Beny Wagner is an artist, filmmaker, writer and lecturer. Viewing the natural and technological as intrinsically interwoven, his work unfolds along the shifting boundaries of the human body. He has researched topics such as agricultural production, the politics of waste, material histories of glass. He is currently working on a long term film and research project in collaboration with Sasha Litvintseva which draws upon histories of measurement in the natural sciences.
Wagner’s PhD project at AMT is situated at the intersection of film and media studies, histories of science and the environmental humanities. The project proposes to read the emergence of the cinema at the end of the 19th century through the epistemological reconfigurations of movement that developed in the life sciences around 1800, while focusing on key moments throughout the history of film that illuminate this intersection.
Born in Berlin, Wagner grew up in transit between Germany, USA and Israel. He completed a BA at Bard College, New York and a postgraduate fellowship at Jan van Eyck Academy, Netherlands. He is a lecturer at Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. His work has been presented in festivals, museums and biennales globally: International Film Festival Rotterdam, Eye Film Museum, Media Art Biennale WRO, Sonic Acts, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 5th and 6th Moscow Biennale for Young Art, Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, Impakt Festival, Berlin Atonal, Venice Biennale; and published in a range of arts publications: Artforum, Spike Magazine Quarterly, Frieze Magazine, Kaleidoscope Press, Flash Art, Valiz.