Ferdinand Waas
ferdinand.waas@gmail.com
@waasinand
Ferdinand Waas, born 06.08.1998, Ingolstadt (GER) based in The Hague (NL)
current:
02/2025 - ‘nada más que la verdad’ - segismundo, Guatemala City, GT
exhibitions:
12/2024 - ‘Tense Tides’ - Niuew Dakota, Amsterdam, NL
11/2024 - ‘Old - New’ - weseeitems, Tbilisi, GEO
11/2024 - ‘A Letter from a Friend’ - bacio_collective, Bern, CH
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, 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
Ode to Joy/ოდა სიხარულს
The project Ode to Joy/ოდა სიხარულს — realised in collaboration with former members of the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, Igor Loboda in Ingolstadt and Nodar Jvania in Tbilisi, as well as current students of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire and Ilia State University — draws on a history of cultural displacement and the enduring power of European symbolism.
During the two-month residency, Ferdinand Waas specifically investigated the historical and contemporary presence of European ideals and their expression through music. Through the process of learning to play Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the anthem of the European Union, on the violin — under the guidance of former members of the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, Igor Loboda and Nodar Jvania — Waas identified in the amplified presence of Ode to Joy not only a symbol of European ‘solidarity’, as in accompanying the ongoing protests on Tbilisi’s streets as a form of resistance since the 26th of October 2024, but also a tool for exploring the collective memory and identity of current and future displaced artists.
The residency resulted in an adapted score of Ode to Joy, arranged with the help of Alex Uturgaidze. The score contrasts the original violin notes with Waas’s own imperfect attempts to play, reflecting his current level of skill after learning the violin in Tbilisi as an unmusical EU citizen taught by former members of the Georgian Chamber Orchestra.
Showcasing Waas’s inability to professionally perform Ode to Joy, the project is featuring a live performance of the European anthem, presented together with a string quartet consisting of Lika Kalmakhelidze, Mariam Iakobidze, Natali Turiatkova, and Salome Stroganova.
2024
perfomance
prints 21.0 x 29.7 cm
Pirate Bay and Chill
In the framework for the 5 night sleepover residency at the :DDD Kunst House, Ferdinand Waas is facilitating a screening program sourced from recommendations through local grindr and tinder hookups. What is your favorite film? - He will be asking in the sheds in the bed within the project space. These films will be pirated and shown in the evening of the date to the public.
The experience of bootlegging, domain switching, and the recurring "not supported in your region" message resonates with queer realities, particularly in terms of access and visibility. Both digital piracy and queer existence demonstrate how communities navigate restrictive environments, forging new paths to access what is otherwise unavailable.
Much like The Pirate Bay’s tactic of shifting domains in 2015—from a Swedish domain to an Armenian one—queer communities adopt similar strategies of resilience and empowerment. In contexts where queer content or resources are blocked or censored, piracy itself can become a strategy for access, allowing individuals to bypass restrictions and tap into global networks of media, information, and support. By engaging in forms of digital bootlegging or using alternative platforms, queer individuals can subvert barriers, ensuring they remain connected.
For the screening program Ferdinand will be sharing the proposed movies that provide a temporary retreat, situation to gather/encounter and a provide space for the local community to rest for approx. 90 min each evening.
2024
screening program
Burn to Runn
born to runn by Ferdinand Waas is a sonic homage to cover versions often heard in bars or cafés—where limitations lead to reinterpretations rather than original expressions. Created for Nieuw Dakota’s farewell event Beyond Expiration Date?, this compilation of sung and hummed tunes by members of the Nieuw Dakota community, including former employees, visitors, and donors, reflects the bittersweet nature of endings, drastic cuts, and transformation.
2024
CD