Diana Wesser

I'm an artist working in the fields of visual and performing arts with a focus on socially engaged art, urban explorations, community projects, (audio)walks and story telling. I describe my practice as urban performatism. I studied Media Art at the Academy of visuals Arts in Leipzig and postgraduated in the master class of Prof. Alba D’Urbano. In 2005 I founded the duo "urban (col)laboratory" together with English architect and artist Helen Stratford. In the UK I came in contact with socially engaged art which had a massive impact in my art practice. Since 2014 I'm working on the longterm participatory project "Leipziger Stadtteilexpeditionen" (Leipzig Quarter Expeditions) to explore the city of Leipzig from the perspective of its citizens (with Antje Rademacker & Sandra Plessing). The project has been awarded a Walking Visionaries Award – Jury Prize at the international conference Walk 21 Vienna in 2015.

Based on the experiences, actions and skills I learned during the process of each "Leipzig Quarter Expedition" I developed a practice that focuses on the creation of situations where people, who would not meet otherwise, can have encounters and personal talks. Behind this background I realised the project "A matter of faith" in Aarhus (2016) and Leipzig (2017) where people invited "the audience" into their homes, churches or backyards to have informal talks about faith, religion, fundamentalism or secularism.

Besides my practice as an artist I work as a curator. In 2010 I was the artistic director of the international performance festival ‘play! LEIPZIG – Movement in Public Space’ (with Patrick Primavesi). From this year on I'm the artistic director of the Leipziger performing arts festival (with Sandra Plessing).

Images don't really show what I do, so I do provide links to some of my projects.
leipziger-stadtteilexpeditionen.de
eine-frage-des-glaubens.de
urbancollaboratory.net