Ragunath V
DEEN

About

Space. Image. Motion.

Portrait of Ragunath V
Photographer with a medium-format camera in a sandstone canyon
Photographer with a camera on a cliff above the sea and a black beach in Iceland

Ragunath V is an architect, photographer and filmmaker. After studying architecture in Mumbai and completing a master’s degree at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, he deepened his passion for photography and took part in several exhibitions. His interdisciplinary work sits at the intersection of architecture, image and film.

He worked as a research associate at the University of Kassel and was a fellow of the Akademie der Künste, where the idea for his film The Watson’s Hotel took shape. Since 2010 he has worked in the parametric design group at schneider+schumacher in Frankfurt am Main, where he lives and works.

Experience

  • since 2010schneider+schumacher, Frankfurt am Main. Parametric design group.
  • since 2009Photographer and filmmaker at Kinobrigada, with Nathaniel Knop.
  • 2014–2018Film “The Watson’s Hotel”, funded by the Hessian Film Fund.
  • 2013–2014Fellow of the Junge Akademie, Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
  • 2012–2014Research assistant, University of Kassel, Digital Design Techniques.
  • 2008–2010Generators Communications, Frankfurt am Main. Trade-fair stands and display systems for Procter & Gamble EU.
  • 2006–2008Cornelsen + Seelinger Architekten, Darmstadt. Project work alongside the master’s studies.
  • 2003–2005Uttam Jain Architects & Planners, Mumbai. Project work in various roles.

Exhibitions and screenings

  • 2025“Zeitschichten: The Watson’s Hotel”, exhibition at the Kutscherhaus, AtelierFrankfurt, Frankfurt am Main.
  • 2025“Fields of Depth”, exhibition at Kunst in anderen Räumen, Frankfurt am Main.
  • 2024“The Watson’s Hotel” and “The Storyteller”, exhibition and screenings with Nathaniel Knop and Peter Rippl, Kunst in anderen Räumen, Frankfurt am Main.
  • 2023“Movimage”, photographs together with Ioannis Mandafounis (artistic director, Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company), Kunst in anderen Räumen, Frankfurt am Main.
  • 2020“The Watson’s Hotel”, exhibition and screening, basis e.V., Frankfurt am Main.
  • 2019World premiere of “The Watson’s Hotel”, Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt.
  • 2018Group exhibition “Mercedes 121”, curated by Galerie Perpetuel, OST>STERN, Frankfurt am Main.
  • 2013“A Formal Film in Nine Episodes, Prologue and Epilogue – A Critical Reader”: book and documentary on its making, presented at the MMK Frankfurt, the Goethe-Institut New Delhi and Project 88, Mumbai.
  • 2012Preview of the short film “3977.64” in a project space at Frankfurt Ostbahnhof; performance installation “untitled to superimpose” with Norbert Pape and Nina Vallon, Night of the Museums; installation “pi”, 3rd Dance Education Biennale, Frankfurt LAB.
  • 2011Solo exhibition “rough shots” in the dance panorama “rough cuts”, Frankfurt LAB; group exhibition “From Germany with love”, Galerie Vous Êtes Ici, Amsterdam.
  • 2010Solo exhibition “BLU-R”, Platform Sarai, Frankfurt; group exhibition “Haunted House” with the artist group et al., Alt-Sachsenhausen, Frankfurt.
  • 2010Photo essay “Chandigarh at 50” in Pidgin Number Nine, the architecture journal of Princeton University.
  • 2008Solo exhibition “Natur-Struktur” with the video project “Natural Dialectics”, Platform Sarai, Frankfurt; “Log”, sculpture and media installation with Michael Eddy, EXPLUM 2008, Puerto Lumbreras, Spain.
  • 2007Guest artist at “Bombay Connections” by Sandip Shah, Bewohnte Kunst Installation (bKi), Darmstadt.
  • 2006Solo exhibition at the law firm TaylorWessing, Frankfurt, during the Frankfurt Book Fair 2006 (guest of honour: India).

Awards

  • 2019Audience Award, Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt, for “The Watson’s Hotel”.
  • 2013IASS Tsuboi Award for the paper on the Parapluie.
  • 2007Prize of the Hessian Ministry of Culture for the best presentation, competition “Quo Vadis, Kultur Rhein Main?”.
  • 1999First prize “Environment Improvement”, Anjuman-e-Hamidi Foundation, Mumbai.

Further

  • 2012Accompanied Wolfgang Tillmans in Mumbai for his project “Neue Welt” (Kunsthaus Zürich, the book “Neue Welt”, Venice Architecture Biennale 2014).
  • since 2011Founding member of id_Frankfurt e.V. (Independent Dance Frankfurt): projects with dancers, choreographers and performance artists.
  • 2010Guest of Princeton University: field trip to Chandigarh with Prof. Beatriz Colomina.
  • 2009Field trip to the Netherlands at the invitation of Dan Graham: his works in Tilburg and at the Kröller-Müller Museum, buildings by Jan Duiker in Hilversum.
  • 2007Assisted Simon Starling on “Three Birds, Seven Stories. Interpolations and Bifurcations”, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin.

Education

  • 2005–2007Master of Arts, Advanced Architectural Design, Städelschule Frankfurt (class of Ben van Berkel).
  • 1998–2003Bachelor of Architecture, University of Mumbai.