Hoetger. Seamlessly interwoven with Russo’s footage are shots of Egyptian structures from a propaganda film from 1939 which proposed that the pyramids were of Germanic origin. In its mix of references to different periods, the film reflects on a state of a social consciousness in transit between a lost past and utopian future.
About Karen Russo
Karen Russo (b. 1974, Tel-Aviv) is an artist based in London. Russo’s work uses document and narrative in an exploration of how knowledge, perception, and culture intertwine the rational with the obscure. By tracing marginalized practices, obscure phenomena and esoteric forms of knowledge she addresses the legacy of transgressive means for understanding the unseen and the unknown.
Russo’s work has been exhibited in venues including Barbican Centre; Hayward Gallery; Tate Modern; Towner Eastbourne; Delfina; Kino Kino Centre for Contemporary Art, Sandnes; Busan Biennial; Große Kunstschau Museum, Worpswede; Haus der Kulturen Der Welt, HKW Berlin; Krefeld Museum, Krefeld; Tel-Aviv Museum, Tel-Aviv; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; CCA Tel-Aviv, Hertzliya Museum, Petach-Tikva Museum and more.
Her films have been screened in festivals such as Oberhausen, Ann Arbor, EMAF, Uppsala, Kassell to name a few.
Recent awards include: Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2025; Special Mention Award, Oberhausen Film Festival, 2021; Ostrovsky Family Award for Best Experimental Film, Jerusalem Film Festival, 2021, Award for an Established Video Artist, Ministry of Culture, 2018; She is a Film London Jarman Award Nominee, 2023.
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