Sophia Lökenhoff Multimedia Installation op.001 2020 Kunstverein Braunschweig ©Stefan Stark
Sophia Lökenhoff Multimedia Installation op.001 2020 Kunstverein Braunschweig ©Stefan Stark

“I dream about a future in which becoming-with others is key and not a single male hero is trying to save the world.”

Name

Sophia Lökenhoff

Profession

Multimedia Artist

Website

sophia-loekenhoff.com

Sophia Lökenhoff 2020 photographer Lexi Schnäbele
Sophia Lökenhoff 2020 photographer Lexi Schnäbele

Where are you from?

Essen

Your style in 3 words?

embodied sonic kinships

Your weakness? Your strength?

I am very involved in my projects.

Sophia Lökenhoff performing the SPELL SUIT 2019 ©Hannah Jung
Sophia Lökenhoff performing the SPELL SUIT 2019 ©Hannah Jung

 What makes you different?

In my dreams, I hear music. 

When did you decide to become an artist?

I guess I always wanted to create worlds and imagery of embodiments. My mother is an artist, so it was the most natural thing to live amongst art in my immediate surrounding. But it took some time for me to have the courage to start studying art. When I was about eleven years old, my best friend and I fabulated a whole fictional world about two witches who learned magic all by themselves. We would spend weeks playfully living in this parallel universe. Captivated by our fabulations, we drew all the characters and stories before we wrote anything down. I remember placing pen and paper on my little bed table because I had the best ideas while falling asleep (I still do that). Maybe this was my very first collaborative work of art. In the end, we both ended up in art school. 

What do you find most fascinating about your work?

Sometimes it feels like evoking a living being.

Sophia Lökenhoff Detail SPELL SUIT 2020 ©Sophia Lökenhoff
Sophia Lökenhoff Detail SPELL SUIT 2020 ©Sophia Lökenhoff

A few words about your favourite creation?

In autumn 2020 I launched the pilot piece of an ongoing multimedia performance cycle: op. {{*}} 001 at Kunstverein Braunschweig*, which marks my favorite creation so far. The three performers Stephanie Benze, Roza Pogosian, Eleni Vogiadijs form the center of the ensemble. I closely worked with Friederike Heine as the choreographer and Mona Sachße as the vocalist and music producer to compose the soundscapes. We created this beautiful safe space in which we could work with sensitivity on becoming-with others. Starting to create this transversal genealogy and proposing possible futures of sympoiesis in the middle of Covid has been challenging but in a wafting state of constant becoming and passing; a three- to nine-headed-entity, the multi-limbed and pliable being IAGA was created. *(Meisterschüler_innen der HBK Braunschweig: I’m Not Always Where My Body Is – Kunstverein Braunschweig)

Someone else’s work that inspired or inspires you…

That is something that is always evolving, shifting. At the beginning of art school, I was fascinated by films from Andrej Tarkowskij, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Matthew Barney. Since I found my artistic vocabulary, I started drawing more and more inspiration from writers, like Ursula K. Le Guin, Donna J. Haraway, and Paul B. Preciado.

Who would you like to work with someday and why?

With Robotic engineers – I have some vivid ideas for autonomous applications, to enlarge the field of prosthesis. I would love to work on moving sculptures that interact with the human body in live performances. 

Sophia Lökenhoff Detail SPELL SUIT 2020 ©Sophia Lökenhoff
Sophia Lökenhoff Detail SPELL SUIT 2020 ©Sophia Lökenhoff

“I am interested in generating narratives through performative imagery.”

A new project coming up or an idea you want to work on?

I will continue my work on the multimedia performance cycle op. {{*}} 001 – 005 that deals with constantly changing circumstances, and transitions of the fabulated figure called IAGA. The first edition op. {{I am looking for the face I had before this world was made}} 001 carried out the general idea of becoming-with others by creating sympoiesis (cf. Haraway). In this year’s edition op. {{it matters wherehow ouroboros swallows its tale, again.}} 002 I will focus on the conflicts of being in sympoiesis. I am interested in generating narratives through performative imagery. Mediated through performance, sculptural settings, costumes, objects, voices, operatic singing, and soundscapes. This holistic web allows me to propose somatic modes of perception – inviting the audience into a world outside our usual time-space continuum, in which somatic levels of understanding can unfold. 

Finish the sentence „More important than my career is…“

Staying true to my artistic practice.

2021: Where are we going?

Amidst the biggest challenges worldwide like the threats of right-wing parties gaining more and more power – good question! 

Sophia Lökenhoff Fire Fountain Diploma Show the fire of iaga 2019 ©Seth Erik
Sophia Lökenhoff Fire Fountain Diploma Show the fire of iaga 2019 ©Seth Erik

When the going gets tough…

I try to breathe consciously and allow myself to stay soft, touched, and sensitive. While taking a walk in nature I am aware of how my feet touch the ground. 

Put on your future vision glasses: What direction is our generation moving in, what will our world look like in 50 years?

I dream about a future in which becoming-with others (cf. Haraway) is key and not a single male hero is trying to save the world. I strongly believe in Anohnis’s words in future feminism“We don’t have a chance on this planet unless we move into feminist ways of governance.” To be able to live in 50 years we must stay with the trouble, accept that we’re living on a damaged planet, and invest in healing .

What would you do if you could change the World?

Spoken by Ursula K. Le Guin: Stop telling the overproduced killer story and start telling the life story. Changes in the way of telling the story could transform our life stories and dissolve this patriarchic world into a queer flourishing safe space where each body is equally honored and valued. 

If the universe is everything and it’s expanding, what is it expanding into?

In an endless bag full of stars. 

Tell us about your future plans…

Orienting myself in my new surroundings. I just moved to Berlin, and into a studio in Weißensee, which is super exciting! While I am in the middle of preparing the second edition op. {{*}} 002, which will launch this summer as a solo show in Halle267, the municipal gallery of Brunswick* there are a lot of ideas that want to be manifested until then.

Your city’s favourite spots?

Outside the studio, I really like this park that used to be a graveyard. 

Last but not least: what is your favourite Song?

Tricky! Atm all sound pieces by Beatriz Ferreyra are very inspiring to me.

One last statement please: „Wood or stone, gold or art?“

stone and art

Your #…?

@____iaga #sophialökenhoff #sophialoekenhoff