Under the name Picaroon, the Munich based artist Rebecca Gischel (1989) creates interactive art installations since 2013.
Rebecca studied Interaction Design (MA) in Edinburgh, Scotland, and graduated in 2013. After she was invited to exhibit her interactive installation "Global Sounds" at the Ars Electronica Festival 2013, she decided to pursue a career as an interactive installation artist and found "Picaroon" in the same year.
Picaroon [ˌpɪkəˈruːn] is an archaic English word which means adventurer. Rebecca often collaborates with friends from other disciplines on the realization of her installations, such as composers, musicians or engineers. Therefore, she invented the artist name Picaroon for indicating the collaborative aspect of her work.
After graduation, she stayed in Edinburgh for some time to work on a new installation, while she was working as a lecturer for interactive experiences at Napier University of Edinburgh on the side. In 2015, she moved to Munich, Germany, where she works and lives today. In 2018, she was invited a second time to the Ars Electronica Festival in order to exhibit her installation „SURFACE X“.
Picaroon works with light, music or kinetic elements. It is only through the presence and interaction of human beings that the installations come to life and can be fully experienced.
Picaroon seeks to make feelings or philosophical ideas actually tangible to the visitor. For example, cultural enrichment through diversity, the feeling of comfort or the chance to find one‘s own compass through a boundary experience.
Her installations have been shown several times at renowned art festivals, such as the Ars Electronica Festival 2013 and 2018 (Linz, AT), at the Kunstareal-Fest 2023 (Munich, DE) or the Aurora Light Festival 2015 (Dallas, USA).
Besides her installations, which can take 1-3 years to complete, she also works in the field of abstract paintings where the process of creation is highly different. Her paintings start from strong feelings which she cannot express in words. She creates her paintings impulsively over the course of several nights, each night painting over, scraping or obliterating the previous night‘s process until the initial feeling has gotten captured eventually.
Picaroon sees the human being at the center of her installations.
a selection of past EXHIBITIONS:
SPECULUM ARTIUM 2024
in Trbovlje (SI)
18th - 21th September 2024
exhibiting Take Comfort
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Exhibition at the Kunstareal-Fest 2023
in Munich, DE
14th July – 16th July 2023
exhibiting "Global Sounds"
Solo exhibition "Sediments" at Galerini 2023
in Munich (DE)
1st July – 24th July 2023
presenting her abstract paintings at the Schwabinger Kunstverein
Solo exhibition at the art gallery Galerini
in Munich, DE
08th February – 12th February 2023
exhibiting the interactive installation "Take Comfort"
Group exhibition at Galeria Azur
in Madrid, ES
27th October – 27th November 2022
presenting her abstract paintings "Ancient Light" and "Phantom"
Solo exhibition "Sediments"
in Munich, DE
2022
presenting her abstract paintings at the pop up gallery Runde Ringe
Ars Electronica Festival
in Linz, AT
2018
presenting SURFACE X
Youtube: Ars Electronica 2018 – Best Of
AURORA Light Festival
in Dallas, USA
2015
presenting GLOBAL SOUNDS
Youtube: DALLAS AURORA 2015
3D Printshow
in London, UK
2014
presenting TANGIBLE ORCHESTRA
Ars Electronica Festival
in Linz, AT
2013
presenting GLOBAL SOUNDS
Ars Electronica Blog
Glasgow Science Centre
in Glasgow, UK
2014
presenting TANGIBLE ORCHESTRA
Vimeo: Tangible Orchestra in the Glasgow Science CentrePicaroon was awarded several sponsorships and funds, among others by the Goethe-Institute, the Arts Trust Scotland and the ideasTap Britain.