Artefacting Public Art + Research Practice

From Left to right: Pia, Alex, Christoph, Gregor, Inka, Christina, Steffi, Thien, Julia, Matthias

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		Alex White-Mazzarella is the Founding Director of Artefacting. An artist, social animator & facilitator, he sparked Artefacting as an initiative geared towards utilizing art, collaboration and positivity to build communities capable of confronting pressing social and cultural issues of local neighborhodds. With courage, multiculturalism and global insight in hand, Alex is passionate about bringing diverse audiences together. Through Artefacting he conducts artistic interventions from the inside of a community out to spawn fresh perspective and boost social cohesion. He received his BA in economics at Clark University (2002) and studied Urban Planning & Architecture at Portland State University and Universidad Politecnica de Barcelona. He developed and realized the Central Waterfront Planning and Design Competition as the Program Manager of Designing Hong Kong before moving to New York to turn his attention to artwork, painting under Hugo Bastidas, Phillip Sherrod and Larry Poons at the Art Students League. His work is in private collections in the USA, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway and India and he exhibits regularly in New York City. www.lamazza.com is his personal website.

		Gregor Leschig A person walks through a space. Another person observes him walking. The person walking through the space knows about his observation. Consciously or unconsciously he will decide for a certain presentation of himself – for a certain attitude, for a certain bearing. He asks himself: Which impression do I evoke? Which impression do I want to evoke? How do I convey the person which I think I am to the other individual. How do I convey the person which I want to be? The presentation of oneself onstage and the self-presentation in ones occupation or private life is my subject. Gregor Leschig - Stagings. bin-ich-arbeit.de is the website of his theatrical practice.

		Julia Haarmann is a founding member of CAT Cologne e.V. (Community Art Team). Julia studied art history, sociology and English at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Sorbonne, Paris, and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. After her M.A. at HU Berlin she achieved a certificate of Art Administration at New York University. Julia has been working for art galleries in Berlin and Cologne since 2005. The capacity of art to fundamentally affect people’s perception, experiencing and eventually mental attitudes has been the driving force for her engagement for sustainable art projects. The wish to support artists that are engaged in community based projects and to connect people with contemporary art has been the impulse for CAT Cologne.

		Pia Spangenberger was awarded a Diploma in Economics from the University of Cologne. Upon completing her degree, she relocated to New York where she worked for the German American Chamber of Commerce (AHK New York) and where she completed the course “The Politics of International Economic Relations” at New York University. Pia currently works for the NGO Wila Bonn in the field of Labor and Training for Renewable Energies. She is also writing her doctoral thesis about job motivation in the Renewable Energy industry at the Technische Universtität Berlin. Due to her interest in art and culture, she devotes her free time to the work at CAT Cologne e.V.

		Matthias Mayr was born in Cologne and still lives here. Due too his interest in bringing people and energies together and his differing experiences in the art-scene, he chose to become a cat-member right from the groups inception. Secretly he dreams of becoming a filmmaker for animal documentaries.