A–Z moves from Amsterdam to Zurich, with some stops along the alphabet. It hosts books, texts and other work by Tine Melzer. She is a Zurich-based artist, author and researcher with a focus on language. Her literary work is represented by Liepman Agency, Zurich.
Tine Melzer connects the philosophy of language with visual art and her main motif is language. As published in her award-winning book Taxidermy for Language-Animals: A Book on Stuffed Words by Tine Melzer she examines language fragments from different practices—philosophy, literature, visual art—by exploiting some of our linguistic habits and tools. Her main practice is writing and making books. She has taught at various European academies and universities since 2004. Melzer studied Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, and Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. She undertook postgraduate research at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten and received her PhD on a research on Ludwig Wittgenstein meeting Gertrude Stein from the University of Plymouth, UK in 2014. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally.
Tine Melzer taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam since 2004 and worked in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Basel, Dessau, Dublin, Karlsruhe, London, Stuttgart, Turku, Utrecht and Zurich. Currently she teaches at the HKB Bern University of the Arts at the transdisciplinary Y Institute and at the Fine Arts at the Department of Art & Design. Since 2017 she researches on Aspect change at the University of the Arts Bern, (Institut Praktiken und Theorien der Künste).
Melzer’s work challenges language in its conceptual, image-related and philosophical aspects. Her work is bibliophilic, (typo-)graphic, interventional and public: it engages with codes and subtexts inherent in objects and signs, which often makes for multidisciplinary and collaborative work. Language-games (in the manner of Wittgenstein) and their interactions with context and media are the starting-points for works between autonomy and the commonplace. One focus is on vocabularies, which are also applied to her collaborations across disciplines, co-authorships, research and teaching. The relation between showing and saying is an important motivation for Melzer; much of her work is based on this dichotomy, which thereby provides an opportunity to challenge public works and publications. Melzer tends to take codes in everyday language literally; unstable (contextual) expression mean, for her, the basis of genuine understanding. A stuffed parrot is called Polly.
Tine Melzer’s work has been supported by the Mondriaan Fund (Fonds voor beeldende kunsten, vormgeving en bouwkunst), Amsterdam and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Amsterdam; in 2011, she was granted a research stipend by LAPS, Research Institute for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam. Taxidermy for Language Animals, designed by Urs Lehni, Rollo Press was selected as one of Die Schönsten Schweizer Bücher 2016 BAK, Federal Office of Culture FOC. Tine Melzer’s current work is supported by work stipends by the Kultur Stadt Bern, and Kanton Bern, Switzerland. She received a COVID-19 work stipend by Kultur Stadt Zürich in 2021.
February 24th, 18h 2022 Text! Universitätsbibliothek Bern
CV OVERVIEW
Tine Melzer (PhD) is a Zurich-based author, artist and researcher with a focus on language. As published by Rollo-Press in her award-winning book Taxidermy for Language-Animals she examines language fragments from different practices—philosophy, literature, visual art—by exploiting some of our linguistic habits and tools. Her main practice is writing and making books. She is associate professor at the HKB University of the Arts Bern where she currently researches phenomena of Aspect Change. Her work is exhibited und published internationally.
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STUDIES
ART & PHILOSOPHY
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STIPENDS & AWARDS
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TEACHING
TUTOR
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LECTURER
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EXTERNAL JURIES
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LECTURES
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PUBLICATIONS
MONOGRAPHIES
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SELECTED ARTISTS’ BOOKS
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CONTRIBUTIONS TO PUBLICATIONS
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COLLECTIONS
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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
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SELECTED WORKS IN PUBLIC
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tine(at)workmail.com
Parrot Portrait
Mara Truog
Webdesign
Studio Tobias Becker
Typography
Hermes Optimo by Gavillet & Rust, Geneva
2017