Biography

Born in Quebec City, Canada, and based in Berlin, Germany, Kenji Ouellet is a classical pianist (MA Music performance, C.U.N.Y.), graduated in Digital Art at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna in 2006 and in Experimental Media Design (Film) at the University of the Arts in Berlin in 2007, where he became “Meisterschüler” in 2009.

His work consists mostly of video works and performances/choreographies centered on the touch sense. He was the recipient of, among others, the Bremen Video Art Award and the Cast & Cut Stipendium.

-Video works (selection):

Lektion 13

1st prize, Media Forum of the Moscow International Film Festival 2006, Grand Prix, Kansk international Video Festival 2006 (Russia), 2nd Prize, Alucine Festival (Toronto), 3d prize, Videologia Festival (Volgograd). Special mentions at the Cologne Art Film Biennial 2005, the Strange Screen Festival 2006 in Thessaloniki, Greece and the Partouche Experimental Film Award (Le Havre Biennial, France).

Other screenings: Videoex Festival 2006 (Zürich), European Media Art Festival 2007 (Osnabrück), L’Etrange Film Festival 2006 (Paris), FLEX experimental film festival (Florida), KW (Kunst-Werke, Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin), Art Fair Athena (Athens).

On Vienna, Love, Language and Forgetting

“Special Achievement Award” at the Alternative Film/Video Festival, Belgrade (2008). Shown at the Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin-Madrid 2007, Strange Screen Festival 2008 (Thessaloniki), Nottingham Playhouse (U.K.).

Montres Louis Maurcie

1st prize of the (non) commercial Award of the Backup Festival 2008 (Weimar). B16 (Brno), Budapest Shorts Festival.

Self cinema No 1

Honorary Award at the Montijo International Biennial 2008 (Portugal), Celeste Kunstpreis finalist 2008 (Berlin). Other showings: Eject 2 (Mexico City), Verbum Museum (Vigo, Spain), Escrita na Paisagem Festival (Evora, Portugal), Exist-ence Festival (Brisbane, Australia), Videoholica (Varna, Bulgaria), Instants Video (Marseille), Pixelpops (Paris), Cartografias Corporales (Mexico City).

Touchscape (Multichannel video installation/split-screen film, 2011)

Façade Festival 2011 (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), Sarajevo Winter festival 2013 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Museo de las Mujeres, 2013 (Cordoba, Argentina)

I am One

Exhibitions: "Collective", Haus am Kleistpark Gallery (Berlin), Weserburg Museum of Modern Art (Bremen) 2017, The Bargehouse (London), Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition shortlist, York Art Gallery (UK), Marl Media Art Awards, (Skuplturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, Germany), "Back Forward Rewind" Mediaartlab.ru online anniversary exhibition 2021, "Die Stadt ist anderswo: Revision eines Traums" Museum Unter Tage (Bochum, Germany 2023-24).

V

Weserburg Museum of Modern Art (Bremen) 2017, Städtische Galerie Bremen "screen spirit" 2019, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts «100 ways to live a minute» series 2020, Cinemistica (Granada, Spain) 2022.

In Dog Years I'm Dead

1st prize, Bremer Videokunstförderpreis (Weserburg Museum, Bremen 2017), Best Experimental Film (Inca Int. Film Festival, Lima 2019), Winner (Medium- Independent) On Art Film Festival (Warsaw 2019), Arte Laguna shorlist exhibition 2020 (Arsenale, Venice), Art Nova 100 group exhibition 2021 (Guardian Art Center, Beijing).

Reprise

Best Original Screenplay/ Best Director/ Best Lead Actress in a Foreign Language Film (Romina Küper), North Europe Int. Film Festival (London) 2022. Bronze Winner Best short film, Tokyo Film Awards 2022. Best Screenplay, Cinalfama Int. Film Festival (Lisbon) 2022. L'Etrange Festival 2022 (Paris), Aesthetica SFF 2022 (York, UK), Split IFF 2022 (Croatia), Innuendo IFF 2023(Milan), Filmfest Bremen, Nomination for the "Angry Imp" for challenging film, Indie-Lincs IFF (Lincoln, UK), Best Thriller Award (Future of Film Awards 2023, Ohrid (North Macedonia), Best Experimental Short, Vilnius Alternative Int. Film Festival (LTU) 2023, Platinum Award Best Psychological Thriller Int. Fortean Film Festival 2023 (Gloucester, UK), Best Director Yerevan Short Film Festival 2023 (Armenia).

-Performance/choreographic work (selection):

Butchers have short fingers

(Performance/interactive smell installation for 1 performer, 10 computers, a piano, rotten meat and a locked up audience, PSHHG Vienna 2004)

Pièce touchée No 1, performance only for the touch sense

(E4 2006 (Berlin), Crossbreeds Festival 2007 (Vienna), Tanztendenzen Festival 2007 (Greifswald, Germany), “Intrude366” Performance Series, Zendai Museum of Modern Art (Shanghai), Arena Festival 2008 (Erlangen, Germany), Man.in.Fest Experimental Theater Festival 2008 (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Biesdorf Castle (Berlin 2009), GrenzArt Festival (Kirschau, Germany 2010).

Body/Sign Lab, Performance/theater lab

Arena festival 2009 (Erlangen, Germany).

Takt/il (translation of sound/music in touch)

Frisch eingetroffen Festival. 2010 (Mannheim, Germany)

Pièce touchée No 2 (Performance centered on the touch sense)

Perfect Wedding Festival, Tanzfabrik Berlin 2010. 3d Prize Choregie competition 2011 Maribor (Slovenia). Mois Multi 2012 (Quebec City), Crossbreeds Festival 2012 (Vienna), Habeas Corpus Festival (Cordoba, Argentina), Moving Sounds Festival (Austrian Cultural Forum, New York City).

(Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts)

Klangkörper (Performance with a touch- and quadraphonic sound choreography) Klangmanifeste festival, (Vienna, December 2011), Mois Multi festival 2012 (Quebec City), Rhubarb Festival 2012 (Toronto).

Visualisaciones (exhibition of the visual impressions of touch performances)

Ciuduad de las Artes/Museo de la Mujeres 2013 (Cordoba, Argentina)

Le Sacre du Printemps: a haptic rite


Sacre 100, HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin) 2013, Tanznacht Berlin 2014, Teatro a Corte Festival 2015 (Turin), Theater Freiburg 2015, Tanz Bremen 2017

(Produced by HAU and the German Federal Cultural Foundation)

-Video/sound concepts for contemporary dance choreographies (selection):

Approach and Retreat (K.Weare, USA)

Premiere: Summer Fest Dance Festival 2001, Cowell Theater San Francisco.

Frictious (M. Maar, A)

Premiere: TanzQuartier Vienna 2002, remixed version Tanzfabrik Berlin and Dixon Place New York 2005.

Fliessend (K. Weare, M.Maar)

Premiere: Kosmos Theater Vienna, Tanzpool festival 2003.

Archiv (K. Roschangar, A) Premiere: DieTheater Künstlerhaus, Vienna 2004.