Kaiserring Scholarship 2026
I ♥ t.s.
- Mona Filleul
Mona Filleul’s multilayered practice is shaped by experimental openness and a pronounced sensuous materiality. At the heart of her practice are reliefs and installative display architectures in which industrial materials such as insulation panels, foam and concrete meet beeswax, mulberry fibre, synthetic hair, costume jewellery, audio elements and blinking LED lights. Sculpture, painting, installation and digital aesthetics come together to create hybrid pictorial and experiential spaces. Drawing on motifs from anime and mobile phone photos, as well as references to popular culture, the aesthetics of cuteness and ideas of girlhood, Filleul explores the social and emotional codes embedded in images. The backs of her works remain deliberately visible: electronics, wiring and structural elements are exposed, creating a striking contrast with the playful imagery. At the same time, Filleul’s practice is shaped by close working relationships with other trans women, grounded in shared experiences and material conditions.
Collaboration and mutual support emerge here not as ideas of community or care, but as practical necessities within a context in which transfeminine artists remain underrepresented and often work under precarious conditions.
A publication will accompany the exhibition, produced in cooperation with Ix Dartayre. In spring 2027, the exhibition will also be presented at a second venue, the KWS Art Lounge in Einbeck.
Mona Filleul (1993 in Mulhouse, France) lives and works in Brussels and Paris. Recent exhibitions include the Kölnischer Kunstverein (2026), as well as solo exhibitions at the Swiss Institute in New York and Air de Paris (2025). In 2023, shereceived the Swiss Art Award and completed a residency at WIELS. A major solo exhibition at Kanal – Centre Pompidou in Brussels is planned for 2027.
Together with Ix Dartayre, she founded Tr@N$Fem PrAx1S, a curatorial project which will present No Heart No Chance at Mécènes du Sud in May 2027, bringing together transfeminine artists through collaborations grounded in pre-existing affinities.
Saturday, September 26, 2026, 5 pm
Welcome
Florian Haacke, Chairperson
Greetings
Michael Büchting, AKB Foundation, Einbeck
Introduction
Miriam Bettin, Director