Art Taaalkssss: Isabel Lewis

Isabel Lewis during Womxn in Motion, Master symposium, Art Institute HGK FHNW, 2020, photo: Jennifer Merlyn Scherler

Trained in literary criticism, dance and philosophy, Isabel Lewis’s persistent experimentation and embodied research practices create formats for alternative modes of sociality between human and more-than-human agents in transdisciplinary ways. Lewis’s work takes on many different formats, from lecture-performances and workshops to listening sessions, gardens, and what she calls “hosted occasions” or parties, including the nine-year-running Bodysnatch, which she created in Berlin together with Justin Kennedy. She has created works around open source technology and dance improvisation, social dances as cultural storage systems, collaborative choreographic formats, future bodily techniques and rapping as embodied speech acts. Her live artworks have been presented in contexts of contemporary art, music, dance, and theater at Kunsthalle Zürich (2020); Sharjah Biennial (2019); Roskilde Festival (2019); Berliner Festspiele, Gropius Bau (2018); Tate Modern, London (2017); Steirischer Herbst, Graz (2017); Dia Art Foundation, Beacon, NY (2016); Ming Contemporary Art Museum Shanghai (2016); Tanz im August, Berlin (2015) among others.