Fascinating drawings featuring sections of a human skull surrounded visual artist Johannes Weilandt in the studio of the Artists’ and Scholarship House as he explained his plans for his scholarship residency.
As part of this three-month scholarship, which Johannes Weilandt began on 1 October, he wants to take an in-depth look at the medical-historical representation of the human body.
Weilandt’s artistic practice is based on the question of how institutions inscribe themselves into our bodies, represent them, shape them and cause them to disappear. His interest also focuses on the experience of medical institutions from the perspective of patients, a topic that is increasingly being explored by medical history research. The source material from which he conceives his drawings and then develops them in an open process consists primarily of visual artefacts, such as photographs, hand drawings, schematic graphics and animations, which he finds in medical collections and archives.
During his stay at the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House, Weilandt will focus specifically on an anatomical exhibit from the Meckel Collections in Halle (Saale): the ‘Gall’s Skull’. This finely inscribed human skull shows 27 numbered zones marked with character traits or abilities such as belligerence, murderousness, astuteness, thirst for glory or prudence. In the early 19th century, it was believed that different areas of the brain were responsible for different characteristics and abilities and that these were visible in the external shape of the skull. In other words, the shape of the skull allowed conclusions to be drawn about a person’s personality and mental abilities. Despite the scientific refutation of this theory, it had far-reaching implications for police work and psychiatry in the 19th century, as well as for medicine during the Nazi era.
Inspired by his artistic research, Johannes Weilandt will explore the historical significance of the ‘Gall skull’ through drawing, drawing on sketches and notes he made during his time in Halle. The creative process will be subject to continuous reflection, from the choice of format to the drawing techniques used. Weilandt will also document the development of his artistic process in a specially designed work journal, which will accompany him on his journey.
The results of Weilandt’s project will be presented at the end of his residency at the Artist Café on 18 December 2025. You can look forward to a powerful artistic exploration that not only sharpens our view of the past, but also raises current questions about identity and attribution in the field of tension between art and science.
More about Johannes Weilandt
Johannes Weilandt, born in 1991 and raised in Halle (Saale), lives and works as a visual artist in Berlin and Halle Saale. He is a member of BBK-Berlin, VGBildkunst and the International Heiner Müller Society. From 2011 to 2017, he studied Fine Arts | Stage and Costume Design at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin. He also studied drawing and painting in Prof. Mark Lammert’s class at the Berlin University of the Arts during a guest semester in 2015 and drawing, painting and transmedia at the University of Arts in Belgrade in 2016. In 2022, he earned his master’s degree under Prof. Else Gabriel and Prof. Peter Schubert at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin. In 2023, Weilandt collaborated with the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine at the UKE Hamburg as part of his residency scholarship at the Künstlerhaus Lauenburg. In 2024, he conducted research in the Meckel Collections of the Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He has received several scholarships for his work, including from the Kunstfonds Foundation. His drawings have also been featured in various exhibitions, publications and collections, including together with Elske Rosenfeld at the festival ‘wohn_komplex, Festival zu 60 Jahre Halle Neustadt’ in 2024, which is sponsored by the Saxony-Anhalt Art Foundation.
You can find out more about Johannes Weilandt and his works here: https://www.johannesweilandt.de/
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