Dialogue 4 Ursula Mayer

AA Dialogues: Ursula Mayer

Constructing Identity 

The questions of identity and social and personal histories are at the breaking point and the internationally acclaimed director and artist, Ursula Mayer is capturing that fragility. In her cinematic work, she draws historical references and builds spaces, narratives and characters to preserve the current moment of transgression. In conversation with Marko Milovanovic, Mayer will talk about those subjects and methods of her philosophical enquiry.

Ursula Mayer is an Austrian artist and film director. Her prize-winning and internationally exhibited practice spans a range of media, including film, video and sculpture. Her single and multi-channel films are crystalline circuits of images, composed of signs borrowed from architecture, fashion, literature, politics, mythology, geology and science. Austria artist Mayer exhibits internationally and is the 2014 recipient of the prestigious Derek Jarman Award for experimental film and the Otto Mauer Prize in 2007. She currently lives and works in London and Vienna. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna and the Goldsmiths.

Please note: Priority will be given to Members and alumni of the Architectural Association. Please bring your AA Membership card. If you are not a Member of the AA but wish to attend, please e-mail events@aaschool.ac.uk.


Curated by Marko Milovanovic, AA Dialogues is about AA Members and alumni taking an active part in conversations. Come with questions, ideas and thoughts to explore how other ‘makers’ operate on the edges or outside of the architectural field to inform or challenge how we identify ourselves, work and think. Are we in fact becoming more and more collaborative and how do we handle a contemporary obsession to define who we are instead of what we do?

Image Credit: Gonda, 2012 © Ursula Mayer