Sunday, August 29, 2004
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. In 1989 he received a B.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.
Electronic artist, develops large-scale interactive installations in public space, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. His work has been shown in two dozen countries, including Art Basel Unlimited (Switzerland), the Liverpool Biennial (UK), the Itau Cultural (Brazil), the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (Japan), the Istanbul Biennial (Turkey), the Cultural Capital of Europe Festival (Holland), the ARCO art fair (Spain), Bienal de la Habana (Cuba), Architecture and Media Biennale (Austria), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico), the Musee des Beaux Arts (Canada), European Media Art Festival (Germany) and others. In 1998 he was comissioned to develop a monumental interactive art work in the Zocalo Square in Mexico City for the Millennium Celebrations.
At the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, his pieces have received a Golden Nica (2000), a distinction (2002) and two honourable mentions (1995 and 1998). He also won a BAFTA British Academy Award for Interactive Art in London (2002), “Best Installation” at the IDMA awards in Toronto (1996), a “Design Review Gold Award” given by I.D. Magazine (2002), a Cyberstar award in Cologne (1996), a distinction at the SFMOMA Webby Awards in San Francisco (2001), “Artist/performer of the year” at Wired Magazine’s Rave Awards (2003), an Excellence Prize at the CG Arts Media Art Festival in Tokyo (2001), WTN award in the Arts Category (2003), a Rockefeller fellowship (2003), a Langlois Grant (2003), the Trophee des Lumieres in Lyon (2003), HorizonZero best interactive installation (2003) and an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, Germany (2002).
He has given many workshops and conferences, most recently at the MIT MediaLab, the Guggenheim Museum, LA MOCA, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, UC Berkeley, Berlin Transmediale, British National Museum of Photography, Imagina in Montecarlo and the Art Institute of Chicago.
His writing has been published in Kunstforum (Germany), Leonardo (USA), Performance Research (UK), Telepolis (Germany), Movimiento Actual (Mexico), Archis (Netherlands), Aztlan (USA) and other art and media publications. He has been in several international juries and committees, including the Fondation Daniel Langlois, ISEA, Hexagram, Prix Milia d’Or in Cannes, GMD in Bonn, the International Art and A-life award and Cyberconf in Madrid. He has been a resident artist twice at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada.