Hannah O’Flynn (she/her) is an artist and researcher from Barcelona, currently based in Berlin. She is one of the founding members and director of with the rubbles of old palaces. Coming from an art and critical theory background, she has a practice that is strongly indebted to different forms of writing: from book making to scripts for performances, all brought together through humour by a recurring poetics of the absurd. She has a strong interest in forms of collective study, which has lead her to start the cultural research centre with the rubbles of old palaces.
She understands art practice as a continuous unfinished process through which to study in dialogue. Hannah O’Flynn’s work and research is focused on the human and non-human relationships with the dominating capitalist, colonial/imperialist and patriarchal structure of oppression, and the long histories of organising against, beyond and before such structural violences. She spent the last two years researching different mechanisms that have been used historically within the capitalist system to ensure expanded capital accumulation: the colonial project of capitalism as a spatial “fix” to some of the inner contradictions of capital, and the development of uneven geographical development that shapes present-day globalised capitalism. She is currently a part of the Indigestions: Politics of Food Research Group, that investigates the intersection of global politics with the consumption, trade and production of food. Within its framework, she is in the process of developing the Critical Drinking curriculum, which looks at the complex histories of alcohol and its consumption.
She has previously worked at the Institute for Provocation (Beijing), studied at the Dutch Art Institute (Arnhem), Kingston School of Art (London), University of the Crative Arts (Epsom) and shortly at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing).
January 2021 - present:
Founder and director of with the rubbles of old palaces space for cultural research, Berlin
EXHIBITIONS & PERFORMANCES
August 2022:
curating and exhibiting SMASHED: Drunk Stories / Singing Songs of Riot and Revolt for the Project Space Festival 22 at with the rubbles of old palaces
February 2020:
co-curated and performed in The Cooking Show Seminar: the Politics of Food, Amsterdam
October 2019:
performance of Dust Floating in the Dark — A Disenlightened Dream in What’s with Privacy when it’s too Loud Outside?, as part of the WAS Biennale, Berlin
August 2019:
co-curated and exhibited in Holding Hands from Afar, at Bebe Books, DOK, Gent
June 2019:
co-curated and exhibited in LEAVE A MESSAGE AFTER THE.. / I want to be in a room with some wifi, at Pleasure Zone, Basel
March 2018:
performance of Waiting (part II) in Razzmatazz V, London
February 2018:
co-curated and exhibited in Performing // Ritual // Object, Kingston upon Thames
January 2018:
video performance of Waiting (part I) in Harvesting Mind, Braunschweig
April 2017:
performed Imperial Lunch, the Forbidden City, Beijing
April 2017:
co-curated The Toilet Show, Beiluoguxiang Public Toilet, Beijing
March 2017:
video performance of Water in Razzmatazz 3: Performing Borders at Museum of Futures, Surbiton
October 2016:
performed in A Night of Perpetual Performances, Goethe Institut, Beijing
May 2016:
performed in Sayingzheng III, Tuanjiehu Park, Beijing
May 2015:
No Working Project at the Tate Modern, London
January 2015:
exhibited in Marginalised, Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Beijing
March 2014:
exhibited in Time, Picker Gallery, Kingston upon Thames
March 2014:
co-curated and exhibited in Portable Exhibition - A Mobile Utopia, Kingston upon Thames
PROJECTS
March 2022 - present:
co-curating the Critical Drinking Curriculum, a public program researching the political history of alcohol, at with the rubbles of old palaces, Berlin
August 2017 - June 2018:
lead the collaboration platform Tea Stand Projects, Kingston upon Thames
RESEARCH
May 2022-present:
co-ordination, production and moderation of the talk series Promises of Ever-coming Prosperity at with the rubbles of old palaces, Berlin
October 2020 - present:
co-direction of the Politics of Food Research Group, an ongoing research collective on the entanglement of cooking, eating and food production practices with global politics, Berlin & Amsterdam
TEACHING
April 2020 - present:
co-direction & teaching at Vladmail weekly study group on de-colonial practices, histories and organising
WRITING & PUBLISHING
August 2020:
wrote essay Chimeras of Infinite Expansion: Thinking Capital Accumulation with Fruit Chan’s Dumplings
December 2019:
co-wrote and published Russian Literature Better than Sex: Singular You or Plural I? in Not a Neutral Conduit: Fictocritical Approaches in Artistic Research — Reader on Stage
January 2018:
wrote essay In Search of the Miraculous: Bas Jan Ader on the Absurd and the Longing for Trascendence
August 2017:
Little Eating Emperors zine publication with Nornir
February 2017:
Weishan artist book publication
WORKSHOPS
October 2017:
facilitated Two Heads are Better than One: on collaboration structures workshop for the Interdisciplinary Week, Kingston upon Thames
AWARDS & FUNDING
August 2022:
selected and funded for the Project Space Festival 22
EDUCATION
MA Art Praxis, Dutch Art Institute
BA Fine Arts, Kingston University, London
Exchange Program at the Experimental Arts Department, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
Foundation Program at University of the Creative Arts, Epsom