Johanna Ralser
Curator, researcher, stage & costume designer
Johanna Ralser’s practice unfolds at the political and social intersections of the performative, encompassing curatorial as well as other assembling and process-based artistic disciplines. Their work cruises between institutional and self-organized contexts—from university teaching to freelance theatre work and curatorial projects developed within collective structures. Driven by a search for strategies that do not merely endure difference but translate it into productive forms of relation, Ralser’s research focuses on theories of solidarity, resistance, and care. Learning from and thinking with queer-feminist, decolonial, and discrimination-sensitive positions, Ralser understands these perspectives as resources for imagining the not-yet: worlds beyond patriarchal, capitalist, hegemonic, imperialist, orientalist, antisemitic, fascist, racist, and heteronormative realities.
Selected work
- 01 2023 — 2025 Curatorial
Beyond Orientalism(s) – Towards New Infrastructures
A collaborative project between the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and the American University of Beirut, experimenting with modes of working-together that seek to rebuild trust, negotiate positionality, and probe the limits of dialogue when inherited vocabularies falter.
- 02 2023 Curatorial
Embodying Resistance
Developed in collaboration with cultural workers and activists from the Woman, Life, Freedom* movements, this project explores movement as political transformation, embodied resistance, and self-determined expression.
- 03 2025 — Stage Design
InterEuroVision
Stage and costume design for the performance InterEuroVision by the European performance collective Boys* in Sync, reviving the spirit of the 1968 Intervision music festival in Karlovy Vary.
- 04 Curatorial
Perspectives on War and Belonging – Contemporary Ukrainian Photography
An exhibition assembling reflections from Ukrainian documentary photographers and photography-based artists, developed in collaboration with Odesa Photo Days to preserve memories, envision futures, and document war crimes.
- 05 2024 — Artistic-Curatorial
Transforming Memories – Erinnerungen transformieren
A projection mapping on the Europahaus Leipzig broadening dominant historical narratives by integrating intersectional and (queer-)feminist perspectives on civic engagement before and after German reunification.
- 06 2025 — Curatorial
Curatorial Urgencies
A network and exchange forum reflecting on the evolving demands, potentials, and limits of curatorial practice in the face of global pluri-crises, marking the culmination of 16 years of the Cultures of the Curatorial program.