Ian Purnell
Connect South Africa
Ian Purnell (b.1988 in Basel) works in the intersection of visual arts, documentary filmmaking and performing arts. He studied experimental film and documentary formats at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and montage at the University of Film and Television Potsdam-Babelsberg. Ian Purnell's film and installation works are being showcased internationally. His hybrid feature length film in development, Arctic Link, was awarded with the 2020 Berlinale Kompagnon-Fellowship.
Ian Purnell is the Swiss artist recipient of Connect South Africa, together with South African artist Kamil Hassim. They will join a dual residency at CERN, and in the array of astronomy observatories across South Africa, at SAAO and SARAO. He aims to explore the visual concept of Black Holes and initiate a process of reflection on alternative imaging of the universe through his project proposal The Black Hole Image.
Photo by Lena Ditte Nissen