Verena Stenke

Verena Stenke is a German artist, filmmaker and curator. Since 2006, she has been working together with Andrea Pagnes as VestAndPage in performance art, performance-based film, writing, publishing and with temporary artistic community projects. Between 2010 and 2012 they worked, studied and travelled widely in Antarctica, South America and Asia, where they produced performance cycles and the performance-based film trilogy "sin fin", and strengthened their international network. Between 2014 and 2017, alongside further annual live performance cycles, VestAndPage produced "Plantain", the performance-based feature film on a month-long performance walk from Northern Germany through Poland to the Russian region of Kaliningrad in May/June 2015. The project is based on true historic events of the escape of Stenke's family in the civil exodus from former East Prussia in winter 1945. In 2020, they published their Manifesto on Performance-Based Filmmaking "Poetics of Relations". In 2021, they are producing their performance-based feature documentary on Deep Time, "Strata", in caves of human prehistory with the contribution of over 30 international artists and scientists. VestAndPage's independent art practice is contextual and situation-responsive, conceived psycho-geographically in response to social contexts, natural surroundings, historical sites and architectures. They are devoted to a poetic approach to experimental, personal filmmaking based on performance art, questioning our perception of reality, and how we process and store information. Their works have been presented in museums, galleries, theatres, cinemas and a variety of sites worldwide. Their writings have been extensively published and translated for international readers.