Visual Artist | Nairy Baghramian

Nairy Baghramian was born in 1971 in Isfahan, Iran. She has lived and worked in Berlin since 1984.

Nairy Baghramian includes elements of furniture design, set design and fashion in her work. Her still lives in space involve references to material history, recontextualized and turned into political statements, pieces referring to literature and theatre.

Baghramian wishes to discover which topics of Early Modernism did not transmit to the new homeland of emigrated architects from Europe. Starting point is the construct of 'Home', a concept framing the burdens and chances of creative personalities who came to America voluntarily in the beginning of the 20th Century (like Neutra and Schindler) and those who where forced out of Europe.

Nairy's works were shown in Scottland, U.K., Germany, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Italy.

Filmmaker | Jan-Ole Gerster

Jan-Ole Gerster was born in Hagen. He studied script writing and directing at the Berlin Film and Television Academy (DFFB). In 2010 Gerster started work on his graduation film 'Oh Boy!' with Tom Schilling in the lead role. The movie premiered at the 2012 Munich Filmfestival. 'Oh Boy!' garnered international acclaim and won the 2013 German Film Prize in six categories, among them for Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film.
At Villa Aurora, Gerster will tackle his new project 'Cool Germania', a rise-and-fall story of two friends in the Berlin of the 90s and zeros.

At the Welcoming Reception, Gerster will show a scene from 'Oh Boy' and talk about his work.
Watch the trailer here.

'Oh Boy' has been nominated for the European Film Awards. Support Jan-Ole by voting here.

Writer | Volker Harry Altwasser

Volker Harry Altwasser, born in 1969 in Greifswald, is the recipient of the 2012 Italo-Svevo-Preis for his deap sea epos 'Letzte Fischer' ('Last Fishermen'). He was among the finalists for the Alfred Doeblin Award and the Ingeborg Bachmann Award.

Altwasser's thesis "literature about the ocean is always literature about failure - the ocean always prevails" links his works to American highlights of the genre, such as 'The Old Man and the Sea' or 'Moby Dick'. It took Altwasser 17 years to finish this novel, which shines with rigor, poetry and authenticity.

There will be a 20-minute reading of excerpts of the the novel (in German and English).

During his stay at Villa Aurora, the writer will trace the life story of writer Bruno Frank, a Feuchtwanger friend, who fell into oblivion.