Vera Ryser lives and works in Zurich. She studied Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva (BA) and at Freie Universität Berlin (MA). She works as a freelance curator, exhibition maker, researcher, mediator, and lecturer. Her interests include collaborative practices, aesthetics of transformation, and representations of knowledge cultures. She engages with decolonial practices, feminist resistance, and memory politics, attempting to update these topics beyond the seemingly clear boundaries of practice and theory.

Vera Ryser is a founding member of the collectives ‘Das Wandbild muss weg!’ and Studio for Memory Politics. She is also an external lecturer in art and cultural theory in the Major Szenischer Raum at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Pro Helvetia Residency
December 2024 - February 2025
Studio Residency in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Advancement Award by Stiftung Erbprozent Kultur
June 2024
With Studio for Memory Politics (Sandev Handy, Vera Ryser, Aziz Sohail, Angela Wittwer)

Co-Creation Grant Pro Helvetia
2024 - 2025
With Sandev Handy and Studio for Memory Politics (Sandev Handy, Vera Ryser, Aziz Sohail, Angela Wittwer)

Aargauer Kuratorium
November - December 2022
Research trip to Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Pro Helvetia
2022
Research contribution for the project ‘Entangled Pasts, Speculative Futures’
With Studio for Memory Politics (Vera Ryser and Aziz Sohail)

Kultur Stadt Bern, Transdisziplinärer Wettbewerb zum Kulturerbe der Kolonialzeit
2021
The winning project ‘The Mural Must Go!’ is recommended for implementation.
With ‘Das Wandbild muss weg!’ (Ashkira Darman, Fatima Moumouni, Vera Ryser, Bernhard Schär, and Angela Wittwer)

SNF-Agora Project Funding
2019 - 2020
Research and exhibition project ‘Voices from an Archived Silence’
With Studio for Memory Politics (Vera Ryser and Sally Schonfeldt)

Ankara International Film Festival
April 2018
3rd prize for the documentary ‘Tales from the Dairy Diaspora’
With Özgür Atlagan and Onur Gökmen

Aargauer Kuratorium
January - March 2018
Studio Residency in Berlin

Pro Helvetia
2017
Research contribution for the project ‘On the Production, Repetition, and Re-contextualization of the 'Other' in and through Images’
With Studio for Memory Politics (Vera Ryser and Sally Schonfeldt)

Resistances. On Dealing with Racism in Bern
2024
Exhibition Publication
By ‘Das Wandbild muss weg!’ (Izabel Barros, Fatima Moumouni, Esther Poppe, Vera Ryser, Bernhard C. Schär, Angela Wittwer)
→ Publication

Who decides who stands on the pedestal?
2022
Opinion piece on swissinfo.ch
With Philine Erni, Sarah Grossenbacher, Rachel Huber
→ swissinfo

Denkmäler entfernen oder verlernen: Wie geht das?
2021
Décodage, Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften
With Philine Erni, Sarah Grossenbacher, Rachel Huber
→ décodage (German only)

Voices from an Archived Silence. A Research and Exhibition Project on Basel’s Colonial History
2020
Exhibition Publication
With Studio for Memory Politics (Vera Ryser and Sally Schonfeldt)
→ Publication

Wir sprachen über die dreifache Benachteiligung, die wir als Arbeiterinnen, Frauen und Migrantinnen in dieser Gesellschaft erfuhren.
2017
Antidot, Nr. 28: Urban Citizenship
Interview with Mercedes Soto

Leonforte/Laufenburg: Geteilte Erinnerungen
2016
Exhibition Publication
With Flavia Grossmann and Patrizia Lo Stanco
→ Publication (German and Italian only)

Situationismus rückwärts
2013
In: Die Enthüllung des Realen. Milo Rau und das International Institute of Political Murder. Bosshard Rold (ed.), Verlag Theater der Zeit