janet grau

I thrive on collaboration and exploring language, culture, and human connection. I rarely work alone, preferring to collaborate with other creatives or create participatory projects.

Since the early 2000s, my artistic practice has focused on experimental, interdisciplinary, performance-based projects, that often involve diverse social groups and cultures. I use participatory methods to connect people outside the arts to the creative process. I have conducted several outreach activities to encourage active cultural expression among disadvantaged children and adults (not depicted on this website).

I have developed numerous participatory projects focusing on socially relevant issues that can be categorized as follows:

• Collections, archives, and cultural identity
  • M.o.M. (Mammalia ohne Mütter): Ein Pflegeprogramm
  • Rückblick / Re-Viewing
  • Pflege: Zwischen Zwangshandlung und kultureller Heldentat
  • public attic / ausgestellter speicher
  • Mal schauen! Laien wählen Kunstwerke aus dem Depot
• Access to culture / cultural heritage
  • Irmtraud Morgner Lesen. A memorial to the writer
  • Seit ich ihn gesehen – Reflexionen zu Robert Schumann in der Kunst
  • Mein lieber Schwan! Ein Wechselspiel mit Richard Wagners ‘Lohengrin’
  • Such a one (Dolce)
• Interpersonal communication and understanding
  • Freiraumnutzung. Recherchen vor Ort
  • I Think I Know What You Want to Say
  • Sag mir wo die Blumen sind. A guided tour
  • extrem interessant
  • Das LEBEN SPIELEN. A social parlour game for the neighborhood
• Intercultural spaces and conversations across genres/fields
  • Break it Down
  • Wunschbilder

Recently, I have developed the Studio for Curious Matters, the strand of my artistic practice that translates complex scientific and social questions into accessible, emotionally resonant experiences. It is a place where ideas from anywhere – philosophy, psychology, climate science, science history and everyday life – are turned into shared stories.

Working with performance, lecture-performance, installation, video and participatory formats, I create spaces where data, theory and daily experience can meet. Since 2022, I have developed projects that draw on research in neuroscience, climate science, social psychology and science history to explore how we understand the world and our role in it. These works often take the form of staged lecture-performances, guided encounters with objects and images, and interactive situations that invite audiences to think, feel and respond together.

Read more about the Studio for Curious Matters