ABOUT AKIZ

"I am a multidisciplinary visual artist, living in Berlin. I live to tell stories and I love translucent surfaces and concrete. Abstract sounds. William Blake. Trakl. Expressionism and Brutalism. In my films, novels, pictures and sculptures I explore some a kind of mythology, the origin of which I believe to be found in unknown, superhuman fields of consciousness or cosmic phenomena. Recurring elements in my work are intoxicating, ecstatic and delusional moments, as well as creatures who remind me of gatekeepers or archaic deities. I am fascinated by the concept of chaos and its effect on structures of order and I would describe the Phantastik and German expressionism of the 20s as the greatest influence on my art "

AKIZ, born 1969 studied painting and photography at the Art School in Stuttgart as well as directing and screenwriting at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy, where his graduate film was nominated for the Academy Awards student Oscar.

In 1995 he received a postgraduate scholarship at the University of Southern California for Screenwriting.

In 1997 he directed his debut feature film "Schools Out" and continued to work as a commissioned director for television fiction films and music videos.

In 1999 he moved to Los Angeles for four years. It was there when he started to design and build the creature "Der Nachtmahr".

In 2006 he directed the feature film "Eight Miles High" for Warner Brothers, a biopic about the first German pop star icon of the 1960s, Uschi Obermaier. The film was nominated in two categories for the German Film Academie Award and was awarded with the Prädikat Besonders Wertvoll. 2012 the film was screened 2012 at the MoMa in New York during a show of Kim Gordon.

In 2008 AKIZ exhibited his artwork in a group show at the Engine Collision Fest which was curated by DAVID LYNCH and the Bizzurke Army in Los Angeles.

In 2010 he started to teach feature film directing at the Filmakademie Baden Württemberg where he is still teaching up to today. In the same year he directed the Video Art Happening "PAINTING REALITY "which went viral, got picked up by BANKSY and got featured in his documentary "THE ANTICS ROADSHOW" about "famous pranks and acts of activism which have become iconic" (watch at minute 35:30).

In 2013 "Painting Reality" was screened at the SAATCHI GALLERY in the exhibition “Red never follows” in London and went on to inspire street activists around the globe such as Greenpeace who did their climate summit activist statement in Paris and Berlin based on the concept of "Painting Reality".

In the years between 2009 and 2012 AKIZ was collaborating with video artist Philipp Virus on various audio-visual projects such as Atari Teenage Riot or Dinosaur Jr. 

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In 2013, AKIZ shot his most ambitious feature film project "DER NACHTMAHR" with KIM GORDON, which premiered at the International Filmfestival of Locarno in 2015 and was invited to over 50 international film festivals and won several awards.

In 2020 AKIZ's first novel "DER HUND" was published by Hanser Verlag,  won the Award as Best Debut Novel at Europas biggest literature festival Lit.Cologne and got translated and published in Italy by Mondadori and in France by Flammarion.  

AKIZ is currently working on his second novel which is set to be published by Hanser Verlag in 2022 and on the launch of his artwork as NFTs.