Isabel Lewis

Artist and choreographer Isabel Lewis (1981) lives and works in Berlin.

Her previous work includes performing for various choreographers and showing commissioned works at The Kitchen, the New Museum Movement Research at Judson Church, as well as the Dia Foundation in New York City. Having studied literature, dance and philosophy, she develops her work in a variety of forms, including lectures, workshops, music sessions, and parties. She has also initiated large-scale artistic-programmatic projects, such as the Institute for Embodied Creative Practices.

Lewis explores themes such as open source technology and dance improvisation, social dance as a cultural archive (“Mountain Grass, Mountain Hare: bodily imprinting and social dances”, 2012), collaboratively realised artistic formats (“Communal EPIC Fiction”, 2010), body techniques of the future (“BALLISTIC BODY”, 2012) and rapping as an embodied speech act (“FLOW PLAY: Sensualized Speech and Hip Hop”, 2013). Lewis aims to create multi-sensory experiences in her performances, transcending formal boundaries and placing the collective at the centre. Her preferred terminology for much of her work is “occasions”: immersive social gatherings that can include choreography, performance, installations, workshops or tea ceremonies.

Lewis’ solo exhibition “Scalable Skeletal Escalator ” was held at the Kunsthalle Zürich in 2020, and in 2019 she participated in the Sharjah Biennial and realised a site-specific performance at Gropius Bau in Berlin. Her work has also been shown at Serpentine Galleries, Kampnagel and Hebbel am Ufer, Tate Modern, Palais de Tokyo, Frieze London, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Kunsthalle Basel and Liverpool Biennial, among others.

In 2021, she began a long-term collaboration with TBA21 Academy with a first new commission for Ocean Space, their Venetian exhibition venue. In the same year, she co-curated the “Existing Otherwise” programme with Solvej Ovesen at Galerie Wedding in Berlin.