ABOUT
THE DOCUMENTARY ENGAGEMENT
(RESEARCH-)PRACTICES IN THE MODE OF MEDIA ART
Leef Hansen works at the intersections of media art, artistic research, sensory and visual ethnography, cultural and media studies: In his research as well as artistic work, he combines practices of audio-visual media within the framework of photography, film, and video with their (practice-)theoretical reflection. He understands the outcomes of these processes as audio-visual perspectives within the context of media events, which make societal phenomena as well as their contexts visible.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Leef Hansen's professional focal points are characterized by extensive experience in the field of film production, studies in social science disciplines, and applied artistic practice:
Leef Hansen received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science (Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel // 2008 - 2012); in Media and Communication Studies (Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg // 2013 - 2016) and in Fundamentals of Economic Sciences (Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg // 2013 - 2016).
Between 2007 – 2016, Leef Hansen worked as a production assistant, later as a junior producer at the Hamburg advertising agency Mehrwert Marketing.
Starting in 2017, he studied at the renowned Bauhaus University Weimar in the Department of Media Art and Design, where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree (2017 – 2019; supervision of the thesis IN THE FLOW OF TIME and A PLACE BENEATH THE SURFACE by Prof. Wolfgang Kissel and Prof. Dr. Julia Bee; Artistic supervision: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Mothes).
Since 2018, Leef Hansen works as a screenplay writer and director.
Since April 2022, Leef Hansen has been a research associate at the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, pursuing a PhD under Prof. Dr. Franziska Heller on the topic of »Documentary Interventions«.
ARTISTIC WORKS IN FILM, PHOTOGRAPHY AND EXPANDED CINEMA
Leef Hansen's works have been exhibited and awarded both nationally and internationally in various contexts:
In 2015, his short film debut "THE COOP PRINCIPLE," a film portrait about the former Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer, premiered at the Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle (Saale) and was featured as an exhibit in the context of the HANNES MEYER PRIZE 2015 exhibition.
This was followed by more short films, including "THE LIBRARY OF UNREADABLE SIGNS" (2018), which was shown at international film festivals and art exhibitions in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North America. In 2019, the short film "I AM ME, AM I?" was released.
His graduation film at the Bauhaus University Weimar "A PLACE BENEATH THE SURFACE" (2019), which was supported by a Bauhaus graduation scholarship, received numerous awards, including an Award of Recognition from the Edinburgh Docufest, and premiered at the Cambodia International Film Festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 2020.
Since 2022, Leef Hansen has been co-curator and artistic director of the production series STOLPERSTEINE – FILMS AGAINST OBLIVION of the Master Programm Multimedia and Authorship at the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg.
Leef Hansen also directs music videos and stages video performances as well as expanded cinema events: Most recently in a collaboration with the German rapper FAKKT "GIFT" (2023). "GIFT" premiered as an expanded cinema exhibit during the annual exhibition "Conflict. People, Media, Mechanisms in the 18th Century and Today" of the Francke Foundations in 2023.
The exhibition was co-curated by Leef Hansen. The exhibition and music video received significant attention in the German-speaking media landscape (including reports in: MDR, ZEIT ONLINE, DEUTSCHLANDFUNK KULTUR, 3SAT).
WORK FOCUS
Leef Hansen particularly explores and observes:
document: Mutual relationships of the documentary in moving images and sound, understood as contouring and perspectives of media-societal phenomena along with their interpretation and (practice-) theoretical reflection.
engage: Innovative approaches to design, production, and reflection of the documentary field as well as visual-anthropological drafts along with their synthesis within documentary conceptions.
intervene: »Documentary interventions« and related forms of perspective in the tension between media, politics, and society along with a critical examination of the power of the audio:visual.
trans-form: Research practices in the mode of media art as well as artistically experimental methods of art as a catalyst for political and social perspectives and connected processes of transformation.
MEMBERSHIPS & NETWORKS
Since 2024 // SAR - Society for Artistic Research
2023-24 // Scientific and artistic-curatorial advisory board member for the 2023 annual exhibition "Cultures of Controversy" at the Francke Foundations. Focus: Affective visual and communication cultures in a current transmedial perspective.
GRANTS
2018 // BAUHAUS DEGREE COMPLETION SCHOLARSHIP
2017 // FILM AWARD OF THE BAUHAUS FILM INSTITUTE