Philipp Modersohn's sculptures, animated films, and interdisciplinary projects highlight the vibrancy of things and matter. By confronting these with man-made structures and systems of social organization, he questions the division between biology and geology, life and non-life, and the resulting hierarchy of forms of existence. The non-human actors appear as alien and emancipated: In the video work a reporting rock, a stone has to respond to questions from an immigration officer; in Stone Trek, drill cores develop a life of their own at daylight; and in the fountain-like Autonomous Algae Plant, microalgae are brought into negotiations about their harmful bloom. In the short film Convict Concrete (work-in-progress, with Kasia Fudakowski), concrete is sued within a fictional courtroom drama.

After studying art at UdK Berlin and Columbia University New York, Philipp Modersohn currently lives and works in Berlin. He had solo exhibitions at Oldenburger Kunstverein (cement & weather, 2016) and Galerie Guido W. Baudach in Berlin (e.g., attitudes of heat, 2020), among others. Participation in group shows, including ones at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Kunstverein Göttingen, Stiftung Planetarium Berlin, and, upcoming in the summer of 2022, at Lantz'scher Skulpturenpark Düsseldorf.