ABOUT
Karin Lustenberger ist Medienkünstlerin, Performerin, Kuratorin, Kulturvermittlerin, Forscherin und Care-Aktivistin. Sie lebt und arbeitet in Basel.
In ihrer künstlerisch-forschenden Praxis untersucht sie das generative Potenzial konkreter Umgebungen mittels audiovisueller, performativer und installativer Methoden. Ausgehend von Strukturen und Prozesslogiken – algorithmisch, sensorbasiert, zufallsgesteuert – entwickelt sie dynamische Wahrnehmungskonstrukte, die etablierte Formen und Funktionen von Beobachtung, Vermittlung und Wissensproduktion spielerisch befragen.
Ihre Arbeiten verdichten sich zu performativen Systemen aus Video, Klang, Raum, Robotik und Algorithmen, in denen kamera- und sensorgestützte Verfahren als forschende Werkzeuge fungieren. Daraus entstehen reflexive Perspektiven und explorative Erfahrungsräume im bewegten Dialog von Mensch, Technik und Kultur.
Seit 2023 befasst sie sich vornehmlich mit sozialen Leerstellen in posthumanistischen Diskursen sowie feministischen Arbeits- und Care-Strukturen. Sie ist Teil des Kernteams des interdisziplinären Netzwerks art+care Schweiz und setzt sich kuratorisch und diskursiv für Gleichberechtigung und Nachhaltigkeit in kulturellen und technologischen Transformationsprozessen ein.
Karin Lustenberger is a media artist, performer, curator, cultural mediator, researcher, and care activist. She lives and works in Basel, Switzerland.
In her artistic-research practice, she investigates the generative potential of concrete environments through audiovisual, performative, and installation-based methods. Drawing on structures and process logics — algorithmic, sensor-based, chance-driven — she develops dynamic constructs of perception that playfully interrogate established forms and functions of observation, mediation, and knowledge production.
Her works condense into performative systems of video, sound, space, robotics, and algorithms, in which camera- and sensor-based procedures function as tools of inquiry. What emerges are reflexive perspectives and explorative spaces of experience in a moving dialogue between human, technology, and culture.
Since 2023, she has focused predominantly on social gaps within posthumanist discourses as well as feminist labour and care structures. Since She is part of the core team of the interdisciplinary network art+care Switzerland, engaging curatorially and discursively for equality and sustainability within cultural and technological transformation processes.
#artistic_research #movingimage #creative_technologies #camera_practices #media_ecologies #cultural_mediation #participation #carework #technofeminism #experimental_film #installation
EDUCATION
2014 – 2015
CAS Computer Music, Zurich University of the Arts
2012 – 2013
Meisterschüler-Studies with Prof. Alberto de Campo,
Class Generative Art / Computational Art,
Berlin University of the Arts
2009 – 2012
Graduate in Art and Media, UdK Berlin
Class Generative Art / Computational Art,
experimental film and media art
2005 – 2008
Bachelor of Arts, Art and Education,
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences & Arts
April– Dezember 2007
ERASMUS Scholarship: UDK Berlin,
Media Art Class of Prof. Maria Vedder
WORK EXPERIENCE IN ART EDUCATION
2022–2025
Artistic Research Assistant
Interdisciplinarity & Transformation
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
2020 – 2022
Assistant Head of Theory
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
AWARDS
2020 Nomination Pax Art Award
2016 Work Award of the Canton of Lucerne, Section Visual Arts
2013 Edition Award, Film Institute UdK Berlin
SOLO SHOWS
2018 KEINRAUM, Lucerne (CH)
2017 Galerie Asterisk*, Berlin (DE)
2015 Les Complices, Zurich (CH)
2014 Alpineum Produzentengalerie, Lucerne (CH)
2013 Lokal-Int, Biel (CH)
2012 Zollhaus, Lucerne (CH)
2011 Pavillon Tribschenhorn, Lucerne (CH)
2011 Nidwaldner Museums, Stans (CH)
2007 Gallery SIC!, Lucerne (CH)
WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Art Collection Canton Lucerne, 2015
Collection House of Electronic Arts Basel, 2019
CONTACT / FOLLOW
CURATORIAL PROJECTS AND DISCOURSE FORMATS
2025
Exhibition: Regionale 26 – WORKWORKWORK: Dimensions of To-Dos
Co-curated with Sascia Bailer, Raum Klingental, Basel
Panel: (Un)Paid Labor in Art and Culture – Who Bakes the Cake?
Collaboration between the art+care Schweiz network and the Fachstelle Gleichstellung Basel-Stadt
2024
Thematic Evening: Soirée Visionaire – Art and Care: Are There Gaps?
Collaboration between the art+care network and Visarte Basel
2023
Panel: Who Is, What Does, and How Does an Off-Space Function?
Thematic evening on the history and current conditions of artistic self-organization in Switzerland, Dock Basel
A cooperation with Jump at the Chance, ∑ SUMME Basel, Haus Oslo Ateliers
and the research team of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Design Film Art.
CO-OPERATION AND PARTICIPATION ACTIVITIES
Since 2023
Core creator of JUMP AT THE CHANCE, network format
Since 2022
Core team art+care cosmos | interdisciplinary artists' network, Switzerland (CH)
Since 2020
Member of the cooperative haus oslo ateliers, Basel (CH)
2014-2017
Member of Verein Gelbes Haus, artistic hotbed, Lucerne (CH)
2013-2016
Partner Alpineum Producers Gallery Lucerne (CH)
2011-2013
Player Society for Nontrivial Pursuits, live coding project, Berlin (DE)
GROUP SHOWS / SCREENINGS / PERFORMANCES / TALKS / LECTURES
2025
SPARK THE FLAME!, participatory outdoor performance:
Dreispitz Basel, Zurich Manegg, Ausstellungsraum Klingental Basel und Wiesbaden Biennale (DE)
2024
Mother* Tongue Summit @On the Horizon: Care, GEDOK Galerie Stuttgart (DE)
2021
OSLO MEETS PALERMO, ∑ — Summe 2021, Basel (CH)
2019
Finaleminimale, Alpineum Produzentengalerie Lucerne (CH)
Art pavilion PTTH://, Lucerne (CH)
2018
Regionale 19, House of Electronic Arts Basel (CH)
2017
WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, dance piece by I-Fen Lin & Ming Poon, Südpol Luzern (CH)
Station Circus, Basel (CH)
FENSTERSCHAU, video art at Städtli Willisau (CH)
2016
Exhibition space Erfrischungsraum Lucerne (CH)
FLUID ART, Visarte Central Switzerland, Art Gallery Lucerne (CH)
DIGITAL ABSTRACTIONS, HEK - House of Electronic Arts Basel (CH)
2015
AFTER BURNER, Alpineum Produzentengalerie Lucerne (CH)
LANGE NACHT, Articulations in Contemporary Music, Toni Areal Zurich (CH)
10th JUNGKUNST, Winterthur (CH)
NEXT_GENERATION 6.0, ZKM - Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (DE)
Les Complices Zurich (CH)
Rencontres Internationales de Musique Electroacoustique, Monaco (MC)
BASIS ART BAR 2, Kunsthaus Langenthal (CH)
ORTSTERMIN, Stadtmühle Willisau (CH)
2014
Zentralschweizer Kunstschaffenden, Museum of Art Lucerne (CH)
Dock 18@Clubroom Rote Fabrik, Zurich (CH)
The Option Gallery, Lucerne (CH)
Ludicious Zurich Game Festival (CH)
Screening and Performance, Kino Arsenal Berlin (DE),
MINIMALE 2, Alpineum Produzentengalerie Lucerne (CH)
WUNDERFUEL ZEROMONEY, Gelbes Haus Lucerne (CH)
SUPERMARKET STOCKHOLM ART FAIR, Alpineum Produzentengalerie, Stockholm (SE)
2013
SECHZIG-EINS, ION Zurich (CH)
Soiree Courts Metrages et Blockbuster Bar, Urgent Paradise, Lausanne (CH)
Exhibition room, Tat Ort, Lucerne
Acker'Festival Berlin (DE)
Summer festival, Südpol Lucerne (CH)
Showroom, Art Gallery Lucerne (CH)
2012
Urgent Paradise, Lausanne (CH)
21st dokumentART, European Documentary Film Festival, Szczecin (PL)
LAB30 Media Art Festival, Kulturhaus Abraxas Augsburg (DE)
Design Gallery Lucerne, Neuenkirch (CH)
Exhibition project Leavingroom Bern (CH)
LIMITLESSNESS, LEAP - Lab for Electronic Arts and Performance, Berlin (DE)
Campus Lab- CREATE YOUR WORLD @ ARS Electronica, Linz (AT)
B-Side Festival, Sonnenberg Kriens (CH)
Society for Nontrivial Pursuits, LEAP - Lab for Electronic Arts and Performance, Berlin (DE)
Exhibition space Sust, Stansstad (CH)
Variants 001, FEED Berlin (DE)
2011
Echo Room, Vienna (AT)
Frauenzimmer 2, Pfistern, Alpnach (CH)
Film Festival ASVOFF 4, Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR)
Critical Neuroscience", NK Project, Berlin (DE)
SHOWTIME, Media House of the Udk Berlin (DE)
Videoinstallation, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin (DE)
AFTER THE SHOT, Gallery Späti International, Berlin (DE)
FFAA II, Festival for Applied Acoustics, UFA Kinopalast, Cologne (DE)
I ONCE LIVED HERE - A Public Video Art Evening in Ramallah, (Palestine)
NK Project, Satellite Transmediale, Berlin (DE)
360°Berlin, Sophiensaele, Berlin (DE)
Digital Art & Sound (DAS) Weekend, Ida Nowhere, Berlin (DE)
PAIN FELT BY ALL@Mads Dinesen, Fashion Week Berlin (DE)
2010
VARIA ZOOSYSTEMATICA PROFUNDORUM, SINGUHR Hörgalerie, Berlin(DE)
Forgotten Bar Project, Gallery in the Government Quarter, Berlin (DE)
Ode to a Local Hero: The Juice Man, Ramallah, Collages, (Palestine)
SHOW OF MELANCHOLIA, Gewerbehalle Lucerne (CH)
2nd Long Night of Music Theater, Hanns Eisler Academy of Music, Berlin DE)
2009
Studio Siegfriedstrasse, Berlin (DE)
Exhibition Tour UDK Berlin (DE)
Reality Show, Chäslager Stans (CH)
Project Space Ackerstrasse 17, Berlin (DE)
2008
Steinemann Gallery, Neuenkirch (CH)
TGN1:EIN GASTPIEL, Produzentengalerie Alpineum, Lucerne (CH)
Exhibition HSLU Art & Design, Turbine Giswil (CH)
Six Actions for Lucerne, performance concept Anastasia Katsidis, Kunsthalle Lucerne (CH)
2007
Installation with the collective TGN1, Malersaal of the Komische Oper Berlin (DE)
Temporary Home, Documenta Project, Kassel (DE)
Act Performance Festival, Dampfzentrale Bern (CH)
Nemzetközi Performance Festival, Szentendre (HU)
Armed Response II, Goethe Institute Johanesbourg (SA)
Act Performance Festival, Ostquai Basel (CH)
2006
Kazoo the performance art festival, Johanesbourg (SA)
Performance, Lucerne Theater (CH)
Nomination Debutnale Festival, Linz (AT)
PUBLICATIONS (selected)
WORKWORKWORK: Dimensions of To Do’s
Exhibition publication, Regionale 26, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel, 2025
Curated by Sascia Bailer and Karin Lustenberger
MOTHER TONGUE SUMMIT
Fanzine, GEDOK Galerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2024
Published by Mothers Warriors* and the Poets and Caring Culture Lab
ACH ACHSEN – Systemische Blickrichtungen
Exhibition publication, Alpineum Produzentengalerie Luzern, Lucerne, 2016
Digital Abstraction
Edited by Reinhard Storz
E-book, Xcult.org; Institute Art, HGK Basel FHNW; HeK (House of Electronic Arts Basel), Basel, 2016
Ortstermin
Exhibition catalogue, Stadtmühle Willisau, Willisau, 2015
Text by Urs Bugmann
Here and Now, Mensch, Motoren!!!, Nirwana-Inferno
DVD, Film Institute of the Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, 2013
Pavillon Tribschenhorn
Exhibition publication, Lucerne, 2011
Exhibition by René Fahrni and Karin Lustenberger
Texts by Nathalie Hoffer and Jana Bruggmann
Wollen wir einfach weiter machen?
Publication, TGN1: ein Gastspiel and Alpineum Produzentengalerie Luzern, Lucerne, 2008
„Der Scherbenhaufen“ und die „Blumenvase“, Zusammen mit Vilém Flusser bleibe ich vor der neuen Fläche stehen
Bachelor thesis, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Design & Art, 2008
International Showroom
Publication, TGN1 – The Group Number One and Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, 2007
PRESS (selected)
bz Basel
“Hier zeigt die Region ihre Kanten”
Dominique Spirgi, December 2025
Willisauer Bote
“Eine Tüftlerin, die für Verwirrung sorgt”
Norbert Bossart, 22 May 2015
Kunstbulletin
“Arte- und Warteschleifen”
Fritz Balthaus, 2014
Tages-Anzeiger
“Junge Kunstschaffende, Folge 6”
Sereina von Laer, 25 May 2013
Luzerner Zeitung
“Neue Kunst von Frauen in alten Räumen”
Urs Bugmann, 22 August 2011