Biography

The research-oriented practice of artist, writer and video essayist Ursula Biemann has centred on migration, mobility, technology, gender and ecology. To investigate climate change and the ecologies of oil, forest, ice and water, she has conducted fieldwork in remote locations.

Biemann’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, Austria (2014); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2013) and Helmhaus, Zurich (2009). Her work has also been exhibited at Sharjah Biennial 13 (in collaboration with Paulo Tavares) (2017); School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University, Boston, US (2017); Centro de las Artes de Sevilla, Spain (2016); Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2016); National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (2016); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2015); Biennial Thessaloniki, Greece (2015); Tate Modern, London (2015) and Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow (2013), among others. In collaboration with Shuruq Harb, she established the internet platform ArtTerritories (AT), which she and Harb presented at March Meeting, Sharjah Art Foundation (2011), and she has a number of publications, including Stuff It: The Video Essay in the Digital Age (2003), which she edited.

Biemann studied at the School of Visual Arts, New York (BFA, 1986) and Whitney Independent Study Program, New York (1988). She received a Doctor Honoris Causa in Humanities from Umeå University, Sweden (2008) and the Swiss Grand Award for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim (2009).

She was born in 1955 in Zurich, where she continues to live and work.

This person was part of Sharjah Biennial 13 and March Meeting 2011.

Related Content