mail // caroline.bruenen@gmail.com
Caroline Brünen (born 1991) is a visual artist based in Cologne. Her work centres on photography, which she usually expands with texts and videos.
Her projects emerge from long-term research, conversations and an understanding of listening as an artistic method. She views photography less as an instrument of observation and more as a social practice in which relationships and knowledge are created collectively.
Brünen studied Media Art/Artistic Photography at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne under Prof. Beate Gütschow. Prior to this, she completed a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Social Sciences in Cologne and Mexico City.
Her work has been supported by, amongst others, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and has been exhibited at the Goethe-Institut in Paris as well as in independent art spaces across Germany. She is currently a fellow of the Montag Foundation for Art and Society in Bonn.
education //
2017-2023: Media Arts, Academy of Media Arts Cologne
2021: Auditing Student 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)
grants //
2026
Work Scholarship | Montag Foundation Art and Society
2025
Exhibition Funding | Cultural Office, City of Cologne
2022
Project Funding | Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and Goethe-Institut Paris: La jeune photographie allemande
2021
Work Scholarship | Ministry for Culture and Science North-Rhine Westphalia
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 //
2024-2026
„To Spiral, Drip, And Meander“ | Artistic Research Collective
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