Theresa Reiwer / she/her
is a Berlin-based (post)digital artist who was recently honored with the Lumen Prize Gold Award (London, UK). In her practice, she expands physical spaces with video and XR technologies, drawing on pop-cultural and neoliberal phenomena. Since 2018, she has been conducting artistic and critical research into AI: both as a mirror of societal paradigms and as a projection surface for speculative visions of the future. In collaboration with other authors and artificial intelligence, she writes the texts for her productions.
In her site-specific narrative space „Slow Rooms“ (Mart Stam Prize 19), she placed a fictional showroom of a future feel-good home inside an apartment building actually threatened by modernization. The equally smart, this time mobile and „site-symbiotic“ follow-up project „Social Capsule“ (21) introduces a humanoid AR avatar as a roommate and emotions coach. In the expanded video and spatial installation „Decoding Bias“ (23, Lumen Prize Gold Award, BBA Artist Prize 24), eight AIs come together for group therapy to heal their algorithmic biases. In the partially interactive multi-channel video and spatial installation „Lasting Generation,“ AIs invite audiences to a symposium on climate care and interspecies solidarity (finalist Golden Cube Award/Kasseler Dokfest).
Theresa’s works have been shown internationally in theaters and exhibition contexts, including Ars Electronica „Who Owns The Truth?“ in Linz (AT) and as Ars Electronica Export for „RE COGNITION: WHAT IS REAL?“ in Istanbul (TR), as well as Kaserne Basel (CH), „Asia Digital Art Exhibition“ at the Three Hills and Five Gardens Museum Beijing (CN), Chengdu Biennale, Beyond Basel Miami (USA), Next Level Festival in Dortmund, Schauspielhaus Graz (AT), Bahídora Mexico, Kasseler Dokfest „Monitoring“, NAOM Stockholm (SE), Refresh Festival Zurich, and in Berlin at HAU Hebbel am Ufer for Spy on Me and IETM, re:publica Offstage „Generation XYZ,“ Prater Digital/SOMA Art „Thirsty Machines: AI on Tap,“ Ballhaus Ost, Kindl – Centre for Contemporary Art, „100 Years of Tempelhof Airport,“ Kühlhaus Berlin, Monopol at Berlin Art Week, the Performing Arts Festival, „Today is a Good Day to discuss Digital Rights“ at Espacio Fundación Telefónica Madrid, STRP Eindhoven „Soft, Slow and Powerful“, ATA Festival Zurich, and Marburger Kunstverein.
Theresa was a jury member of the AI short film competition „AIsolation“ by Goethe-Institute China among others. As a speaker, she has appeared at symposia, participated in panel discussions (including Ars Electronica, Ars Electronica Export, at ZHdK, Zurich/CH), and held guest lectureships (HTW Berlin, University Oldenburg). She herself studied at FU Berlin (Film Studies, Theatre Studies), the Berlin Weißensee School of Art (Fine Art, Stage Design / Deutschlandstipendium), and Bilgi Üniversitesi Istanbul (Media Art). She was a fellow of the Berlin emerging artists funding program „Elsa Neumann,“ received research and work grants from the Academy of Arts, the Senate, and others, as well as project funding from federal, state, and various private foundations (including Fonds DaKü and Hauptstadtkulturfonds).
In 2025, she received a grant for a new media art work for the Haus for Media Art (formerly „Edith Russ“) in Oldenburg which will be presented there for the first time during her solo exhibition in 2027. Currently she is working on a new spatial game and essayistic video lecture „Internet Explorer“ that will premiere 12 September 2026 at HAU Hebbel am Ufer during Berlin Art Week.