cv / Bio - Hilary Koob-Sassen

HILARY KOOB-SASSEN
Neither humanist nor determinist, but definitely one of the errorists, Koob-Sassen's
multi-media proposals navigate a specific path of optimism between multiple fields of
inquiry. Core lyrical equations in the terrains of aesthetics, economics, biology and
philosophy engineer the anatomy of changing figures in a changing landscape. Through
this sculptural theatre of life in time, Koob-Sassen drags his camera, singing the
adventures of human culture. Gathering a bouquet of language games, theories,
techniques and characters, his songs, performances and films, take excursions into the
model. His radical techniques in steel and marble sculpture illuminate the driving
inquiry of his practice:“what shall we build?”His recently completed feature film
Faith and Ratio (aka Transcalar Investment Vehicles) can be understood as a complex
answer to the complex question facing the west and the world:“what form of
stimulus?”To establish traction amidst great slipperiness, the bigger the error the better.
1975 –New York, US
Lives and works in London, UK
Awards/Shortlists
2011 – Film London, Flamin production grant
2011 – Short-list for the Jarman Award
2010 – Short-list for the Tanner Sculpture Prize
2005 - Short-list for the ZKM Medien Kunst Preis
1997 – Sudler Prize, Yale University
Residencies
2011 –The Institute of Beyond, Wysing Arts Center, Cambridgeshire
2011, 2007, 2003 - ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
2009 – The Serpentine Gallery, London
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2012 – Transcalar Investment Vehicles preview bscreening, Q&A with Stuart Comer,
Film London and FLAMIN Production, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2009 – The Syntax Octopus: A changing one month performative and interactive
songwriting experiment amidst an installation of sculpture and drawings, Artist in
Residency at the Serpentine Gallery, London
2009 – The Errorists: Faith In Infrastructure, curated by Victoria Brooks, Sketch
Gallery, London
2007 – Gaia Made It Popular, And Now The Errorists Are Here With New Vernacular,
T1+2 Gallery, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2012 – Mannerist Bollards permanent installation and The Starry Rubric Set, Wysing
Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire
2011 – LSD, Noblese Oblige and Atomic Power in Transcalar Investment Vehicles,
Jarman Award Shortlist Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2011 – Faith in Exponential, More Soup and Tart, curated by Rosie Cooper, Barbican
Theatre, London
2011 – LSD, Noblese Oblige and Atomic Power in Transcalar Investment Vehicles,
part of Seeing in the Dark, curated by Sam Watson, Adam Phillips and Steven Ball,
Circa Projects, Newcastle
2011 –Narration Strategy with 7 Harps, part of Sounds & Words, curated by Rosie
Cooper, Barbican Art Gallery, London
2011 – Merz World: Yona Friedman & Tomas Saraceno, curated by Adrain Nutz and

Maurizio Bortolotti, Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich
2010 –The Errorists: Gardener's Songs, part of Be Glad The Song Has No End,
curated by Andy Holden, Wysing Arts Center, Cambridgeshire
2010 – The Errorists: Chansons De Jardinage, Espace Doll, Lausanne, Switzerland
2009 – Faith In Infrastructure, Transverse, IDA Projects, curated by Stephen Danzig
and Lubi Thomas, Zaim Artspace Yokohama, Japan – Beijing Film Academy, China
– Queensland University of Technology
2009 – Faith in Infrastructure, The 2nd Athens Biennale, Heaven, curated by Diana
Baldon, Greece
2008 – An Errorists' Manifesto, Manifesto Marathon, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist,
Serpentine Gallery, London
2008 – The Errorists: Tit For Tat, Transmediale 08, Berlin
2007 – The Errorists: 3-Name Phrase, part of New Lands, curated by William Fowler,
BFI Southbank, London
2007 – The Errorists in concert, part of The Weasel: Pop Music and Contemporary Art,
curated by Kit Hammonds, South London Gallery, London
2006 – The Errorists: Conditional Surrender to the City of Gardens, part of The
Dictionary of War, Steiricher Herbst Festival, Graz, Austria
2006 - European Media Art Festival, Osnabruecken, Germany
2006 - Transmediale Festival, Berlin, Germany
2005 – New Work U.K., curated by Stuart Comer, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2005 – Paraculture Procession, Go Between, curated by Peter Lewis and Wolfgang
Fetz, Kunstverein, Bregenz, Austria
2005 – By Proxy, curated by Peter Lewis, Redux Gallery, London
2005 - European Media Art Festival, Osnabruecken, Germany
2005 - Transmediale Festival , Berlin, Germany
2003 – The Bioengine and Supercellularity, part of The Body in Architecture, TU
Architecture Faculty, Delft, Netherlands
2000 –Intuition Triggers 1-56 with Anna Ehrsam and with The BioEngine with Jen
Mitas in the theatre, part of NEO, curated by Papo Colo and Jeanette Ingberman, Exit
Art, New York
1999 – Urban Romantics, curated by Nancy Chaiken, Lombard Fried Gallery, New
York
Curated Projects
2011 – Songs of the Swamp, group show curated and designed by HKS with Rosie
Cooper, Kunsthalle Exnergasse WUK, Vienna, Austria
2004 – The Pattern of the Plans and the Lack of Plan Plan, and Conference Towards a
Syntactical Elaborationism, curated by HKS and Rut Blees Luxemburg, T1+2 Artspace,
London
Catalogues/Books
2012 – Premature Surrender to Systemic Momentum, FR David, Issue #9
2009 – Heaven, 2nd Athens Biennial, For the Straight Way is Lost, Diana Baldon
2009 –-Transmediale 09 Deep North Parcours 2, editor Thomas Munz,
2008 – Manifesto Marathon Book, Serpentine Gallery
, editor Hans Ulrich Obrist
2006 – Dictionary of War, Merve Verlag
2006 – Poster “Design Competition for a World Subway System”, Zeitschrift
Magazine, Tiffany Issue, Austria
2005 –The Elaboration of Culture is towards M.T.I.E, Go Between, Kunstverein,
Bregenz, Austria
Publications

2009 – Faith in Infrastructure Manifesto, The Reader, Guestroom, London
2005 – The Errorists: Delightfully Unfascistic on the Inside, song on CD curated by
Tobias Meyer and Anna Collins, Static Commotion, Issue #4, Guestroom, London
2002 –The Body of Institutional Pivots and Living Potential, The Body in Architecture,
TU Delft Faculty Magazine, Netherlands
Press/Reviews
2011 – The Radiant Trellis, Snejana Krasteva, Pipeline Magazine
2011 – Songs of the Swamp, Springerin Magazine, Issue 2/11
2004 – The Pattern of the Plans and the Lack of Plan Plan, Contemporary Magazine,
Issue #70
2000 – NEO, Exit Art / The First World, New York Times, Published 28 July