Hoaretraits Ep. 14: Zeitgeist Irland 24 artist Mariechen Danz

Hoaretraits is a series by photographer and podcaster Neil Hoare, that presents contemporary Irish artists that are part of Zeitgeist Irland 24 – the year’s cultural programme of contemporary arts from Culture Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland in Germany. Conceived of by Hoare as ‘audio portraits’, the podcasts explore, from the perspectives of the individual artists, themes of creativity, imagination and craft. The podcast features conversations with a diverse range of Irish artists living in both Ireland and Germany.

For Episode 14, Neil talks with Mariechen Danz, an Irish-German multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation, drawing, and performance. Born in Dublin, she studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, earned her Meisterschülerin at the Universität der Künste in Berlin in 2005, and completed an MFA at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, in 2008. Danz’s work interrogates knowledge systems, language, and the human body as both a vessel and a limitation in the search for understanding. Her art has been showcased internationally, including at the 57th Venice Biennale, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Kunsthalle Basel, Centre Pompidou, and the New Museum in New York. Danz has also been recognized with awards such as the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship in 2014 and a Villa Romana Fellowship in 2013. Additional to a recent solo exhibition ‘Stubborn Shadows / Scáthanna Seasta’ at Project Arts Centre in Dublin, this year Danz participated in the Zeitgeist Irland 24 initiative with her exhibition ‘edge out’ in Berlinische Galerie, which runs until March 2025, further underscoring her commitment to exploring intersections of identity, heritage, and cultural exchange.

Podcaster Neil Hoare is a multidisciplinary Irish artist living in Berlin with his dog Púca. His most recent photographic work ‘A Heimat away from Home’ is a series of portraits commissioned by the Embassy of Ireland in Germany documenting the Irish who made Germany their home since Ireland joined the EU 50 years ago. The experience of photographing so many people across Germany and hearing their stories led directly to the creation of Hoaretraits.