Bio

Ulla Deventer was born in Germany and works international, mostly in Ghana, Cuba and Europe. She graduated at the HFBK Hamburg, D, KASK Antwerp, BE, and currently is a PhD candidate at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Ulla Deventer’s multi-media and research-based work is driven by her fascination of the interconnections of intimacy, control and violence. Using materials such as color photography, recorded voices, sound, fabrics and other related objects. Her practice is shaped by long-term international collaborations with female sex workers, women who have experienced domestic violence, and her own personal experiences, as well as her lifelong connection to domestic horses. She is especially interested in the interconnections of animal abuse and social violence and trauma. The horse as prey animal, with more highly developed senses than human opens her new perspectives on investigating these principles. Horses can smell our emotions, even synchronise with our heartbeat and thus respond to our fears. Horses are successfully used for trauma therapy, while in high performance sports abusive structures still prevail. W.Lynch manifests as early as 1712 how "keep the body, take the mind" works on horses and humans alike. Domestication reflects principles of power, at the same time our desire for closeness.