Aram Bartholl

Aram Bartholl
photo by Eva Paulsen 2011
Born	Aram Bartholl 27 December 1972 Bremen, Germany
Nationality	German
Education	Berlin University of the Arts
Known for	contemporary art, digital art, conceptual art

Aram Bartholl (born December 27, 1972 in Bremen, Germany) is a Berlin-based conceptual artist known for his examination of the relationship between the digital and physical world. His works often deal with anonymity and privacy.

Aram Bartholl graduated from Berlin University of the Arts in 2001 with an engineer's degree in architecture. His graduate thesis "Bits on Location" won the 2001 Browserday competition. During Bartholl's studies, he held a nine-month internship position at the Rotterdam-based architecture office MVRDV. From 1996 to 2000, Bartholl was part of the artist group "Freies Fach" which was known for its discourse on urban matters and for its public interventions. He was also a member of the Internet-based Free Art and Technology Lab a.k.a. F.A.T. Lab founded by Evan Roth and James Powderly from 2009 until its discontinuation in 2015.

Aram Bartholl is variously identified as a media artist, a conceptual artist, a post-digital artist, and an interdisciplinary artist. Bartholl’s work has been associated with that of Constant Dullaart and Evan Roth among others. He meticulously examines the implications of digital media and the changes in environment and circumstance that have resulted; he attained global recognition for his seminal work, Map (2006), an installation in public space that bridges the real and virtual worlds. In Bartholl's play on video game adaptations, he also connects the virtual and real world in new ways.

Bartholl has also explored new curatorial formats to represent digital art. In SPEED SHOW gallery-like openings are created for browser-based artworks in public internet cafes. In 2014, Bartholl curated Full Screen an exhibition of digital art presented on a variety of screens, including wearables, featuring works by artists including Ai Weiwei, Constant Dullaart, Rafaël Rozendaal and Evan Roth.