Joscha Steffens

Joscha Steffens creates work about – and within – hidden communities that immerse themselves in an imaginary world. He focuses primarily on the game world – both virtual and live action – and its concepts of creating the avatar-self. Working across photography, video installation, games and film, his focus is on formats that require participants to transcend the boundaries of play, touching on a devotional level of gaming culture, its rituals and meanings within religious movements.

Steffens graduated from Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) in Leipzig and completed the post graduate program of Kunsthochschule für Medien (KHM) in Cologne. He was Artist in Residence at Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and appointed AIR Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in the Research Group of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS/KNAW). Since 2020 he is functioning as organiser and moderator of the art & science gameshow format Talking Heads in his hometown Heidelberg.

He was awarded with Wüstenrot Foundation Award for Documentary Photography (2017), Großer Kunstpreis Köln (2016), Mannheimer Kunstpreis of Heinrich-Vetter-Foundation (2020), among others.

His works in public and private collections include: Fotografische Sammlung Folkwang Museum Essen, Essen/Germany; DZ Bank Art Collection, Frankfurt/Germany; Art Collection of the European Central Bank, Frankfurt; Huis Marseille – Museum voor Fotografie, Amsterdam/Netherlands; Collectie Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam/Netherlands; Art Collection City of Heidelberg, Heidelberg/Germany and the HSG Collection Sankt Gallen, Sankt Gallen/Switzerland.