Petra Pölzl

Petra Pölzl (Austria) is a freelance curator, dramaturge and researcher, working in the fields of visual, performing and performance art between Austria, Germany and China. Her PhD research centers on artistic strategies of re-participation and re-appearance, as applied within performative art practices in post-shock-art boom in China. Currently, Pölzl is working as a co-curator on “Performing the Border” (Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna), an exhibition questioning the absurdity and political arbitrariness of nation-state borders. Further she is the artistic advisor to the Beijing based artist Tianzhuo Chen. From 2014 to 2016, Pölzl worked as a programmer for “steirischer herbst” (Festival for New Art) in Graz (Austria). Due to her expertise on Chinese contemporary art she has been involved in multiple projects such as: “Zhou Bin: Nothing to say” (Museum of Contemporary Art Chengdu, 2016); “Corporate. Xu Zhen (Produced by MadeIn Company)” – Kunsthaus Graz (Austria); Co-Curator “Poetics of the body” at SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin) and so on. Previously she worked as a curatorial assistant at Wiener Festwochen (2013) and the Shanghai World EXPO, German Pavilion (2010). Pölzl is a regular guest lecturer at the Institute of Theatre Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. Research grants include The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation (in co-operation with Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong), and DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).