Christopher Wessels’ current practice is looking at methods and technologies that can be employed in the advancement of thaumaturgy, exploring how we can alter the perception of thaumaturgy as an individualist pursuit that appears almost ontological if one were to look only to children’s fantasy stories and the canon of Disneyland. This workshop seeks to shift thaumaturgy to a collective practice and in the process commit the disobediences (epistemic for example) that are necessary to unlock a new wonder. In veering thaumaturgy away from the need to see the end or spectacle, we will instead investigate the thauma in processes of being together, of sharing.

About Christopher Wessels

Christopher Wessels (1976) lives between Finland and South Africa. He is a founding member of Third Space, a collective of artists and curators in Helsinki. He is also a founding member and co-director of the Museum of Impossible Forms (m). At the Mänttä 2015 Summer Art Festival he was part of the Third Space curatorial team invited by Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger. Christopher has worked as director of photography on seven feature films, various music videos, documentaries and art installations. He regularly collaborates with Mieke Bal (Dutch theorist and video artist) and Tracey Rose. He has been working in the film and television industry for 17 years. In 2006 his graduation project Ongeriewe, of which he was co-writer and Director of Photography, was a finalist in competition (Court Métrage) at the Cannes film festival. Christopher was awarded Best Newcomer at the Durban International Film Festival 2006 for his role in Ongeriewe, and the film was awarded best South African short film at the same festival. Christopher’s latest work as a DOP is Rafiki by Wanuri Kahui and Aland by Thomas Germaine. He is a husla pipping subjectivities who seeks to unsettle the constructs of coloniality.