RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES Residency: Selected Artist, Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
We are pleased to announce that Ilja Niederkirchner, a Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist, has been selected as the autumn artist-in-residence at RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES.
His long-term project “GESPENSTER” explores the history of his family against the backdrop of twentieth-century political conflicts between Germany and the Soviet Union. At its heart are the intertwined lives of his great-aunt Käthe Niederkirchner—celebrated in the former GDR as a resistance icon—and her brother Paul, who was executed in Moscow during Stalin’s purges. Through archival materials, photographs, texts, and painterly interventions, the project reflects on how history is remembered, silenced, and re-invented.
Rather than following a linear biographical form, “GESPENSTER” unfolds as a fragmented, multi-voiced narrative that mirrors the contradictions of history itself. Moving beyond personal history, it raises universal questions: how myths are constructed, how silence persists across generations, and how individuals navigate the burden of the past.
The residency at RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES will provide a dedicated space and concentrated time for Niederkirchner to edit and structure this complex body of work. The mentorship of RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES curator Yumi Goto, together with the dialogue offered through the residency, will play a crucial role in shaping the project’s future, particularly as it takes form as both a photobook and an exhibition.
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
©GESPENSTER / Ilja Niederkirchner
Profile |
Ilja Niederkirchner is a Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist working with photography, painting, collage, installation, video, and writing. His practice explores the tension between private memory and political history, often tracing how collective narratives intersect with family stories. After studying performing arts at the Berlin University of the Arts (graduated 2006), he shifted his focus to photography at Neue Schule für Fotografie (graduated 2017). His photobooks and exhibitions have been shown internationally, including The Only Thing That Matters, Greek Dog Days, and The Final Snow. In 2024 he attended the “Photobook as Object” workshop in Tokyo with Yumi Goto and Jan Rosseel, which deeply influenced his current project GESPENSTER. He is presently preparing an exhibition for a German museum and developing new photobook works that connect historical material with contemporary perspectives.
Alongside the residency, RPS also offers another path for artists to bring their work into the public sphere. The deadline for the RPS grant is fast approaching, and from this season onward the program includes the opportunity to exhibit at RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES. The application deadline is September 30 at 23:59 (JST). For further details and application, please visit:
https://reminders-project.org/en/grants/