Born 1989 in Moscow. Based in London.
Alisa Oleva holds a BA and MA from The Courtauld Institute of Art and an MA in Performance from Goldsmiths.
She treats the city as her studio and urban life as material, to consider issues of urban choreography and urban archeology, traces and surfaces, borders and inventories, intervals and silences, passages and cracks. Her projects have manifested as a series of interactive situations, performances, movements scores, personal and intimate encounters, parkour, walkshops, and audio walks.
Selected solo projects:
City for her, a walk-action on the International Women's Day across cities, 2021
LADA Screens: Walking Home, online screening of Walking Home, created in the context of Performistanbul’s residency programme for performance artists on theme of ‘home’, 2021
Walking Home, a walking performance, Performistanbul + LADA + British Council Turkey, 2020
Walk Collage, a collective walking project, commissioned by Casson & Friends, 2020
Woven Scores, online zine, Woven Network, virtual art-residence, 2020
Safe/Unsafe, a series of two walks with a shared online discussion, Woven Network, virtual art-residence, 2020
Self-isolation scores, a series of scores, as part of the digital group exhibition Ways & Means, Skelf: a virtual project space, 2020
Zoom walk, a collective simultaneous walk via shared Whatsapp chat, Work Hard! Play Hard! 2020
Let me be your eyes on this walk, a one-to-one walk with a phone call, Work Hard! Play Hard!, 2020
Listening points, a one-to-one listening session over a phone at specific locations, Work Hard! Play Hard!, 2020
Touching with your eyes, a simultaneous walking score, Unlocked Walks series, The Residents Association, 2020
Instagram exhibition, Safe Distance Gallery, online, 2020
Tracing the inside, a home performance, Stay LIVE, Performistanbul, online, 2020
View from the window, a session of collective looking and sharing, online, organised by Artsvit gallery, Dnipro, 2020
Russian Manchester, a guided walk through an imagined city, New Russias festival, Manchester, 2020
Repeated walk, a collective walk, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2019
Lozhechka, one-to-one action, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2019
Shared sea walks, one-to-one walks, Izolyatsia art residency, Mariupol, 2019
Breadcrumbs, a 24 hours durational performance, Making the EXIT, Chisenhale Dance Space, London, 2019
Reflections walk, performance, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2018
Please hold, audiowalk, Assembly of Disturbance, Red Gallery, London, 2017
A visit to an art gallery without looking, walking score, Denial as the Leading Principle, Dordrecht, 2017
Simultaneous walk, a psychogeographic collective performance, State Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2017
Ringback tone, audio installation, Belyaevo Gallery, Moscow, 2017
Group exercises, performance, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2017
You are here, audio guide, Under the Ground of Our Times, Museum of Contemporary Art, Pori, 2017
A song for two, audio installation, Dotyk queer festival, Minsk, 2017
Shortcut, sound installation, Norilsk, 2017
I will show you Minsk, performance, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2016
40.8, audio walk, GRAD Gallery, London, 2016
Eisenstein's circle, audio walk,GRAD Gallery, London, 2016
Private, in collaboration with photographer Bulat Badamshin, audio walk, Miras Gallery, Ufa, 2015
Map of silences, a soundmap, Dnepropetrovsk, 2015
Silent excursion, performance, exhibited at Periscope gallery, Salzburg, 2014
The Demolition Project (collaboration with Debbie Kent):
(Slightly) Relaxed Soundwalks, a series of monthly soundwalks in East London, 2020-2021
The street: a user's guide, audio walk, Encounter Bow Festival, Chisenhale Dance Space, London, 2019
A/drift, soundwalk, Secret Rivers exhibition, Museum of London, 2019
The Demolition Project, participatory installation,
Compass Festival, Leeds, 2018
Blueprint, for ShadowMemory App, Ural Industrial Biennial: New Literacy, Ekaterinburg, 2017
Zazerkalye, score for a performance, Artist Borderpanic Compendium, London, 2017
IN/VISIBLE, performance, Camden People's Theatre, London, 2016
Invisible walking, walkshop, Power and Architecture season, Calvert22, London, 2016
The Demolition Project, durational performance, Power and Architecture season, Calvert22, London, 2016
Shadow, participatory performance, B_Tour Festival, Berlin, 2015
I'm a stranger, participatory performance, B_Tour Festival, Berlin and Belgrade, 2014
atom (collaboration with Timothy Maxymenko):
FAR AWAY DANCE, site-specific audio performance, part of Reveil 2021 by Soundcamp, 2021
Walking next to each other, audio performance for two strangers over the phone, Work Hard! Play Hard!, online, 2020
Left/Right, performance, Crossing, online residency, 2020
Paper town, a psychogeographic map-making, arebyte gallery, London, 2018
24 ДВАДЦАТЬЧЕТЫРЕ, 24-hour phone call service, Murmansk, 2018
A walk through, a parkour session, Work Hard! Play Hard! Minsk, 2018
Horror Vacui (collaboration with Rotem Volk):
Arrival time unknown, an audio journey for a tram,
Vadim Sidur Museum, Moscow, 2019
Private view, performance, London, 2013
Residencies:
Odnushka residency, a one week residency, Novo-Molokovo, Russia, 2019
Place and memory, a one month residency, Mariupol, 2019
24/7, a one week residency exploring the polar day, Murmansk, 2018
Short cut, a one month residency, Norilsk, 2017
Map of silences, a two weeks residency, Artsvit, Dnepropetrovsk, 2015
Bursaries:
Arts Council Emergency Fund, 2020
Selected to attend The School of Broadcasting, by Radio Arts Catalyst, 2020-2021
1927 Bursaries for artists, 2020
Teaching:
Contribution to COVID 19 Responses, OCAD U Library, OCAD University
Visiting lecturer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, MA/MFA Advanced Theatre Practice students , workshop ‘Can we listen with collective ears - together apart’, 2021
Tracing and Viewing: COVID-19 Isolation and Urban Geograph, COVID-19 and the Anthropocene: OCAD U Speaker’s Series, OCAD University, Toronto, online, 2020
Visiting lecturer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, MA/MFA Advanced Theatre Practice students , workshop ‘Can we listen with collective ears - together apart’, 2021
Technologies of a walk and the politics of space, online discussion, Assembly, 2020 [in Russian]
A series of online workshops: Site-specific performance: space and place, together with Alena Papina, Cosmoscow, 2020
Walking as a performative medium, online lecture + workshop, part of open call Tools without Rules, RAUM SPACE Festival, Kaliningrad/Berlin
Contributor to Architecture of Loss, online conference organised by RCA, 2020
Movement and parkour workshop for students at Trinity Laban, Sabotage series, 2020
Research practices, mentoring a two-week art residency for young artists, Artsvit, Dnipro, 2019
Three walkshops in Novo-Molokovo, art residency near Moscow, 2019
Lecture on audio walks, Middlesex University, London, 2019
Parkour and urban movement workshop, Summer Dance School, Dubna, 2018
One module for BA students, MARCH Architecture School, Moscow, 2018
Lecture ‘Why walk: walking as an art practice’, State Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2017
Walkshop ‘City and sound’, State Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2017
Curating:
Encounter Bow, a day of outdoor performances and experiences for all ages, Chisenhale Dance Space, London, 2019
ShadowMemory, a digital app for art routes around London, ArtNight 2018
Writing:
Touching with your eyes, a photo essay, Livingmaps Review, 2021
Selected Press:
Walk With Me: A Performance Artist Adapts to the Pandemic, by Jennifer Hattam, Hyperallergic, 2021
Художница перформанса Алиса Олева — об учебе в Goldsmiths и жанре Walking Art, ZIMA Magazine, 2021 [in Russian]
Walking artist Alisa Oleva: Walk ‘home’ with me, Bianet, 2020
Увеличительное стекло для восприятия города, Your Art, 2019
'I follow a different person every day': using strangers to explore the city, Guardian, 2018
Eisenstein's Circle: Interview With Artist Alisa Oleva, Grad, 2016