Catrine Val explores how knowledge is carried between bodies and made visible through image, movement and sound.
She is an artist working across photography, film and performance, focusing on time, history and the role of women in cultural and philosophical contexts.
Her work centres on the female voice as a form of presence — how memory, migration and belonging move between bodies and become perceptible in time based media. Through long term collaborations she creates situations in which language, gesture and encounter shape the work itself.
Working between art and philosophy, she collaborates with women in different cultural and political contexts, translating oral knowledge into image, movement and sound and allowing agency to be experienced rather than explained.
Her recent projects address diaspora, collective memory and feminist thought. Developed between Kassel, Lagos, London, Rome, Delhi and Tokyo, they foreground women as active producers of the present.
Her practice unfolds in shared spaces where experience is negotiated collectively across disciplines and borders.
member of the Deutsche Fotografische Akademie .
EXHIBITIONS / CONTEXT
2025
ANU Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv — 20/20 Women’s Lens
2024
World Congress of Philosophy, Rome — Philosophia Room
Indian Photo Festival, Hyderabad
Tokyo Art Council — Story Room
2023
Being Human Festival, London
2022
documenta 15 context, Kassel — Light Matters
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg — Migration and Horizons
2018
Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem
Beijing Photo Biennale
LONG-TERM PROJECT CONTEXT
Kaleidoscope of Time — Stories from the Diaspora
Public space project, Kassel
The Changing Room
London / Luton
Hinterland — Post von Gerty Deutsch
Film & installation project
Genealogy / Archive / Diaspora
Hinterland — Post from Gerty Deutsch (2024–26)
Kassel · London · global contexts
Genealogy of female photographic pioneers · exile · memory
The past becoming perceptible in the present
Research Interests
Migration · body · public space · voice · future · genealogies · city
Methods
Time-based media · photography · film · installation · text · collective processes · dialogue
Fields of Practice
Artistic research · curatorial formats · teaching practice · collaborative knowledge production
Positioning
Practice concerned with diaspora, voice and belonging
between philosophy, time-based media and the public sphere.
Teaching as a space of experimentation. Future as an open field.
EDUCATION
1994–2001 Fine Arts, Kunsthochschule Kassel (class of Urs Lüthi)
2001–2004 Postgraduate Studies, Academy of Media Arts Cologne
TEACHING
2019–2023 Lecturer in Photography, FEMINIST Collection, Hochschule Düsseldorf
2019 University of Bedfordshire, London (Fashion Design final year)
2005–2011 Research associate in artistic practice, Kunsthochschule Kassel
TALKS, SCREENINGS & ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTIONS (selected)
World Congress of Philosophy, Rome — Philosophia Room (exhibition project)
World Congress of Philosophy, Beijing — exhibition contribution
Being Human Festival
Brunel University London
Queen Mary University London
Goethe-Institut India
Embodiment Conference, London
RESIDENCIES (selected)
2024 FotoFestival India — Her Story, Her Voice, Hyderabad
2024 Story Room, Tokyo Arts Council
2023 Being Human Festival, Queen Mary University London
2018–2019 The Changing Room, British Council London
2017 A Sud di Donna, Breathing Art Company, Bari
2017 Half of a Perfect World, Art Quarter Budapest
2016 Mixed-media residency, Photo Kathmandu
2016 Political Letters, Scotland
2015 Pepperhouse Residency, Goethe-Institut India
2014 Bangalore Residency, Goethe-Institut India
PUBLICATIONS (selected)
2022 BANG BANG — Vulnerable Wonderful World, Kerber
2021 Light Matters, Morel Books
2020 Methodological Reflections on Women’s Contribution and Influence in the History of Philosophy, Springer
2013 FEMINIST — nominated for the German Photo Book Award
AWARDS (selected)
2025 Ottilie Roederstein Grant, Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts
2022 WMA Masters of Photography Award, Hong Kong
INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT (selected exhibitions & festivals)
20/20 Women’s Lens, ANU Museum of the Jewish People (2025)
Dialogue between contemporary female photographers and pioneers of photography
Indian Photo Festival, Hyderabad (2024)
Keynote contribution · voice · diaspora · future
Being Human Festival, London (2023)
documenta 15 context, Kassel
Light Matters — women · voice · democracy · dance
Independent project in the public programme
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg (2022)
Migration and Horizons — museum dialogue with London / V&A
3rd Beijing Photo Biennale (2018)
Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (2018)
Feminist · performance · photography · film
PROJECT TRAJECTORY / SITES OF PRACTICE
Kassel (2025–2026)
Kaleidoscope of Time — Stories from the Diaspora
City as atlas · public visibility · installation · film · text
Rome (2024)
Philosophia Room — World Congress of Philosophy
Dialogical space · film programme · discourse
London / Luton (2018–2022)
The Changing Room
Female voice · migrant communities · archive of memory
CONTEXT
Her work connects artistic research with social relevance and trans-cultural perspectives.
It centres on voice, future and belonging as artistic and cultural questions.
Lives and works in Kassel.
