Pilotenkueche is an internationally recognized, artist-run residency and exhibition program based in Leipzig, Germany. Founded in 2007 by Vienna-born artist Christoph Mayer, it has supported emerging and mid-career artists through creative exchange, collaboration, and public presentation.
During her residency, Emmeline Joy Morris developed works that extended her ongoing practice while responding directly to the context of Leipzig. Her time at Pilotenkueche became a process of negotiating presence within a foreign and often uncomfortable environment, using her practice as a means of unification and grounding. Through this engagement, Morris continued her exploration of connection and disconnection, situating her own embodied experience within the wider social and cultural fabric of place.
Synchronise (Unity)
(2024)
Mixed Media installation, ceramic, wine on textile, Papier-mâché
Video 22:22
Video from 'Unity' series at artist residency Pilotenkueche in Leipzig. The series reflects Emmeline's integration with the environment emphasising the creation of comfortable settings within landscapes. It explores the humanistic urge to integrate into one's environment for survival. experiencing both inspiration and trepidation in unfamiliar places. It's a fight for unity and an invitation to witness the battle. The footage captures real footage of Emmeline becoming trapped within an abandoned building while a storm ravages outside; the audience surveils her experience as she breaks down after going through autistic burnout fighting the universe and her own hopelessness and finding understanding and acceptance in herself and her environment. The video can be watched in any order of intervals as it is up to the audience's perspective of battle.
‘Comfort substance (Wein)’ (2024)
Mixed media, painting, found objects, wine,
82x29cm
Reflecting the connection between home and comforts that delves into the complex interplay between substance abuse, neurodiversity, and the sanctuary of home. Connecting a painting medium of red wine with my ‘flesh ceramic’ self, challenging the preconceived understanding of the neurodivergent experience.
‘I need mein bed’
Mixed media, textile, stoneware ceramic
66x66cm
At the heart of this narrative lies the symbolic representation of my bed – my refuge, my sanctuary. Here, amidst the tumult of overstimulation and the quest for solace, I confront the dualities of comfort and chaos, safety and self-destruction. It is within these hallowed confines that the true complexities of neurodiverse identity are laid bare.
‘Ich Leibe Leipzig (mug)’
Stoneware ceramic
45x27cm
The “I Love Leipzig” mug and accompanying Flesh Totem operate as both throne and monument, commemorating a life lived in Leipzig during Emmeline’s residency. The work takes its title from a group chat created with two close friends she formed a deep bond with during this time. Atop a ceramic plinth sculpted to resemble Emmeline’s own flesh in a fountain-like form the mug becomes a symbolic relic of place, intimacy, and belonging.
The totem is playfully adorned with kitsch horse stickers, referencing a series of synchronicities in which horses repeatedly appeared to Emmeline throughout her stay. She came to see herself and her two friends as these horses: running free, yet always as visitors within a temporary home. By elevating the tourist souvenir to the status of artifact, the work reflects both assimilation and distance embracing the city as one’s own while simultaneously romanticising it through the lens of transience and memory.