Timo Menke is an interdisciplinary artist, director, and writer based in Stockholm. His practice is driven by an interest in dark objects, processes and methodologies to cultivate a “dark holism” – a new cosmopolitics of the dark encompassing the paradoxical complexity of (w)holeness. Using a wide spectrum of light-sensitive, performative, conceptual and text-based methods, his works deal with various forms of nature-cultures and their entangled histories, phenomena, and agencies – from Danish sperm donors to Finnish male choirs, from a defunct Swedish mine to a waste landfill in Southern Sweden. His work unfolds in both studio- and research-based, site-specific and trans-material processes. Menke is currently working on the long-term project Making the World (W)hole Again reflecting our eco-oedipal dilemma – to chase the enemy we ourselves are in order to save the world.
Menke graduated from Konstfack in 1999 where he also taught as Assistant Professor in the Art Department between 2004-2014. Menke is represented by Moderna Museet Stockholm, Kalmar konstmuseum, Pori Art Museum and is distributed by Filmform – The Art Film and Video Archive. He holds major grants from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee/IASPIS and is on the board (Treasurer) of The Nordic Art Association (NKF) – a nonprofit organisation dedicated to the visual arts in the Nordic countries, aiming to create networks and dialogue both locally, nationally and internationally.