Robert Gärtner

Born 1976 in Jena/Germany. 

Robert Gärtner has continuously worked as media artist and in the cultural sector alongside his five-year job as a bicycle mechanic, his A-Levels at the Sports School in Jena, his training as an prosthetist at REK Eisenberg and his training in several martial arts.

From 2002 to 2009, he was part of the founding and managing group of the CALEIDOSPHERES, a center for free art and culture in Jena, which has developed into one of the largest of its kind within the last seven years. After the loss of this venue, he focused on his work as a photographer, media designer and choreographer, and began to work in other institutions, projects and theater productions, including some in the Theaterhaus Jena.

In 2010 he received a short-term scholarship by the Akademie Schloss Solitude for art coordination/technical management in order to coordinate the performance series »Territories of the In/Human« at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart. He was honored for his work in establishing the CALEIDOSPHERES e.V. with the »Kulturriesen« prize distributed by the LAG Soziokultur Thuringia.

Since 2010 he has been working on theater productions by Bernhard Dechant as well as his own projects in design, photo, film, installation and theater. Since 2012 he has been involved in the foundation of the Academy »Hohes Gut« in Remderoda near Jena.

The practice of martial arts and self-defence he has been doing ever since his thirteenth birthday has also influenced the content of his artistic work. Furthermore, these practices enabled him to finance himself as a bouncer, a security consultant as well as as coordinator for various socio-cultural centers, cultural institutions and major events in Jena, Weimar and the surrounding area. He also worked as a coach and mediator for violence prevention, self-defence and conflict management.

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