Biography

Maya Schweizer's cinematic works revolve around questions of history, identity and memory. Urban spaces as interfaces of individual and collective modes of action are often the starting point of her observation. In her perception of these places and spaces, she uncovers social realities, inscribed narratives and overlapping histories.

Maya Schweizer, born in Paris, studied art and art history in Aix-en-Provence, at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB) and at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin, where she graduated as a “Master Student” (Meisterschülerin) of Lothar Baumgarten in 2007. Schweizer works with different media, with a particular focus on experimental video works. She has had numerous solo exhibitions (including Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster 2010, Frankfurter Kunstverein 2011, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden 2014, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin  2016, Kunstverein Leipzig 2018, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, 2020/21) and has shown her work in group exhibitions and at biennials (including Berlin Biennale, 2006, Centre Georges Pompidou, 2007, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, 2013, Kunsthaus Dresden, 2016, Anren Biennale 2017, China, Manifesta 13, 2020, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin 2020, Forum Expanded exhibition of the Berlin Biennale 2022).

Her films have already been selected for numerous festivals and events, including Forum expanded during the 67th and the 71.rst Berlinale (2017 and 2022), the Vancouver International Film Festival (2017, 2020), The Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022), the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021). In 2019 her film L’étoile de mer was awarded by the e-flux prize.
Examples of the grants, project grants and residencies she has received include a grant from the Villa Aurora, Los Angeles (2008), the work grant from the Senate of Berlin (2019), the research grant, from the Senate of Berlin (2017 and 2021), the Film/Video Female Artists Program from the Senate of Berlin, (2008 and 2021).

In 2009 Maya Schweizer was awarded by the Toni and Albrecht Kumm Prize for the Support of the Fine Arts, Studio Award of the Friends of the udK, and the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft.
In 2022 she was awarded the HAP Grieshaber Prize, a German art prize awarded annually by the Stiftung Kunstfonds and VG Bild-Kunst.

So far, four monographs on her work have been published: Voices, (Walther and Franz König, 2121), Where Ivy Cracks The Wall (Naima, Paris / Berlin 2019), Lieux de Mémoire and Desire (Archive Books, Berlin 2015) and Maya Schweizer The Same Story Elsewhere (Spector Books, Leipzig 2010).

Maya Schweizer works in Germany and France.