Ellen Semen was born in Hamburg in 1971. She studied painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart (1992-2001) with Prof. Peter Chevalier (1996-1999), at the Surikov Institute in Moscow (1998), at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille (1999) and art and intermedial design with Sotorius Michou in Stuttgart (1999-2001).
In 1999 Semen received the Academy Award of the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart for painting and the scholarship Marseille (German-French Youth Work). In 1998, the scholarship Moscow (Künstlerweg e.V.).
Since 1996, numerous solo and group exhibitions in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The painter and draftswoman with Croatian roots surprises with images in which the longing for a conflict-free world shines through, but in which violence immediately breaks in. The superficially lovely painting takes the viewer into an unadorned reality in which unexpected pictorial elements repeatedly enter the pictorial space. They challenge the viewer and put him to a hard test. For the supposedly beautiful, innocent is infiltrated by the surprising, the unpleasant. Harmlessness is mixed with horror. In the end, the rich, luminous tones reconcile, creating a positive and optimistic impression. According to Ellen Semen, "My works are darkly conceived, but brightly desired. They try to secretly inscribe the utopia of peace into the real existing violence."
Kirstin Breitenfellner
Kirstin Breitenfellner was born in Vienna in 1966 and spent her childhood in Upper Austria, Tyrol and Hesse. She lives and works as a freelance author, literary critic, publicist and yoga teacher in Vienna and Upper Austria.
She studied German language and literature, philosophy and Russian at the universities of Heidelberg and Vienna. Diploma Heidelberg. Breitenfellner is married and has two children.
Breitenfellner wrote as a literary critic for media such as Falter, Standard, Wespennest and Radio Ö1. She has published 16 books. She currently oversees the monthly children's book page in Falter and the poetry reviews on www.poesiegalerie.at.
Novels: Maria malt, Picus, 2022 | Before the World Ended, Picus, 2017 | Overcoming the Possible, Horlemann, 2012 | Wrong Questions, Skarabæus, 2006 | The Lover's Reflex, Skarabæus, 2004.
In addition, numerous children's and nonfiction books.
Awards: Maria malt received three awards (Book of the Month November 2022 by Radio Ö1, Book of the Week 45/2022 by www.literaturhaus.at). | ORF-Bestenliste, place 9, January 2023.
State Scholarship for Literature 2006/07 | Book Award of the Federal Chancellery 2005 | Author Award of the Federal Chancellery 2004 | Author Scholarship of the City of Vienna 2003 | Award at the International Book Fair "Green Wave" in Odessa 2004 | Best Foreign Book / Best Translation 2003.