Photo: Janina Totzauer
Teresa Retzer is Artistic Director of Mesh – Biennal of Art & Technology Basel and a curator, writer, and critic working at the intersection of art, technology, and socio-political discourse. Mesh Festival interweaves art, science, and technological innovation, critically examining narratives of progress while translating complex debates into publicly accessible formats. Under her direction, the festival explores infrastructures of care and advocates for collective, democratic, and attentive forms of urban coexistence.
Educated in art history, philosophy, and media theory in Vienna, Siena, Zurich, and Basel, Retzer’s practice centers on live art — spanning computational systems, performance, time-based media, and discursive formats — that interrogate digital infrastructures and contemporary political conditions.
She served as Curator at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and Haus der Kunst Munich, organized the performance program of Manifesta 11 in Zurich, and developed international projects across Central and Eastern Europe.
Since 2017, her research has examined right-wing extremist subcultures in Germany, Europe, and the United States, integrating these investigations into independent curatorial frameworks addressing democratic resilience and digital cultures. She has collaborated with Artists at Risk (AR), in partnership with the Goethe-Institut and the German Federal Foreign Office, supporting displaced artists from Afghanistan and Ukraine. Retzer regularly publishes in international catalogues and magazines and speaks on art, blockchain and decentralized systems, AI, and the politics of technology.