Biography
Phila Bergmann works as a curator, researcher, lecturer, and social justice trainer. From 2020 to 2025 she served as co-director of Shedhalle Zurich together with Thea Reifler, where they developed and implemented the process-based curatorial concept ProtoZones 2020–2025.
At Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Phila teaches in the Bachelor’s program Art & Mediation and in the Master Fine Arts program, and works in the Diversity Office (DFK). From 2019 to 2023 she conducted research in the Swiss National Science Foundation project Ephemeral Collecting: Preconditions and Possibilities for Acquiring Performance Art into Collections. She also contributed to the lecture series Fluid Identities in the Fields of Culture, Gender, and Politics and The West and the Rest? Coloniality and the Arts.
She worked at the Chair of Architecture and Art at ETH Zurich. International teaching assignments, guest professorships, workshops, and lectures have taken her to the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies at the University of Giessen, the Summer Academy of Fine Arts Salzburg, HGB Leipzig, ZHdK, the Sandberg Academy Amsterdam, and to documenta fifteen, among others.
In addition, Phila has presented artistic projects at numerous international institutions and festivals, including Berliner Festspiele – MaerzMusik, 3hd Festival Berlin, Sophiensaele Berlin, the European Centre for the Arts Hellerau in Dresden, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, Nowy Teatr Warsaw, and Zürcher Theater Spektakel. In 2021 and 2022 she worked as artistic co-director of the Bone Performance Festival in Bern.
Phila served on the jury of the Swiss Performance Awards 2023 and is currently a member of the jury for Visual Arts funding at the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
She is currently pursuing a PhD in Practice in Curating at the University of Reading (UK) with the project ‘PROTOZONES’ as a transferable concept for producing process-based exhibitions: A reflection on curatorial work at Shedhalle Zurich (2020–2025).
