Sandra Sterle Javastraat 42/2 1094 HJ Amsterdam tel/fax +31 20 6944311 CURRICULUM VITAE born 10.10.1965 1983 - 1985 SCHOOL OF APPLIED ART, SPLIT, CROATIA 1985 - 1989 ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, ZAGREB, CROATIA 1995 - 1996 KUNSTAKADEMIE, DUSSELDORF, GERMANY (klasse prof. Nan Hoover)

1996
WORKSHOP Mljet, Croatia

1997
SHAVE International Artist Workshop, Somerset, England
Symposium: International views of the place of the artist, Gasworks, London, UK

1996
Travel grant, Croatian film association

1996
Stichting Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1998
Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Stichting Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1995
TRANSFORMATION CULINAIRE, W 139 gallery, Amsterdam, NL
LIGHT MOVE, Edge of the war zone, London film makers co - op, London, GB
NAVIGATIONS, W 139 gallery, Amsterdam, NL
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, group exhibition, AK 47, Dusseldorf, Germany
BAZAAR, festival of pe

1996
POLYMORPHOUS PERVERSITIES, collaboration with "Cul de Sac", Steim/Vrij Media Cafe, Amsterdam, NL
CROATIAN MOVING IMAGES, On the Island, Kunstkoridorren Nadada, Copenhagen, Denemark
TRANSGRESSING BORDERS, group exhibition, Cultureel Centrum, Ter Dilft, Bornem, Belgium
ON THE ISLAND, group exhibition, MM Center, Zagreb, Croatia
RUNDGANG, group exhibition, Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, Germany

1997
GATES, group exhibition, Kunsthal Hof 88, Almelo, Netherlands
NIET DE KUNSTVLAAI, group exhibition, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam, Netherlands
LA VALEE DES TER Territories, http://mac.cicv.fr/chez/, France
SHAVE, group exhibition on site specific location, Nettlecombe, UK
VIDEOMEDEJA, videofestival, Round around, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia
Award: Best young video maker
PARK 4DTV, television broadcast Round around, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1998
ROUND AROUND, solo exhibition, Miroslav Kraljevic Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia
DEMOCRACY SHOW, group exhibition, Gate Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
CROATIAN FILM and VIDEO, group exhibition, Millenium, New York, USA
HOW TO BAKE AN AVATART, symposium, De Balie, Amster
NON PAINTERS PAINTING, group exhibition, BerlynTokyo Gallery, Berlin, Germany
VERGETEN, ZICH HERINNEREN EN WETEN, (with Dan Oki), project/exhibition, Amsterdam College, Amsterdam
POWER UP, group exhibition, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem
FESTIVAL OF NEW FILM AND VIDEO, Split, Croatia
CINEMA MEDITERANEE, Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam, NL
Sandra Sterle, solo exhibition, "Horten", Düsseldorf, Germany

1999
"Slobodna Dalmacija", "Neka krepa kustos", Ivica Zupan

1998
"Kontura", "Interwiev with Alanna Heiss", Branko Franceschi

1998
"Vrij Nederland", "Sleeping in the klass", Elma Drayer

1998
"Slobodna Dalmacija", "The Characters", Ivica Zupan

1997
"PARK 4DTV Gids", "Round Around"

1996
"Third Text", Everlyn Nicodemus

1995
"Metropolis M", "Aan Tafel", Rutger Pontzen

My work is based on the interdisciplinary research. I am investigating personal and public issues by using different media and suggesting connections between them. I offten initiate the project by performing outside of the exhibition space and than take objects I have been using while performing, photographs (taken from the actions), video (afterwards constructed piece of work) or computer (informations) into the exhibition space. Most of my latest works are structured around the concept of creating "characters". Awakened by the impulse for the search of oneīs own history, the fascinfore photo or video camera on various sights; therefore my characters are shaped through the very choice of the surrounding, covering universal aspects of society.

This way of working interests me for many different reasons. It blures the margines between the media and questions the relation between art and life.

Sandra Sterle

The Five Ch Sandra Sterle (Zadar, 1965) the author living and working in Amsterdam, has in the past continuously inserted her body into the photographs and videos, transferring and transforming it, but she was far more interested in the structure of the work, the color and the materiality of the picture, turning her body into the mere surface or a subtext for her work. Since for the past few years she has sporadically worked also in Croatia, the identity questions came into focus, the "impulse for exploring oneīs own history, the fascination about personal distinction and common self, therefore the need for recognition of the inherited, imitated and accidenal part of oneself", says S. Sterle. The multimedia exhibition "Round Around" at present in Miroslav Kraljevic Gallery, Zagreb; doesn't shows the author as somebody from the side - who creates and directs - but the leading star, the only participant, consequently the stories told are the ones talking about her characters.

This exhibition, lately oneor, dressed in the local folk costume, as if again tuned with the surrounding of her origin, waking the suppressed ethics. Wearing the same clothes she also made the performance - long running around the olive tree. The third character, of a crazy woman, she recognized in 1997 in England when she walked around a nuclear power plant wearing a plastic dress. It was again witnessed by a series of photographs. The fourth one is a photomontage where the author wears a silly red hat. The fifth, the most expressive, is met through several video-stories projected on another monitor, where the author in a Disney-like way isnīt the spiritual world of the entire planet being developed under the influenceuse mask - in a caricatured Croatian language talks about the feeling when in multicultural surroundings such as Amsterdam every demonstration of ethnic identity - the language being its chief attribute - is inappropriate. The question of identity in multicultural surroundings is being permanently suppressed or affirmed. Should we really become non-local and ubiquitous; is only English language decent. There is also the story about the generation born in 1965, without God, as suggested from Generation X, the book read when the author was on leisure on the island of Silba, as well as her childhood dream about turning all mankind into Star Trek heroes, that greatly influenced her generation.

The different characters - the recent traces of her duration in time and space, are uniting and linking in order to compose a unique picture s written from her childhood till today, some of them printed in the catalogue. The one who has the time and the ambition can dig deep while meeting Sandra Sterle.

The complexity and span of the told stories is a temptation that we can conquer with patience and concentration, but the diversity of concept Ð exhibitionīs weak point Ð is obliterated by authorīs sincerity, simplicity, candour, casualty and non-pretentiousness. What also impresses is giving up perfection and glamour when exhibiting at home, so characteristic for numerous Croatian authors who live abroad. Nevertheless, the very charm of the exhibition is attained through a remarkably sophisticated and feminine authorīs touch, not so oftenly encountered among our recent feminine manuscripts.

Ivica Zupan

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