Laura Horelli
Visual Art
Laura Horelli, born in Helsinki in 1976 and raised in Nairobi and London, is regarded as one of the leading voices in international video art. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki and at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main under Thomas Bayrle, she has lived and worked in Berlin since 2001.
Horelli’s artistic practice centers on the intersections of the private and the public, memory and history. Her predominantly film-based works often adopt a microhistorical perspective, investigating how individual and collective pasts are manifested through images, archives, and narrative. By engaging with both private and public archives, she creates layered video pieces that illuminate complex social and political contexts.
Her work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2001, 2009), Manifesta 5 in San Sebastián (2004), and “Berlin North” at Hamburger Bahnhof (2004). She has had solo exhibitions at venues such as the Taxispalais in Innsbruck (2004), the Goethe-Institut in Nairobi (2010), and Galerie Barbara Weiss in Berlin (2003, 2007, 2011). In 2011, Horelli was awarded the Hannah Höch Prize for Young Artists by the City of Berlin.
Most recently, she received a three-year media art grant from the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (2023–2025) and completed a residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn. Horelli remains a vital figure in contemporary art, continually probing the intricate entanglements of biography, memory, and the public sphere.