Alexandra Ungern is a Brazilian artist, daughter of immigrant parents from Germany and Hungary. She was born in Recife in the state of Pernambuco, but as a child her family settled back in São Paulo. Initially trained as a teacher, she decided to start her artistic studies in 2002, and has been dedicated as a visual artist since then.

Alexandra has always expressed her desire to collaborate with fellow artists and curators in a project space. With this motivation, in 2012 she founded the Espaço de Arte Ateliê Alê, in São Paulo, Brazil, an Artspace open to the public, enabling knowledge and access to contemporary art. Alexandra is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish and German.

ARTIST´S STATEMENT

There is a need to seek answers and ask questions on topics that involve my daily life. My artistic research explores experiences related to memory, life and finitude. I am interested in establishing connections between stories from the past and current events, revealing the scars of something that no longer exists indicating physical transformations that occur over time. My multidisciplinary practice incorporates drawing, photography, painting, video and installation.

“Drawing, object, assemblage, photography, video and painting draw a broad panorama of the artist’s research and poetic universe, whose central theme is matter, in its permanence or ephemerality, in its changing nature and derives. A reflection on memory that shows a concern about time, life, its finitude and transformation.” Claudinei Roberto da Silva / Brazilian Curator

ACERCA DE FRONTERA

This was my first residency in Project ´ace’s online, and it was very different other experiences I had. In my case, a residency, that you are physically present, brings an immersion in the cultural context of the country and develop artistic thoughts and works that reflect this cultural contact.

´ace provided the possibility for an interpersonal interaction with artists from around the world talking and discussing a common theme simultaneously. The result was unexpected for me, as I was thinking of going ahead with some research of my own.

It was quite surprising how this experience opened a new research path through digital means of communication. Me and Isabel, my group partner, are thinking of following this online exchange and work more intensively on what we started on ´ace research. This collaboration and this virtual contact taught me that it is possible to work in this way and that the results can be quite exciting.