Ferdinand Waas 
 

ferdinand.waas@gmail.com 
@waasinand 


Ferdinand Waas, born 06.08.1998, Ingolstadt (GER) based in The Hague (NL)

current:

12/2024 - ‘Tense Tides’ - Niuew Dakota, Amsterdam, NL  (coming up) 

11/2024 - ‘Old - New’ - weseeitems, Tbilisi, GEO  (ongoing)  

11/2024 - ‘A Letter from a Friend’ - bacio_collective, Bern, CH  (ongoing) 

exhibitions: 

10/2024 -  ‘Piratebay  and Chill’, DDD Kunst House, Yerevan, AM

09/2024 - ‘Show Match’, K4, Olso, NOR  

09/2024 - ‘De Wasstraat’ , NAP+, Amsterdam, NL 

12/2023 - ‘Praxis’ , fluent space, Santander, ESP 

07/2023 - ‘how do we grieve?’, Garage Grande, Wien, AT 

07/2023 - ‘Oerlikon Dream House’, Hürst Haus, curated by Matteo Kramer, Zürich, CH

06/2023 - ‘everything that grows underground’, West, The Hague, NL 

09/2022 - ‘Diagonale 4/ Transfinite', Verwalterhaus, Berlin, DEU

07/2022 - ‘But s/he endorsed the sheen’, Vrij Palais, Amsterdam, NL 

05/2022 - ‘Mmmmmmmmmarshmellow Cube’, Gallery 1, KABK, The Hague, NL 

03/2022 - ‘Tread Carefully’, Einar Jonsson Museum, Reykjavik, IS 

06/2022 - ‘The Creation of the world the now the end’, Aeden II, Berlin, DEU 

03/2022 - ‘opening hours’, Treptower Ateliers, Berlin, DEU

03/2022 - ‘take over’, Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp, BE

02/2022 - ‘James P. Sullivan, the soul of the tragedy is the prolonging of the  uncertainty as much as possible’, h__s, Antwerp, BE 

02/2022 - ‘theater as a frame’, eye museum, Amsterdam, NL

11/2021 - ‘UA006050455LV’ white box KHIO, Oslo, NOR 

09/2021 - ‘URLAUB’, Wilhelm Hallen 2, Berlin, GER

04/2021 - ‘solar fiction’, Galleria Aarni+Aalto university, Helsinki, FIN 

09/2020 - ‘a means to an end’, Basement Berlin/atelier rosenbaum, Berlin, GER

06/2020 - ‘hide&seek’, Antwerp, BE

11/2019 - ‘this human world festival’,Vienna, AT

07/2019 -  ‘Blank’,Harderbastei, Ingolstadt, GER 

06/2019 - ‘Enhalon’ - Festival, Struga, NMK

06/2019 - ‘the real simulation’, die Angewandte, Vienna, AT

05/2019 - ‘Taifun’, Spektakel, Vienna, AT


film programming/curating:

2024: ‘As long as I remember, as fast as I remember, as strong as I remember’, K4 galleri, Oslo, NOR 

2023 - ongoing: Make Dox, Skopje, NMK

2023 - ongoing: Anafi International Film Festival, Anafi, GR

2022 : Kunsthall Extra City/ Het Bos, Antwerp, BE


movies: 

2023: art direction - ‚football pikante‘/espn, MX 

2023: production design - ‚no future kids‘, GR 

2022: production design  - ‘Einzelteile’, AUT 

2021: production design  - ‘Az utca vege’, AUT/HU

2021: creative supervisor - ‘5pm seaside’, AUT/GR


publications:

2023: Love after love, Editor: Wu Mengwhua, The Greenroom

2023: Radical Fashion Exercises - A Workbook for Modes and Methodes, Editors: Laura Gardner, Daphne
Mohajer va Pesaran, Valiz, ISBN 978-94-93246-19-5

2024: Wie wir trauern. On Loss and Transformation, Editor: highbrow institude


residencies: 

09-11/2024 - weseeitems/ Goethe Institute, Tiblisi, GEO 

10/2024 - sleepover reseidency, :DDD Kunst House, Yerevan, AM 

09/2023 - Foundation 17, Pristina, RKS 

10/2022 - Secret Club, Athens, GR 

05/2019 - Brashnar Creative Project, Skopje, NMK


education:

2020-2024, BA fine arts, KABK, the Hague, NL, 

2023 fine arts, ASFA, Athens, GR

2018-2020 BA social and cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, AT

2018-2020 theory of architecture, TU Vienna, AT 

Show Match



In the framework of a Show Match on the 16th of June 2024, two memory athletes, Katie Kermond and Don Michael Vickers, were playing an altered version of a usual match. In a usual competition match, the categories in which the athletes are competing use randomly generated data as grounds to compare their memory capacities.

For this particular match, the data devoid of meaning was replaced with emotional/personal data sourced from the athletes’ own lives, such as birthdays of loved ones, pictures of known faces and locations, and words they use a lot in their daily life

The match was hosted and streamed live on Twitch as a show match for the memory sports community in collaboration with Johannes Mallow, a two time memory world champion and an active ambassador for memory sports and the official outlet of Memory League, an online memory sports platform. The recording is show in the form of a video projection.

2024 
video 1:32:23

Vampire Diary



Following leads of friends and acquaintances on the question ‘where would you go to meet vampires?’ throughout a month in CDMX. Written experiences in a diary.

(work in progress) 
2023
book, prints  14.8 x 21

[wind blows softly (wanted to add leaves)]




Foreign Movies in Kosovo are shown in original language with added subtitles. Movies from Kosovo are shown internationally in albanian language with added subtitles. Recent subtitles of movies made in Kosovo were read internationally. And gained recognition.

While spending some days in Pristina this summer I listened to multiple conversations, a melt of albanian and english - a constant state of translation.(Translation as a physical state of being.) Generally translators are often asked to wear black. Invisibility as a criterium for professionality and quality of work.

Invisible labour to serve accessibility to be understood. Translation as a method to be understood and gain visibility. Kosovo’s urgency is to be visible and gain international recognition via cultural export. 

Subtitles as soft diplomacy, as access point in understanding and facilitating connections. A progressive diplomatic tool.The project intends to engage with the infrastructure for - and practice of translating. 

In conversation with translators of four recent Kosovo internationally acclaimed feature films about their personal relations and interpretations to the script.

(work in progress) 
2023
62 slides in diaprojector

Since I know there are no controls, I do purchase tickets: observations of solidarity in the metro stations of Athens 




Ticket receipts, transcripts from voice notes made in the Victoria and Attiki station, Athens, 6.3.2023 

Published in ‘Love after love’ edited by Wu Mengwhua for the show ‘Love after Love’, The Greenroom, Amsterdam, NL/04/2023 


2023
scans 21x29cm

As long as I remember, as fast as I remember, as strong as I remember



‘As long as I remember, as fast as I remember, as strong as I remember’ is an ongoing multi-legged research work by Ferdinand Waas, departing from individually recollected memories of the collectively-experienced ‘glory’ that was the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The Olympic Games of 2004 in Athens, soon to be celebrating its 20th anniversary, carries historical, economic, and political importance and contrasts with the societal decay that followed. Nevertheless, the memory of it remains to be a mass- scale sense of euphoria, celebration, and perhaps even a tool for escapism for the nation. It remains to be a prominent drop filling up pools of memory, including that of the artist.

Departing from the intimate moments remembered by individuals as a moment of collectivity around the summer ’04, Ferdinand Waas maps out the dynamics of this historical arena of grandeur that precedes an impending collapse. 

As long as I remember, as fast as I remember, as strong as I remember recollects the memory of the event via the original score composed by John Psathas for the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony.

 In asking for a citizen to hum the score in the way they presently remember, Waas showcases the decay of collective memory through individual moments of reminiscence. The humming of the score can be read to individual fragments of remaining memory.

The patchwork video, presenting broadcasting footage of Dutch athletes making contact with victory throughout different branches of sports, is a retelling of this historical era experienced by many all around the world, suggesting our memory to be a selective tool in regards to success stories and how they interact with time.

The athletes invited to West Den Haag, the former American embassy building, have competed in the Athens Olympics Games for The Netherlands, joining us on the 2nd of June for a non-broadcasted reunion. A re-witnessing through the lens of the artist. Attempting to reactivate collective memory together through individual fragments from the summer of 2004.

Shown at ‘everything that grows underground’, West, The Hague, NL/06/2023 and ‘Oerlikon Dream House’, Hürst Haus, curated by Matteo Kramer for Zürch Gallery Weekend, Zürich, CH/07/2023

2023 
video 3:25

Whistleblower



Joining Facebook Hiking groups to engage in conversations with experts in positions of power.

1.Governmental advisor to Romania
2.US-Navy representative to Greece
3.Head of Google south Europe
4.Two programers working for cyber security in Turkey
5.Nutritionist working for the Greek health ministry Etc.


2023
video recorded on Iphone  4:29

AllGoodThings (ComeToAnEnd)



Playlist:
Everytime - 
Brithney Spears
Chasing Cars - 
Snow Patrol
Say Something - 
AGreatBigWorld,Christina Aguilera
High Hopes - 
Kodaline
Go Solo - 
Tom Rosenthal
Dancing On My Own - 
Calum Scott
Stay With Me - 
Sam Smith
Wrecking Ball - 
Miley Cyrus
All Good Things (Come To An End) -
Nelly Furtado

Shown at - ‘Diagonale 4/ Transfinite', Verwalterhaus, Berlin, DEU/09/2022 and ‘how do we grieve?’, Garage Grande, Wien, AT/07/2023


2022
participatory karaoke performance
duration of a  mass  approx. 40:00

Anthology of the past five days



The two performers spent the five days prior to the performance together, observing, taking notes, harvesting sounds, retelling conversations we had and listening to each other. Resulting in a time - specific audio piece on which upon physical memory is activated.

Collaboration with Lena Neuburger 

Shown at ‘Praxis - open sessions’, fluent space, Santander, ESP/12/2023 and ‘opening hours’, Treptower Ateliers, Berlin, DEU/03/2022 


2022
performance

fast forward/rewind 




fast forward - The entire production budget was spent on 1,000 carbon dioxide canisters (12 kg of gas) which will be released over the course of the exhibition.

rewind - A tree was planted (52.1754479, 4.3986458), which will absorb an average of 12 kg CO2 over the course of the next year.

Spiraling around theory while googling in the shade. Accelerationism, the idea that ‘social processes, such as capitalist growth and technological change, should be drastically intensified to further radical social change.’ Alternatively, capitalism's internal contradictions and instabilities, as it speeds up, can jeopardize its growth and cause its collapse. Fading into speculative realism, ‘fatal strategies’.Land’s celebrated concept of Hyperstitions (hyper + superstitions). Ideas which, ‘once downloaded into the cultural mainframe, engender apocalyptic positive feedback cycles’. Which – by their very existence as ideas – function causally to bring about their own reality. Self-fulfilling prophecies. Untangling the nest. The ‘hyper-object’ of climate collapse; caught between leaving anxiety and proactive behavior. Sometimes wishing we’d gone into consulting or banking or water management.Feeling the chemical cold of the CO2 canister in the hand as it empties, while 59 km away an elderly couple talks about applying sunscreen, on the picnic bench near our tree.

Callaboration with Frans van Hoek 

Shown at ‘But s/he indorsed the sheen’ curated by the sirius collective, Vrij Palais, Amsterdam, NL/07/2022


2022
site - specific installation, performance 

Can I have another minute ?



Average time spent in Museum Cafe: 15 - 30 min

Average time spent solving a 150 piece jigsaw puzzle: 20-30 min

A pile of six transparent boxes is positioned on the counter of the cafe/bar of the museum. In each of the boxes is a 150 piece jigsaw puzzle. The individual puzzles show menus of museum cafes. Rijksmuseum, Peggy Guggenheim Venice, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Museo Reina Sofia, MoMa,Centre Pompidou. These are free to take and construct during a break while visiting. 

Shown at ‘take over’ at Kunsthall Extracity, Antwerp, BE/03/2022


2022
6 puzzels  420x229