Artist Statement

Viktor Brim (b. 1987, Tashkent, Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic) is an artist and filmmaker working across film and video installation. His work examines how landscapes and infrastructures are shaped by extraction, circulation and ownership, and by the images through which they are conceived and organised. Moving through mining regions, salt flats, logistics sites, speculative architecture and data centres, he traces how political and economic decisions take material form and continue to shape places as their uses and ownership change. Working from sustained field and archival research, Brim combines filmed observation with digital modelling, reconstruction and simulation. He adapts imaging techniques from surveying, remote sensing and architectural visualisation, examining how images participate in measuring, valuing and transforming places. The shifts between recorded and constructed spaces make the conditions of seeing part of the inquiry. Long takes, precise framing and sound bring industrial rhythms into contact with the continuing transformations of matter. His work attends to materials as they move, accumulate and change beyond the timescales of their economic use. His installations give these relationships a spatial form, using screens, light and industrial materials to shape the viewer’s movement, orientation and sense of scale. Recent work extends this inquiry through fiction, exploring how systems of classification might shape perception, attention and inner life. His long-term project Shifting Sands investigates the emerging infrastructures of the Digital Silk Road in Central Asia in relation to Soviet histories of surveying, resource extraction and territorial planning.

Education

2015–2019

  • Postgraduate studies with Prof. Matthias Müller and Prof. Mischa Kuball, diploma with distinction, Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), DE

2011–2015

  • BA Feature Film and Television, Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Potsdam, DE

2009–2011

  • Studies in Media Art, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB), DE

Grants, Awards, Scholarships & Residencies

2026

  • Research and working scholarship, Kunststiftung NRW, DE

2025

  • Artistic commission (Planetary Peasants), Werkleitz Festival, Halle, DE

2024

  • Human Machine Fellowship, Academy of Arts, Berlin, DE

2023

  • Production funding, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, DE
  • Junges Kolleg, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, Düsseldorf, DE
  • Artistic commission (Mein Schatz), Werkleitz Festival, Halle, DE

2022

  • Artistic commission (Mehr oder Weniger), Werkleitz Festival, Halle, DE
  • Scholarship, DAAD, DE
  • Art Mentoring Program, LabK, Aachen, DE
  • Research scholarship, Stiftung Kunstfonds, DE

2021

  • Research and working scholarship, Deutscher Künstlerbund, DE

2020

  • Research and working scholarship, Kunststiftung NRW, DE
  • Best European Short Film Award, Szczecin Film Festival, PL
  • Scholarship, Baker Tilly, DE
  • Artist in residence, Filmbüro Düsseldorf, DE
  • Research and working scholarship for visual arts, City of Cologne, DE
  • Artist in residence, Atelier Galata, Istanbul, TR

2019

  • Artist in residence, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, DE

2018

  • Artist in residence, Light Cone (Atelier 105), Paris, FR
  • Special mention, Best Experimental Film, Zsigmond Vilmos Film Festival, Szeged, HU
  • Ferchau Art of Engineering Award, DE
  • Project grant, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, DE

2016

  • Project grant, BKM, DE

2015

  • Nomination, German Short Film Award, BKM, DE

Screenings & Exhibitions

2026

  • Infrastructures of Care, Mesh Festival, CH
  • Tingling Earth. Schauer unter der Haut der Erde, Künstler*innenhaus Dortmund, DE
  • Weltbilder im Wandel. Landschaften von Arkadien bis Anthropozän, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Oldenburg, DE
  • THE END (It’s About New Beginnings), Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, DE
  • Encounters, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, Düsseldorf, DE
  • The sky is a singing swarm, Idyll, Cologne, DE

2025

  • Encounters, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, Düsseldorf, DE
  • Mensch Maschine: Return to Earth, E-WERK Luckenwalde, DE
  • Planetary Peasants, Werkleitz Festival, Halle, DE
  • Planetary Peasants, Schafhof – European Art Forum Upper Bavaria, Freising, DE
  • Planetary Peasants, Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle, DE
  • Videonale, Kunstmuseum Bonn, DE
  • Binding References. On (re)Framing Narratives, Barın Han, Istanbul, TR
  • From Debris to Sediment: Unearthing Imperial Geology, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art / Cine K, Oldenburg, DE
  • The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, DE
  • The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes, Abendspaziergang, Bielefeld, DE

2024

  • Beyond the Depths, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), BEsolo
  • European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, DE
  • International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, DE
  • The Coming Commonality, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, CN
  • With One’s Own Eyes, Goethe-Institut, Tbilisi, GE
  • Buried Secrets, Freies Werkstatt Theater, Cologne, DE
  • Ribalta Experimental Film Festival, Modena, IT
  • Encounters, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, Düsseldorf, DE
  • Filmlab, Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf, DE

2023

  • Not a Map But a Trace: Former Soviet Land Reclaimed, Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, NL
  • Live Soundtrack Festival, Belgrade, RS
  • Mein Schatz, Werkleitz Festival, Halle, DE
  • Surreal Futures, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, DE
  • Ecosystem Assembly, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, LU
  • Luxembourg City Film Festival, LU
  • FILE – Electronic Language International Festival, São Paulo, BR
  • Dark Matter, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, DE
  • democraseum, Izmir, TR

2022

  • DON’T KNOW WHY, Ortloff, Leipzig, DE
  • Tbilisi Art Fair, GE
  • Mehr oder Weniger, Werkleitz Festival, Halle, DE
  • Exfilmforum, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, DE
  • Dark Matter, KIRIK, Istanbul, TR
  • Are you sure you want to leave?, art quarter budapest, HU
  • Sheets of Papers Land on the Grass, Unlimited Editions, Istanbul, TR

2021

  • Kurz und Gut, WDR, DE
  • Dark Matter (Exopoiesis), aCinema, Milwaukee, US
  • Precious Strata, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, ES
  • Ecologies of Industry, Pleasure Dome, Toronto, CA
  • Becoming Unreal, Walzwerknull, Düsseldorf, DE
  • Bogotá Experimental, CO
  • UNDERDOX International Film Festival, Munich, DE
  • Abendspaziergang, Bielefeld, DE
  • Dark Matter, Ortloff, Leipzig, DE
  • International Image Festival, Manizales, CO
  • Images Festival, Toronto, CA
  • International Short Film Week Regensburg, DE
  • Ostrale, Dresden, DE
  • Karşı Bir Şey, Barın Han, Istanbul, TR
  • Senkron Festival, Istanbul, TR
  • Videonale, Kunstmuseum Bonn, DE
  • Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, FR

2020

  • International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, DE
  • Videorama, Werkleitz Festival, Halle, DE
  • Szczecin Film Festival, PL
  • KFFK – Short Film Festival Cologne, DE
  • International Short Film Festival Hamburg, DE
  • International Short Film Week Regensburg, DE
  • European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, DE
  • OFF-Biennale, Budapest, HU
  • Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, FR
  • The 68th Program, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, JP
  • das weisse haus, Vienna, AT
  • out of KHM, KIT – Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf, DEdegree show
  • Possessed Landscapes, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, DE

2019

  • European Festival dokumentART, Neubrandenburg, DE
  • Un Jour Nouveau, Michael Horbach Stiftung, Cologne, DE
  • Grenzland-Filmtage, Selb, DE
  • Horn Festival, Jerusalem, IL
  • Art Cologne, DE
  • China International New Media Short Film Festival, Shenzhen, CN
  • Raum Vier, Cologne, DE

2018

  • Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival, TR
  • Hof International Film Festival, DE
  • motionartfilm, Schwerte, DE
  • KFFK – Short Film Festival Cologne, DE
  • Art Düsseldorf, DE
  • Horn Festival, Jerusalem, IL
  • Transition, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin, DE
  • Unseen Amsterdam, NL
  • Festival du Film Court en Plein Air de Grenoble, FR
  • International Short Film Festival Hamburg, DE
  • Urban Nomad Film Fest, Taipei, TW
  • Faroff, Cologne, DE
  • Art Cologne, DE
  • European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, DE
  • Video Art Festival Turku, FI
  • Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo, JP
  • The W:OW Art Film & Video Festival, Madrid, ES
  • Zsigmond Vilmos Film Festival, Szeged, HU
  • Mediawave International Film and Music Festival, Szombathely, HU
  • Cheers for Fears Festival, Düsseldorf, DE
  • Thai Short Film & Video Festival, Bangkok, TH
  • Art Gallery of St. Albert, CA
  • Düsseldorf Photo, Alte Kämmerei, DE

2017

  • Tehran International Short Film Festival, IR
  • China International New Media Short Film Festival, Shenzhen, CN
  • Hof International Film Festival, DE
  • freiburger film forum, DE
  • Nordbecken Festival, Karlsruhe, DE
  • Open Source Festival, Düsseldorf, DE
  • contemporary art ruhr (C.A.R.), Essen, DE
  • urban stage, Bayer Kultur, Leverkusen, DE
  • Ausstellung Ehrenfeld, Cologne, DE

2016

  • Wir wollen mal nicht übertreiben, Projektraum im Kunstwerk, Cologne, DE
  • Molodist International Film Festival, Kyiv, UA
  • achtung berlin film festival, DE
  • Cinemateca de Curitiba, BR
  • Museu de Arte Murilo Mendes, Juiz de Fora, BR
  • Cine Joia, Rio de Janeiro, BR
  • Sesc Palladium, Belo Horizonte, BR
  • Festival Curta Brasília, BR
  • OBENKINO, Cottbus, DE
  • Cinema & Kurbelkiste, Münster, DE
  • Kamino, Reutlingen, DE
  • Lichtblick-Kino, Berlin, DE
  • Uferpalast, Fürth, DE
  • Kellerperle, Würzburg, DE
  • PALETTE-Filmkunsttheater, Marburg, DE
  • Lichtburg, Oberhausen, DE

2015

  • International Short Film Festival Hamburg, DE
  • Unabhängiges FilmFest Osnabrück, DE
  • Konstanzer kurz.film.spiele, DE
  • Filmideo, Index Art Center, Newark, US
  • The Unstitute (online)

2013

  • Subversion, Essential Existence Gallery, Leipzig, DE

2012

  • Junge Kunst, Galerie Kleindienst, Leipzig, DE

2011

  • nicht schwarz nicht weiss, Villa Hasenholz, Leipzig, DE

Talks & Lectures

2025

  • Panel discussion, Human Machine Symposium: Soil, Sound, Memory, Academy of Arts, Berlin, DE
  • Jury member, Bremen Documentary Film Prize, Filmbüro Bremen, DE
  • Artist talk, Becoming Unreal, Videonale, Kunstmuseum Bonn, DE
  • Lecture, From Debris to Sediment: Unearthing Imperial Geology, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, DE

2023

  • Panel discussion, Digital Parasites, with Anna Holms and Loisa Behr, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, DE
  • Artist talk, Surreal Futures: Dark Matter, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, DE
  • Artist talk, The Cavity on the Inside, Novalis Museum Wiederstedt / Werkleitz Festival, DE

2022

  • Lecture, Exfilmforum, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, DE
  • Artist talk, Geontopower, Werkleitz Festival, Halle, DE

2021

  • Lecture, Think Tanks for Future: Envisioning Global Citizenship in the Era of New Materialism, with Prof. Dr. Manja Stephan-Emmrich, Humboldt University Berlin, DE
  • Artist talk, Ecologies of Industry, with Matt Thompson and Shahbaz Khayambashi, Pleasure Dome / Ontario Public Interest Research Group, Toronto, CA
  • Panel discussion, Rethinking Agency in the Anthropocene, with Dr. Joanna Page and Vanina Saracino, Videonale, Kunstmuseum Bonn, DE
  • Interview, Objects and Artifacts, Light Cone, Paris, FR

2020

  • Artist talk, Possessed Landscapes, with Edit Molnar and Marcel Schwierin, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, DE