short vita

Gabi Schillig (*1977 in Coburg) studied Architecture in Coburg and completed her postgraduate studies in Conceptual Design at the Städelschule - Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Frankfurt am Main (Class of Prof. Ben van Berkel, Prof. Johan Bettum and Prof. Mark Wigley) before founding her Studio for Dialogical Spaces in Berlin in 2008.

Gabi Schillig has exhibited internationally and received several fellowships and prizes, amongst others: Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart (2007 - 2008), Van Alen Institute New York (2009), Nordic Artists´ Centre Dale (2010), Weissenhof Architekturförderpreis (2010), KHOJ International Artists´ Association Neu-Delhi (2011), Largo das Artes Rio de Janeiro (2015), Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau (2016) and Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of the Arts (2018 – 19). Most recent projects have been „bodies without organs*“ for Liebling Haus in Tel Aviv (with Lila Chitayat, 2020-21) or „Accento – The City in the Piano VI“ (in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Yui Kawaguchi and jazz pianist and composer Aki Takase, silent green Berlin, 2022), where she explored the parallels between the structural elements of the piano, space and sound through performative soft architectures and spatial choreographic body-related objects.

In autumn/winter 2023 Gabi Schillig was an artist-in-residence at Saiko Neon and guest artist at ACAC – Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Japan and held her first solo exhibition in Japan at Kobo Chika Gallery in Tokyo. For spring 2024 she was invited to join ダイロッカン:dai6okkan 2024 Residency Art Festival initiated by 6okken, Yamanashi Prefecture. In spring 2025 she will return to Japan as an artist-in-residence at Space Department Nara to continue her artistic research on topologies of softness – spaces of ephemerality.

From 2005 to 2007 she has taught Advanced Architectural Design at the Städelschule Frankfurt and from 2007 to 2011 in the Class for Space-Related Systems and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts` Institute for Transmedia Design. Since 2005 she has been teaching or lecturing in various transdisciplinary contexts, such as at the Lebanese-American University Beirut, Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien, FH Potsdam, University of Stuttgart, The Bartlett School of Architecture London, Swedish School of Textiles - University of Borås, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Columbia University New York and Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Tamagawa University Tokyo, Musashino Art University, Tama Art University, Tokyo University of the Arts and Estonian Academy of Arts Tallinn. 

From 2012 to 2018 she was teaching as Professor for Spatial Design at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences - Peter Behrens School of Arts at the Faculty of Design and has been the vice chairwoman of the Institute for Research in Applied Arts - IRAA (2015 - 2018). In 2016 she was constituted as a personal tutor by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation).

In April 2018 she was appointed as Professor for Spatial Design and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts at the Institute for Transmedia Design.

In her artistic practice and teaching Gabi Schillig investigates contemporary and future questions of spatial design such as the relationship between space and body, the evolution of spatial systems, the potentials of materiality and the experimental use of analogue and digital design methodologies. Her conceptual approach results in multi-sensorial, dialogical structures and spaces of communication on multiple scales and in different contexts within spaces, cities and landscapes that lead to the emergence of an experimental spatiality that is based on social and physical processes and connect materiality and interaction in an immediate way.

Links

www.gabischillig.de

www.spacesofcommunication.de