I am an artist, filmmaker, writer and lecturer. Working in moving image, text, installation and lectures, I construct non-linear narratives that probe the ever shifting threshold of the human body in time. I have explored themes ranging from histories of metabolism, to the social and political histories of measurement standardization, the politics of waste, to histories of monsters in European science. Since 2017, much of my work is produced in the context of my ongoing collaboration with Sasha Litvintseva.
I have presented work in festivals, exhibitions and conferences globally including: Berlinale, International Film Festival Rotterdam, CPH:DOX, Courtisane, Museum of Moving Image New York, Eye Film Museum Amsterdam, Criterion Channel, EXiS Seoul, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Los Angeles Film Forum, Berlin Atonal, Venice Biennale, White Columns among many others. My work has been featured in Artforum, BOMB Magazine, Filmmaker Magazine, Spike Magazine Quarterly, Frieze Magazine, Kaleidoscope Press and Flash Art. My writing has been published in e-flux, Diaphanes, Valiz, among others. My films have won numerous awards including Best Short Film at IndieLisboa and Best Short Documentary at Guanajuato International Film Festival.
I am a film lecturer at University College London on the BA Media degree in the Department of Culture, Communication, Media. I am currently finishing my PhD at the Archaeologies of Media and Technology Research Group at Winchester School of Art, Southampton University, scheduled for submission in November 2023. Between 2021-2023 I was a film associate lecturer at Queen Mary University London. Between 2017-2021 I was a fine art lecturer at Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam and I've been a guest lecturer at numerous academies and universities across Europe, UK, USA. I was a researcher at Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht in 2015-6. I received my BA from Bard College, New York in 2008.
Contact: benywagner@gmail.com