mail // caroline.bruenen@gmail.com
b. 1991 near Cologne, Germany.
based in Cologne
Caroline Brünen’s artistic practice is anchored in photography and extends into text, audio, and video. Her work interrogates the social inscriptions of power, examining how political, economic, and social forces shape spatial conditions and lived realities. Driven by an interest in social, ecological, and gender-based (in)justice, she uses photography and related media to explore structures that tend to remain unnoticed. Therefore, her work engages with perspectives that are frequently overlooked within dominant narratives.
Her work has been exhibited at the Goethe-Institut in Paris, the Kunsthafen Cologne and at the Glasmoog in Cologne, among others.
education //
2017-2023: Media Arts, Academy of Media Arts Cologne
2021: Guest Stundent at Folkwang University of the Arts
2012-2016: B.A. Latin America Studies and Social Science in Cologne and Mexico-City
exhibitions //
2025
When Power Plants Turn Into Springs | Gillbach (g)
MAREA / TIDES | Änderungsschreiberei, Cologne (s)
2023
Songs of Sanity | Glasmoog, Cologne (s)
The End / Not The End ? | Kunsthafen, Cologne (g)
Grinding Present Glitches | Galerie 52, Essen (g)
2022
The End / Not The End ? | Goethe-Institut, Paris (g)
Sublime & Subliminal | Motoki, Cologne (g)
Mutterschaft | Pop-Up Fotogalerie, Herzogenaurach (g)
2021
[insert title] | case – Projektraum für Fotografie, Cologne (s)
2019
tot/Tod | case – Projektraum für Fotografie, Cologne (s)
publications //
2022
disoriented. traces followed - yet not arrived | self-published book, limited edition of 40 signed copies
Mutterschaft, 2022 / a series of 8 portraits published at “Die Verpeilte Magazin”
fellowships //
2024-2027
„To Spiral, Drip, And Meander“ | Artistic Research Field Trip
lectures //
2025
Towards A Photographic Practice of Listening | Universität Bonn, Global Heritage Lab
Bereits gesehen – Weiße Blicke hinterfragen | Take A Seat*
2023
On Becoming A Water Guardian | Temporary Gallery Köln
film //
2021
“RHEV - a visual album”, 5 music videos for the concept EP RHEV by B.Vou - co-direction with Bruno Manguen Sapiña
2020
“kilometro cero”, 29 minutes, documentary film - Premiere in March 2022 at San Diego Latino Film Festival