Stephanie Misa

Stephanie Misa is a visual artist and researcher whose work centers around decolonizing methodologies. She consistently follows her interest in complex and diverse histories through her various installations and performances. Her artistic practice connects multicultural collaboration, curating and feminist criticism. In her doctoral research, Misa examines phenomena pertaining to oralities and the richness of multilingualism.

She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2012), and has a master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunication Program at NYU. She is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Arts Helsinki. Misa was awarded the Art Foundation Merita Prize for Artistic Research (2021).


Orality, in this artistic research endeavor, refers to languages are cut from its written and read forms (in immigrant, indigenous, or creolized and colonized communities) but remain vibrantly spoken within communities and are passed on inter-generationally. It can be seen as a living language, one that is tied to a people and not a structure. The project explores the function and use of ‘broken languages’ (or slang) in diverse communities in Helsinki. Broken language is precisely broken due to the plurality it carries (its different worlds) viscerally mirrors contemporary concerns and that are in themselves their own contemporaneity.

Stephanie Misa’s residency is realised in collaboration with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES).