Gabi Schillig studied Architecture in Coburg and completed her postgraduate studies in Conceptual Design at the Städelschule - Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Frankfurt am Main (Class of Prof. Ben van Berkel, Prof. Johan Bettum and Prof. Mark Wigley) before founding her 'Studio for Dialogical Spaces' in Berlin in 2008.

She has exhibited internationally and received several fellowships and prizes, amongst others: Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart (2007-08), Van Alen Institute New York (2009), Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (2010) , KHOJ International Artists’Association New Delhi (2011), Largo das Artes Rio de Janeiro (2015), Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau (2016) and Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of the Arts (2018 – 19). Most recent projects have been „bodies without organs*“ for Liebling Haus Tel Aviv (with Lila Chitayat, 2020-21) or „Accento – The City in the Piano VI“ (with dancer and choreographer Yui Kawaguchi and jazz pianist and composer Aki Takase, silent green Berlin, 2022), where she explored the parallels between the structural elements of piano and city through performative architectures and spatial choreographic objects.

In autumn/winter 2023 Gabi Schillig was an artist resident fellow at Saiko Neon, Japan to explore the potentials of soft matters – spaces of ephemerality. For spring 2024 she got invited to join ダイロッカン:dai6okkan 2024 Residency Art Festival / 6okken, Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan, close to Mt. Fuji. In spring 2025 she will be a resident artist at the Space Department in Nara, Japan. 

From 2005 to 2007 she has taught Advanced Architectural Design at the Städelschule Frankfurt and from 2007 to 2011 in the Class for Space-Related Systems and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts` Institute for Transmedia Design as academic associate. She has lectured in various international and interdisciplinary contexts.

From 2012 to 2018 she was teaching as Professor for Spatial Design at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences - Peter Behrens School of Arts at the Faculty of Design and has been the vice chairwoman of the Institute for Research in Applied Arts - IRAA (2015 - 2018). In 2016 she was constituted as a personal tutor by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation).

In April 2018 she was appointed as Professor for Spatial Design and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts at the Institute for Transmedia Design.

Photo_ Jannike Stelling


Grants, Fellowships, Residencies, Prizes
Space Department Nara, Japan (2025)
6okken, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan (2024)
Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Japan (guest artist, 2023)
Saiko Neon, Lake Saiko, Japan (2023)
EV_Largo Espaço Vazio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2020, postponed)
Villa Eläintarha Helsinki, HIAP, Finland (2019)
Nida Art Colony, Lithuania (2018, 2019)
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Germany (2016)
Largo das Artes Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015)
KHOJ International Artists´ Association New Delhi, India (2011)
Weissenhof Architekturförderpreis, 1st Prize (2010)
Nordic Artists´ Centre Dalsåsen, Norway (2010)
Van Alen Institute New York, USA (2009)
Förderpreis der Stadt Coburg für Bildende Kunst, 1st Prize (2008)
Akademie Schloß Solitude Stuttgart, Germany (2007-08)
HWP Stipendium des Bayerischen Staatsministeriums für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, Germany (2002-04)
Scholarship Carl-Duisberg-Gesellschaft Köln, Germany (2000)

Current Academic Position
Universität der Künste Berlin, Visual Communication
Institut für Transmediale Gestaltung (Professor, since 2018)

Current Other Activities 
Universität der Künste Berlin, Fakultät Gestaltung (Dean of Studies, 2023 – 2025)
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW (HGK) Basel (Member of the Advisory Board, 2020 – 24 / 2025 – 2029)
Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (Vertrauensdozentin UdK Berlin 2018 – )

Past Academic Positions
Universität der Künste Berlin, Institut für Transmediale Gestaltung (Director, 2021 – 2023)
Hochschule Düsseldorf - Peter Behrens School of Arts (Professor, 2012-18)
Fachhochschule Potsdam, Faculty of Design (Visiting Professor, 2011-12)
Universität der Künste Berlin, Faculty of Design (Artistic Associate, 2008-11)
Städelschule - Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Frankfurt am Main, Architecture Class (Academic Associate, 2005-07)

Lectures, Seminars, Workshops
EKA Estonian Academy of the Arts, Estonia
Tokyo University of the Arts - Geidai, Japan
Tama Art University Tokyo, Japan 
Musashino Art University Tokyo, Japan 
Tamagawa University Tokyo, Japan
SAIC School of the Art Institute Chicago, USA
Columbia University New York, USA
Parsons New School New York, USA
University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada
PUC Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Lebanese-American University Beirut, Lebanon
Aalto University Helsinki, Finland 
University of Lapland, Finland
Nida Art Colony, Lithuania
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen, DK
The Bartlett School of Architecture London, UK
University of Huddersfield, UK
University of Liverpool, UK
Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien, Austria
International Summer Academy for Fine Arts Salzburg, Austria
Syracuse University School of Architecture Florence, Italy
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, Sweden
Konstfack University College of Art, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden
Universität Stuttgart, Germany
Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Coburg, Germany
Hochschule Nürnberg, Germany
Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
Technische Universität München, Germany
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
Hafen City Universität Hamburg, Germany
Universität Siegen, Germany
Humboldt Universität Berlin, Germany
Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, Germany
Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin, Germany 
ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory Berlin, Germany
ZEIT-Stiftung Hamburg - Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius, Germany
BDA Galerie Berlin, Germany
Münster School of Architecture, Germany

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Statement

ON SOFTNESS – RESPONSIVE ARCHITECTURES AND SPACES OF COMMUNICATION

My artistic work and teaching resonates with a vivid, ephemeral, animate and temporal understanding of space. It explores spatiality through responsive (soft) (body) architectures and spatial performative objects that are dynamic, dialogical and in constant flux, enabling new dynamic relationships between bodies, spaces and architectures.

These experimental and body-related architectures liberate space from the hegemony of rigid and solely visual qualities of space, to transform materials, structures and situations into potential environments and dialogical spaces of communication. Through multisensorial interaction not only corporeal, time-based, spatial or object-based relationships are established but also interactive and social relations between human and non-human bodies.

These responsive structures enable another kind of perception of space and enfold yet unknown imaginary situations and spatial relations between bodies and space, enfolding non-verbal spaces of communication.

Gabi Schillig, 2023

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