On the 11th November 2011, the Tiefbunker under the Döppersberg in Wuppertal will open to the public to host BUNKER, a one-day Media Arts Festival curated by the performer Nusara Mai-ngarm and the musician Justin Sebastian. The WW2 Bunker chosen for the event lies under the surface of Doppelsberg, a busy shopping area and a connecting point of local transports, that is under going major plans for requalification for the near future. The invisible structure, which was built with the purpose to host a number of residents during World War Two, and that was therefore closed down with no further plans for a re-configuration of its use, will now be revitalized for the first time, by a group of local artists active on the international scene. The transdisciplinary event BUNKER is a continuation of the international Fu Festival which started in Galerie OLGA in May 2009. FU Festival opened a local artist-run space to the public, turning it into a transitory dialogic platform for experimentation with sound, moving image and performance.
Two years later, with BUNKER, the artists and curators have devised an event that opens a historical site and transforms it into a space of interaction between creative practice, architecture and local residents.

THE ARTISTS
Nusara Mai-ngarm. Curator and performance artist. DE
Originally from Bangkok, she moved to UK as a child, completing her studies in London, Chelsea College of Art and gaining a BA in Visual and Performing Arts at Brighton University in 1990. A trained dancer, she has been working as a performer for over twenty years, as soloist as well as in collaboration with other creative practitioners. She is currently working on a number of projects, including “Move Me” a Tanztheater with the mentally challeged, “Lost in Garath” a piece with 21 teenagers and a documentary on “Mor Lam”.

Justin Sebastian. Curator and musician. DE
Justin Sebastian studied jazz-trumpet at Folkwanghochschule in Essen. Between 2000 and 2003 he gained experience in Thai traditional music in Bangkok. Throughout his career he has worked independently with artists such as Peter Kowald, Geraldo Si, DJ Orson, Sebastian Gramss, Christoph Iacono, Adam Holzman, Jean Sasportes. Currently Justin Sebastian is a member of the “WIO” (Wuppertal Improvisers Orchestra) and is active in smaller formations and as a soloist in Germany.

Henrietta Hall. Video Artist. UK - Henrietta Hall is a London based video and performance artist. She graduated from Chelsea college of Art and Design in 2009. Her practice is rooted in the manipulation of codes, be they visual or otherwise, and the context within which they are presented to the viewer. At the same time her work considers how this can be applied within specific sites with specific audiences and participants. Her work has been shown internationally, as part of exhibitions and curated screenings. Her most recent projects have been shown in the UK at Barbican, Dock Street Studios, Whitechapel and Five Years Gallery, London. She took part in Fu Festival in 2009 at Galerie Olga.

Valentina Ferrandes. Video Artist and Photographer. IT/UK
After studying at Bologna University (IT) where she gained a BA in Disciplines of Art, Music and Drama, she moved to London, where she completed her studies in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. In 2008 she was selected to take part in a Residency Programme at China Academy of Art, Shanghai. Her works explore the grey areas between collective memory, social behavior and geographic and architectural locations. Through an intense process of documentary research, she creates complex poetic narratives between social history and personal memory. Between 2009 and 2011 her work has been selected for a number of prizes including Celeste Prize (IT), Salon Video Art Prize (UK), Renaissance Art Prize (IT/UK), and the Open Prize for Video Painting (UK).

Anke Büttner. Visual Artist. DE
Anke Buttner is a visual artist working predominantly with drawing and painting. She lives and works in Wuppertal.

Meieryimbou. Visual Artist. DE
are two graphic artists, based at Milkmonkey, Dusseldorf.

Stephan Machac. Visual Artist. DE
Stephan Machac works with a range of media including photography, installation and sound. His works explore issues of filmic representation in contemporary urban life. He is actively involved in the curation and presentation of independent artist works within off site project spaces. Between 2008 and 2011 he curated High Beam, Off Beam and Solar Beam, a series of live events and exhibitions in Dusseldorf.

Sandeep Mehta. Filmmaker. DE

An award winning filmmaker, Sandeep Mehta has been working with film and video since 1999. A versatile director, scriptwriter and editor, after studying at Koln Institute for New Media, he produced experimental videos for a number of musicians including Xavier Naidoo, Thomas Brinkmann, Brothers Keepers, Peter Licht, Söhne Mannheims, Erdmöbel and Gregor Meyle. Since 2007 he collaborates with Schauspielhaus Bochum, Tanzhaus NRW. His work gained the MuVi Award, at Oberhausen International Film Festival in 2003 and 2008.

Wanda Sebastian. Artist. DE
Wanda Sebastian graduated from Dusseldorf Academy of Fine Art in 2006 and has been working as an independent visual artist since then. Her sculptures, playful prop-like installations, are bold and subversive investigations of the limits of architecture’s usability.
In 2007 she received a scholarship from the Leipsien Art Foundation, Düsseldorf, where she currently lives and works.

Kai Angermann. Musician. DE
Kai Angermann is a drummer and musician based in Dusseldorf. He is a member of Wuppertaler Improvisation Orchestra and of the duo RAUM3.

Christoph Irmer. Musician. DE
After his diploma for violin at the Highschool of Music Cologne, Irmer started to play Free Improvised Music and Free Jazz. In 1992 he was a member of the improvising orchestra of the "Documenta IX" at Kassel 1994/95 he played in the project of Peter Kowald "365 days in town" and in his "Ort-Ensemble". Since 1996 he was included in a various number of projects and collaborations, so with Tony Oxley, Trevor Watts and others at the "Drumming for Africa" at Viersen, 1998 in the "Statements Quintet" with Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen, Ursel Schlicht, Hans Tammen (CD Leo Lab 054), since 2000 as a member of the jazz performance band "Supernova". From 2001 he is permanently working together with Jean Sasportes, Geraldo Si, Chrystel Guillebeaud (Dance Theatre Pina Bausch).

Andrea Haese Füsser. Architect. DE
Andrea Haese Füsser is an architect based in Dusseldorf. Open to collaborations with artists, her work explores various ways to visualize the connections between film, photography, sculpture and architecture itself, within the framework of spatial practices.

Orson Sieverding. Musician and Visual Artist. DE
Orson is an artist based in Dusseldorf and Berlin. Beyond his regular live performances as DJ Orson, his artwork has been show regularly since 2006. He was selected to take part in Media Art Biennal Seoul, Videonale, and was shortlisted for the Nam June Paik Award in 2006.

Thomas Koester. Visual Artist. DE
Thomas Koester is a young photographer and installation artist. He lives and works in Dusseldorf and Berlin.