Katya Sander

Katya Sander is a conceptually based artist. Her work is about the production and circulation of social imaginaries—structures, models, and images through which we imagine ourselves and what we can do. In her work, the imaginary is not only a matter of subjective ideas but also of shared, collective articulations and projections of what is possible and what can be imagined. Architecture, images, and language—and their roles in the production of meaning and sociality—thus play a central role. Often through specific notions or figures, Sander investigates how collective imaginaries are constructed and how they influence our actions and reflections. Her work frequently involves investigating or questioning the production of spectatorship: systems of presentation and circulation of images, and consequently (re)presentation and circulation of the bodies these images address, depict, project, or exclude. She often works with questions of address, desire, gender, and language and, working in a site-specific manner, reflects the presence of the spectator in relation to contexts such as architecture, economy, politics, and images. Being more interested in circulation per se—especially image circulation—she often places her work outside of clearly identifiable art contexts.