ABOUT MY RESEARCH

Exploring the real

Elma Riza is a multidisciplinary Franco-Tunisian artist. Based in Berlin since 2007, she graduated from the Higher School of Fine Arts (KHB) in Berlin in 2012 and regularly presents her work at exhibitions and festivals.
Elma Riza’s work involves various media (performance, video, photography, drawing, screen printing, etc.) and draws inspiration from works in the fields of anthropology, poetry, ecology, feminism and literature.

The line was a starting point, as much for its graphic potential as for its symbolic and semantic dimension. Inspired by the book ‘A Brief History of Lines’ by the anthropologist Tim Ingold, her research into the line explores the body’s relationship with architecture and our perception of space, leading her to create installations, performances and videos that explore the question of the boundary and its porosity. “This boundary defines our spaces and our relationship with others, between the familiar and the foreign, between the real and the imaginary. The boundary is not the point at which something stops, but rather, as the Greeks observed, the point at which something begins to be (its essence begins…). “ (Anne Marie Charbonneaux et Nobert Hillaire, “œuvre et lieu” 2002). From there, she also explores the relationship between individuals and their environment, which leads her to examine the concept of landscape: the urban landscape, the ‘natural’ landscape, and even our inner landscapes.

Since 2014, the role of the viewer/visitor has been omnipresent in her work. In her performances and installations, she creates contemplative spaces and invites the viewer to experience a different space-time, in contrast to the pace dictated by our societies. One of her goals for future projects is to continue to place the creative process at the forefront and to create a democratic space for exchange, in which the audience becomes part of the process and actively participates. The intention is to rethink the relationship between artist and audience and to present artworks as spaces for exchange and shared experience.

When you move from line to landscape, there’s bound to be a detour via cartography. This practice has been a feature of her work since 2020. On paper or in space, she explores the notion of cartography and its connection to our perception of space, landscape, topography and walking. This practice of walking as a ‘practice of space’ (Michel de Certeau) is part of an approach close to Dadaism or the Situationists. It is a call for an exploration of possibilities, a rewriting of spaces that leaves room for the unexpected and a certain amount of improvisation.

In her artistic practice, she places a strong emphasis on improvisation and ‘instant composition’. She first became acquainted with this method through dance improvisation and has adapted it for her visual art practices. She often uses scores or sets of rules, limiting herself to one or two materials per project. This was the catalyst for her collaborations with other artists, visual artists, musicians and dancers/performers. This transdisciplinary approach also leads her to offer workshops and participatory projects on topics close to her heart. In her workshops, she emphasises experience and experimentation, offering both collective and individual formats.

Berlin, 2026

Rencontre avec Les Débutantes _ Interview 2019

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