About

Katharina Gruzei, born 1983 in Klagenfurt, lives and works in Vienna and Linz, Austria.

She is an independent artist working across photography, video, film, sound, and installation. Her practice explores societal tendencies and socio-cultural issues, ranging from gender-related themes to questions shaped by urban environments. A central focus of her work lies in feminist concerns and projects in public space, often realized in site-specific contexts.

Katharina Gruzei studied Fine Arts in the class for Experimental Audiovisual Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Art and Industrial Design Linz, Austria. She studied abroad at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and at the Berlin University of the Arts in Katharina Sieverding's class for Visual Cultural Studies.

Her works have been shown in international exhibitions, biennials, and festivals. In 2016, she participated in the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art. In 2018, she had her first institutional solo show at the Lentos Museum of Contemporary Art in Linz and presented her works in a group exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan. She received the Award of the Salzburger Kunstverein and the Province of Salzburg in 2019 and had a solo show in the Cabinet of the Salzburger Kunstverein in 2020, while also participating in the exhibition “NOW. Collected” at Kunstforum in Vienna. Her monograph “Bodies of Work” was shortlisted for the German Book Awards 2019/20. In 2021, she published her long-term project “Mir Metro” about the Moscow Metro with the publisher Hatje Cantz, Berlin. In 2022, she had a one year solo show at the Museum Arbeitswelt (Museum of Work) in Steyr, Austria.

Katharina Gruzei is the recipient of numerous prizes and scholarships, such as the Theodor Körner Prize, the Ö1 Talents Award, and the Award for Best Experimental Short at the Nashville Film Festival, USA. She received the State Scholarship for Photography from the Federal Chancellery of Austria and the Margret Bilger Scholarship from the Region of Upper Austria, and she was shortlisted for the August Sander Award by the SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne. She has also received the Talent Award for Fine Arts from the Region of Upper Austria, the Award for Electronic Media, Photography, and Film from the Region of Carinthia, the Art Award of the Workers’ Union of Upper Austria, the Energie AG Award Linz, and the Forum Stipend of the University of Arts and Design Linz Alumni Forum. In 2023, she was selected as a Berlinale Talent for the Berlinale Film Festival 2024.

Katharina Gruzei realised projects in the public space in New York, Montpellier, Klagenfurt, Lunz am See, Linz, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Hamburg, and Tokyo. Furthermore she participated in the Screen City Biennial Stavanger in Norway, the Wroclaw Media Art Biennale in Poland and the Linz Triennial in Austria. She was awarded scholarships for Los Angeles, Paris, Paliano, Genova, Moscow and Tokyo.

In recent years, she has explored her interest in curating and organizing projects and panel discussions on the topic of public space, particularly focusing on unauthorized public artworks. Among these was the project “Experimental Field”in Tokyo in 2017, which was exhibited at SYP Art Gallery and accompanied by a symposium at the temple Anyo-ji in Shinjuku, Tokyo. In 2018, she organized a panel discussion and presentation on art in public space as part of her solo show “ELSEWHERE” at Galerie Freihausgasse Villach. In 2022, she organized a project on informal art in public space titled “Right Time, Right Place” in New York City. For this project, she also curated an exhibition at Mana Contemporary and held a panel discussion at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York with participating artists and Melanie Kress, Associate Curator at the High Line, New York.

Foto: Lia Larrea

SCREENINGS | FESTIVALS

2023
K3 Filmfestival Villach, AUT
100 Years 100 Works, Film- & Video exhibition, Schlossgalerie Schärding, AUT
News from the Collection, Kunstsammlung des Landes Oberösterreich, Linz, AUT
Spuren der Stadt. Urbane Räume in der zeitgenössischen Fotografie, Studiogalerie der Kunstsammlung Oberösterreich, Linz, AUT
Indie Lisboa Filmfestival, Silvestre Focus: labour and the trade union movement, Lissabon, PRT
Crossover - LENTOS Featured Artist, in collaboration with Crossing Europe Fimfestival:
VALIE EXPORT, Katharina Gruzei, Ann Oren und Ulrike Ottinger, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, AUT
Crossing Europe Filmfestival Linz, AUT

2022
Was fehlt?, Salzburger Kunstverein, AUT
working/caring/living, Kunstraum SUPER, Wien, AUT
Ausstellung der Nominierten, Egon Hoffmann Kunstpreis, Strafsachengalerie Linz, AUT
What is the right time, right place for public art?, Podiumsdiskussion, ACF New York, USA
Right Time, Right Place, Mana Contemporary, New Jersey, USA
Remixing Properties: 11 Years of the System, KIOSK Glasgow, UK
Only to visit, Centre for Contemporary Arts – CCA Glasgow, UK
Is it me? Am I the drama?, Salzburger Kunstverein, AUT
‘Ausstellung zum Kardinal König Kunstpreis, Zentrum St. Virgil Salzburg, AUT

2021
Urban Distractions, NonStopScheiner Graz, AUT
RePresent Getting Closer, Galerie Freihausgasse Villach, AUT

2020
Crossing Europe Extracts, Crossing Europe Filmfestival Linz, AUT
Japan Revisited, Then-Now-After, Online-Screenings, JPN
Favoriten Festival Dortmund, While we are Working, Online-Screening, GER
WHILE WE ARE WORKING, Favoriten Festival 2020, Dormund, GER
Common Ground, Salzburger Kunstverein, AUT
Artist Meetup #11, S.Y.P art space & Gallery, Tokyo, JPN
Collection of Recollection, Yotsuya Unconfirmed Studio, Tokyo, JPN Andere Arbeit, Symposium, IFK – Wien, AUT

2019
EL DORADO (ob der Enns), Wunderkammer Oberösterreich, OÖ Kulturquartier, AUT
Summer Open House, ISCP New York, USA
Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, Embrace the Strange, Hawick Scotland, SCT
Crossing Europe Filmfestival, Linz, AUT

2018
Architektur Film Sommer „Habitat 2.0 - aus Alt mach Neu“, Architekturzentrum Wien, AUT
Quiet Dialog: Invisible existences and Us, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, JPN
Shaping Democracy - The Republic in 25 frames per Second, Frei Raum, MQ Wien, AUT
Festival CLAIRE OBSCUR, Festival Travelling, Rennes, FRA
DECYDENTKI, Film Screening Dom Norymberski, Krakau, POL

2017
Invisible Mothers, Kanda Museum, Tokyo, JPN
Experimental Field Tokyo, S.Y.P Art Space und Galerie, Tokyo, JPN
 dotdotdot, Open Air Shortfilmfestival Vienna, AUT
Wir sind Wien.Festival, FilmFabrik, Vienna, AUT
Botschaft Transit, Speyer GER

2016
FLUCA, GET INVOLVED: FOCUS DIRECT URBANISM, Austrian Cultural Pavillion, Plovdiv, BGR
Digital Flows, MACT/CACT Arte Contemporanea Ticino, CH
Extended Horizons, Go Short International Short Film Festival Nijmegen, NL

2015
El centro no puede resistir, Fundación Luis Seoane, Coruña, ESP
City Screen Festival Stavanger, Workers leaving the Factory 
 Featuring; Harun Farocki & Katharina Gruzei, Outdoor Cinema Badehusgata, NOR
The artist has left the Building, De Vondelbunker Amsterdam, NLD
Festival der Regionen 2015, Hakeln in Ebensee, AUT
Projektion! OK Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz, AUT

2014
Now and After Videofestival, Gulag Museum Moskau, RUS
Backup Festival, Weimar, GE
Birds Eye View: Past/Present/Future, Art in the London Underground Canary Wharf Screen, London, GBR
PROYECTOR Festival, Madrid, ESP
Digital Marrakech, MAR

2013
Industrie, Galerie OSTLICHT, Wien, AUT
Kino der Orte, Filmarchiv Austria, Wien, AUT
Rencontres Internationales - New Cinema and Contemporary Art
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, GER
FOTOGALERIE WIEN, „Money“ Jahresschwerpunkt „Mobility“, Wien, AUT
Stuttgarter Filmwinter, GER
Rotterdam Filmfestival, NLD
Hong Kong International Filmfestival, CHN
EMAF, European Media Art Festial, Osnabrück, GER
Nashville Film Festival, USA
Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, GER
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, CZ
Curtas Filmfestival, Vila do Conde, Portugal, PRT
Wroclaw New Horizons Filmfestival, POL
Sao Paulo International Shortfilm Festival, Brasilien, BRA
Seoul EXis, Experimental Film & Video Festival, Korea, KOR
EUNIC REX Filmfestival, Stockholm, SWE
Rotterdam Architektur Fimfestival, NLD
Rio de Janeiro Shortfilm Festival, BRA
L`Alternativa 2013 Barcelona Independent Film Festival, ESP
Focus on Sound in Film, Izmir Short Film Festival, Türkei, TUR 

2012
Diagonale Filmfestival Graz, AUT
Crossing Europe Filmfestival, Linz, AUT
KurzFilmFest Hamburg, GER
Vienna Independent Shorts Filmfestival, AUT
DokFest Kosovo, RKS
Kasseler Filmfest, GER
Denver International Filmfestival, USA
Vilnius Film Shorts, LTU
Mar del Plata Filmfestival, Argentinien, ARG 

2011
Espressioni, Performing Arts Festival, Milan, ITA
Loop Festival, Barcelona, ESP
Festival Oodaaq d’image poetique, Rennes, FRA
Rencontres Internationales, Nouveau Cinema & Art Contemporain, Centre Pompidou Paris, FRA