"When I hang high, naked in a tree, from my portable hoister. Swaying in the wind, enjoying a cigarette and the view, then I am defying expectations placed on my physical appearance. The starting point for my artistic practice is the norms governing body and behaviour, and how these shape perceptions of people with disabilities. Using self portraits and video performances, I try to create a discrepancy between bodily constituents and societal structure. Alongside a critique of overachievement and exclusion, my images aim to make space for identification, self-determination and autonomy."

Katrin Bittl is an artist, freelance author and peer advisor for disabled artists. She studied sculpture until 2023 in Professor Hermann Pitz's class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. At the centre of her work is the deconstruction of norms that govern body and behaviour. Using painting and video performance, she depicts the interaction of body, machine and nature and thereby addresses questions surrounding care and productivity. Her video works have been shown at >PRESENTS:2023< HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and Vivo Canada (2023), as well as at the Loop City Screen Festival (2025) in Barcelona. For her work, she has also been awarded the Akademieverein’s Diploma Prize (2023), the City of Munich’s Visual Arts Scholarship (2024), and the PIK Mentoring Programme for disabled leadership from the Federal Cultural Foundation (2023).

Katrin Bittl works as a visual artist and freelance writer on issues of social participation, productivity and the deconstruction of norms. In her video performances, paintings, and drawings, she portrays her naked body—which is dependent on support—as both self-assured and vulnerable.
By looking beyond her specific situation, Bittl makes dependencies and the essential role of human connections tangible. Katrin Bittl also engages critically with the latest technologies. She responds to an AI’s failure—its inability to recognize a body in a wheelchair as a human being—by creating a new digital plant-like creature with the appearance of human skin. Digital drawing allows the artist to conceive her works on a larger-than-life scale. In contrast, her finely crafted small-format paintings and drawings place people with disabilities within a natural context or show them engaged in joyful activities, thereby demanding visibility.
Bittl’s work enriches Munich’s contemporary art scene with a valuable perspective of sociopolitical relevance.