University
of Applied Arts Vienna: Jakob Lena Knebl new professor of Transmedia Art
Versatile artist succeeds
Brigitte Kowanz as head of the department
02.06.2021
The University
of Applied Arts Vienna is very pleased to announce the appointment of Jakob Lena Knebl as new Professor of Transmedia Art.
The enterprising and multi-faceted artist will take up her position at the Angewandte on 1.10.2021 - i.e. at the beginning
of the new academic year. For Knebl, the professorship represents a comeback to Angewandte, as she studied and graduated here
in fashion design from 2000 to 2005. "Teaching has the same value for me as my work as an artist. Now I am coming back to
the place, the University of Applied Arts Vienna, which has had a decisive influence on my work. I am extremely pleased about
this," says Lena Knebl about her new task.
As an explicitly transmedia artist,
Knebl can point to a large number of exhibitions and performances, interventions and actions, and has been successful both
within and outside national borders at important museums and exhibition houses. Together with Ashley Hans Scheirl, she will
conceive and design the Austria Pavilion at the next Venice Art Biennale. Her artistic practice uses and combines different
artistic media and directly or indirectly establishes the context to current socio-political discourse topics. Knebl develops
cross-space installations consisting of photographs, sculptures, videos, drawings, steel constructions and performances. She
herself describes these scenographies as spaces of desire that are not limited to art institutions but also extend into public
space.
Jakob Lena Knebl has already been working as a senior artist with students at the Academy of Fine
Arts Vienna for ten years and she has also taught at the Linz Art University. At the beginning of the winter semester 2021,
the versatile and multi-faceted artist will take over the Department of Transmedia Art at the Institute of Fine Arts and Media
Art at the Angewandte, which is currently headed by Brigitte Kowanz, who is retiring after around 25 years as a professor
at Angewandte.
HalloGallo, Photo Georg Petermichl.
