Federica Bueti writes essays and art and literary reviews, edits publications, teaches, occasionally curates exhibitions. She is the author of Imagination Besieged Coloniality, Violence, and Feminism in “Mediterranean” Art and Literature (Routledge, 2025) and Critical Poetics of Feminist Refusals: Voicing Dissent Across Differences (Routledge, 2022).
She is Senior Lecturer in Writing at the MA of Fine Art at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, NL. She has wide ranging interests in decolonial, feminist and Mediterranean literature, with particular focus in the poetics and aesthetics of refusal and decolonial feminist methodologies.
In collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Shuruq Harb, she worked on a short film, Off You Shore Paper Trail (2024), commissioned by Busan Biennale.
Bueti regularly writes on art and social theory for international art magazines such as Ocula, BOMB, frieze magazine as well as critical anthologies and artist monographs.
She was content and managing editors of the SAVVY Series, published by Archive Books. For SAVVY, she edited the volumes Whose Land Have I Lit On Now? Reflections on the notion of Hostipitality, SAVVY Contemporary/Archive Books, Berlin, 2020; The Incantation of the Disquieting Muse: On Divinity, Supra-Realities, or the Exorcisement of Witchery published by The Greenbox and SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, 2017.
In 2019, She co-curated the exhibition and research project Ecologies of Darkness. Building Ground on Shifting Sand dedicated to an investigation of decolonial feminist politics and poetics, at SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, 2019.
Between 2011 and 2015 she founded and edited …ment, a journal for contemporary culture, art and politics. She edited the volume Move…ment. On Forms of Protest and Resistance, published by Book Works, London, 2013.
She earned a BA in Cultural and Media Studies, 2004, an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies, 2007, both from the University of Milan, and a PhD degree in Writing from The Royal College of Art, London, with a dissertation, Poetics of Negation, which explored the legacies of feminist poetics of refusal and radical negation.
Bueti is a fellow of the Onassis AiR; she was Writer-in-residence at NYU Abu Dhabi (2026), Goethe Institute Kairo (2025), Florida Art Centre, Miami, FL, 2016, and at Hordaland Art Centre, Bergen, NO, 2015. She was a Fellow of Nida Colony Doctoral School, Lithuania, 2015, and at the Summer Academy im Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland, 2013.
Born in 1982 in Scilla, Reggio Calabria, she currently lives between Athens and Reggio Calabria.
Education
2016-2020
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Humanities (Writing Program), Royal College of Art, London, UK. Thesis: Poetics of Negation: The Personal in the Writings of Carla Lonzi, Hélène Cixous, Moyra Davey, Frances Stark, and Anne Boyer. Supervisors: Brian Dillon, Nina Power.
2005-2007
Master of Communication and Organization for the Arts
Brera Art Academy, University of Milan, IT. Thesis: Il Modello delle Biennali. Supervisor: Francesco Poli.
2001-2004
Bachelor of Media and Communication Sciences
IULM, University of Milan, IT. Thesis: La Alegria de mis sueños. La Prima Biennale di Siviglia. Supervisor: Salvatore Monno.
Current Position:
• Senior Lecturer, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, NL.
• Independent scholar, writer, researcher.
Selected Teaching Experiences
Senior Lecturer in Writing and Studio Practice
Piet Zwart Institute (Master of Fine Arts), Rotterdam, NL
2020–Present
Teach graduate-level courses in writing, studio practice, and artistic research.
Supervise MA students’ studio projects, research development, and written theses.
Design syllabi integrating critical theory, interdisciplinary research, and practice-based inquiry.
Participate in curriculum development, critiques, and program assessment.
Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology
Università Mediterranea, Reggio Calabria, IT
2023–2025
Taught graduate courses in cultural anthropology and visual culture with a focus on Mediterranean.
Developed course content focused on cultural and visual anthropology, contemporary social theory, ethnographic methods, and interdisciplinary analysis, and Mediterranean Studies.
Designed and graded assignments, exams, and research projects.
Art Professional Development Expert
Braunschweig University of Art, DE
2020–2022
Led professional development seminars for graduate students/ emerging artists.
Mentored students on career development, grant writing, institutional contexts, and project planning.
MA Supervisor, International MA in Curating Art
Stockholm University, DK
2019–2020
Supervised graduate theses and curatorial research projects.
Advised students on exhibition development and research methodologies.
External Examiner, MA in Artistic Research
Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague, NL
2019–2020
Evaluated MA theses and final artistic research projects.
Participated in examinations and degree assessments.
Guest Lecturer
Film Academy, Amsterdam, NL
2023–2024; 2026
Delivered lectures and workshops on artistic research, writing, and experimental narrative strategies. Some of the seminars I led: “The Location of the Voice in Feminist Writing and Film”; “Listening to Images: the politics and politics of listening and representation”; and “Refusal as Method: how artists and film-makers trace subversive routes for the circulation of images in post- and neo-colonial contexts”.
Guest Lecturer
University of Luxembourg, Faculty of Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences
2026
Lectures on contemporary art practice, interdisciplinary research, and critical writing.
Guest Lecturer
Piet Zwart Institute, MA Fine Arts, Rotterdam, NL
2016–2018
Taught studio-based seminars and supervised graduate student projects.
Guest Lecturer
Royal Academy of Art (KABK), MA Artistic Research, The Hague, NL
2018
Led critiques focused on artistic research methodologies.
Guest Lecturer
Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee, DE
2018
Lectures and critiques addressing contemporary art and theory-based practice.
Guest Lecturer
Central European University (CEU), Visual Studies Platform & Institute of Advanced Studies, Budapest, HU
2018
Taught seminars on visual studies and interdisciplinary artistic research.
Guest Lecturer
Dutch Art Institute (DAI), Arnhem, NL
2017
Led graduate seminars on text-based artistic practice.
Workshop Leader
“How to Deal with Text,” MA Curatorial Practice
University of Bergen, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, NO
2017
Designed and led an intensive workshop on writing as curatorial and artistic practice.
Monographs
2025
Bueti, Federica. Imagination Besieged Coloniality, Violence, and Feminism in “Mediterranean” Art and Literature. London and New York: Routledge,
https://www.routledge.com/Imagination-Besieged-Coloniality-Violence-and-Feminism-in-Mediterranean-Art-and-Literature/Bueti/p/book/9781032795423
Examines contemporary art and literary practices through feminist, decolonial, and
transnational frameworks, with a focus on the Mediterranean as a contested geopolitical and
cultural space.
Analyzes how artists and writers respond to colonial legacies, state violence, and bordering
regimes, foregrounding feminist imaginaries as modes of resistance and reconfiguration.
Contributes to debates in feminist theory, visual culture, postcolonial studies, and critical Mediterranean studies.
2022
Bueti Federica. Critical Poetics of Feminist Refusals: Voicing Dissent Across Differences, Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory, London and New York: Routledge.
Develops a theoretical framework for understanding feminist refusal as a critical, poetic, and political practice across literature, theory, and cultural production.
Engages feminist, poststructuralist, and decolonial thought to examine forms of negation, dissent, and non-compliance beyond identity-based paradigms.
Edited Publications
2025
(editor) Federica Bueti, Machine Paralysis, kyklada press.
2024
(editor and managing editor) Federica Bueti, Ibahim Mahama, Now Words Are Bound and Done; Dreams and Memories Are One, Archive Books.
2023
(translator/contributor) Tiziana La Melia. I Come from a Long Line of People Who Don’t Use Words, Archive Books.
2022
(editor) Federica Bueti, Markus Miessen, Cultures of Assembly. Studio Miessen. The MIT.
2020
(managing editor) Onur Cimen and Federica Bueti, Collected Writing of Gani Meth.
2019
(advisor) Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, In a While or Two We Will Find the Tone. Archive Books.
(editor and managing editor) WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? Reflections on the Notion of Hostipitality. Published by SAVVY Contemporary/Archive Books.
(editor and managing editor) We Have Delivered Ourselves from the Tonal: With, of, On Julius Eastman. Published by SAVVY Contemporary/Archive Books.
2017
(editor and managing editor) The Incantation of the Disquieting Muse: On Divinity, Supra-Realities, or the Exorcisement of Witchery. Published by The Greenbox and SAVVY Contemporary.
Selected Lectures
2025
• POT - Conference on Design and Education, Università Mediterranea, Reggio Calabria (November)
Oslo Art Academy, research week. Undoing. Lecture on Carla Lonzi. (January).
2024
CCA, Delft, Worlding Ecologies Symposium Hosted by RADIUS CCA, this two-day symposium focused on art, science, and activism toward climate justice. (October 19–20).
Neon Foundation, "We are in the same storm, but we’re not on the same boat," with Urok Shirhan, presented as part of the "When Boundaries Divide, Who Stands Together?", Athens (October).
Piet Zwart Institute/Jan Verwoert seminar, lecture on loss and grief, (March).
Around the Shelf – Take III: "Obscured in Plain Sight", with Urok Shirhan (January).
2023
H(E)AVENS Event At this event, Bueti and Strecker co-presented a lecture-dialogue titled "At the Pleasure of the Foundation: Two Years, Two Perspectives of Onassis AiR."
Mudam Luxembourg, lecture titled "The Poetics (and Architecture) of a Chance Encounter," in dialogues with artist Dayanita Singh (September).
Onassis AiR Open Day #5 As part of the Tailor-made Fellowships Program, "WE WILL PITCH IT," discussing the role of art within bureaucracies and infrastructures (April).
Onassis AiR Open Days, lecture and discussion on their research project, with artist Shuruq Harb(March).
2022
“Gathering on Rehearsing Hospitalities," organized by Farbod Fakharzadeha, program focusing on practices that address the redistribution of power, wealth, and resources within the art field and society at large (October).
Node Center, Curatorial Studies Online, Berlin. Guest talk for Kathy-Ann Tan course in decolonial perspectives on curating and writing (July).
2021
The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa. Presentation and reading workshop with artists at Bag Factory, Johannesburg, as part of Turn2 residency program. Joburg, South Africa, (October).
Tashweesh festival, organized by L'Art Rue in Tunis, held an online retreat for artists and activists working on issues of feminism, gender and sexualities on December 3 and 4.
Node Center, Curatorial Studies Online, Berlin. Presentation on my practice and writing for Kathy-Ann Tan course in decolonial perspectives on curating and writing (July).
2020
• Identities and Forms of Refusal. Reading group and talks, Onassis AiR, (October).
2019
“Spell Building”, a presentation part of the conference Art in Dark Times: On the Conditions for Gathering, Thought and Action, organized by Emily Fahlén and Asrin Haidari, curators of Lulea Biennale: Tidal Ground, Luleå, (February).
2018
“Carla Lonzi and the practice of self-undoing” as part of Now You Can Go… An Evening on Carla Lonzi. With Federica Bueti, Karoline Munier, and Hanna Wallenfels. Diffrakt – Centre for Theoretical Periphery, Berlin (June).
Gallery Reflection # 3: Art and (New) Intersectional Feminisms, with Alanna Lockard and Kathy-Ann Tan, Ifa Gallery, Berlin (October).
Grants and Residences
2026
Research Writing Workshop, NYU Abu Dhabi, (January 12 - 24)
2025
Literary Residency, Goethe Institut Kairo, Cairo. (June-July)
2023
• Tailor-Made Research Fellowship (with Shuruq Harb), Onassis AiR, Athens, GR.
• Culture Moves Europe (mobility grant funded by European Union).
2021
• Turn 2 Research Residency Program, The Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) and The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, SA.
2020
• Identities Annihilated. Research Fellowship. Onassis AiR, Athens, GR.
2018-2020
• Research and exhibition grant, HauptStadtKulturFonds, Berlin Senate for the project “We Who Are Not the Same/Ecologies of Darkness”, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, DE.
Other Relevant Professional Experiences
2022-25
• Onassis AiR consultant, Athens, GR.
Served as consultant for an international artist-in-residence program, advising on research development, artistic methodologies, and critical frameworks.
Provided mentorship to resident artists across disciplines.
2016-2019
•Head-of-Publications, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, DE.
Led the publications program of SAVVY Contemporary, overseeing editorial strategy, content development, and production of exhibition catalogues, research volumes, and critical texts.
Collaborated closely with artists, curators, writers, and designers on interdisciplinary publications addressing decoloniality, global modernities, and contemporary art.
Managed editorial workflows, commissioning, copy-editing, and coordination with publishers and international contributors.
2017-2019
•Curator of the research, exhibition, and public program ECOLOGIES OF DARKNESS – Building Grounds on Shifting Sand. SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, DE.
Curated a long-term research project, exhibition, and public program exploring ecological thinking through decolonial, philosophical, and artistic perspectives.
Developed the conceptual framework, selected participating artists and contributors, and coordinated exhibitions, talks, screenings, and publications. Addressed questions of environmental violence, extractivism, epistemic darkness, and alternative ecological imaginaries
Curator of We Who Are Not the Same, ‘exercises’ on decolonial intersectional feminist politics and practices. SAVVY, Berlin,DE.
Curated a research-driven exhibition and program series examining decolonial, feminist, and intersectional approaches to difference, solidarity, and political practice. Worked collaboratively with artists, activists, and theorists to develop experimental formats emphasizing collective learning, embodied knowledge, and criticality. Integrated exhibitions, workshops, and discussions, as part of an extended curatorial inquiry.
Curator of Politics of Listening | Practicing Transmission, Resonances, and Echoes. A three-day feminist gathering/retreat. Co-organized by Elena Agudio, Nathalie Mba Bikoro, Federica Bueti, Giovanna Esposito Youssif and the Goethe Institute Helsinki, director Isabel Holtz, At Villa Salin, Helsinki, Finland. Designed an interdisciplinary program of conversations, performances, workshops, and collective practices addressing feminist knowledge transmission and transnational solidarities.
Selected Essays and Chapters Published in Specialised Publications and Critical Anthologies
2025
• “Sabir: Ghost Tongue of the Sea” in issue n. 9: Errant Tongues, Errant Journal.
• “A Map of Wound (first iteration)” in Mediterranean Commune.
“May My Wrong Create”, in Le Nemesiache: Reclaiming Mythology, edited by Sonia Alto, Mousse Editions.
2024
• “An Ear of Grain Cut in Silence” in Ozlem Altin. Prisma.Berlinische Galerie Museum Für Moderne Kunst.
“Whispers of the Gods” in A più voci [In Several Voices] catalogue of Villa Medici’s Fellow Exhibition, Rome.
“1957-2022: Borders Outside, Illusions Inside” in Antonio Bigazzi (ed.) Visio: moving images in Europe since the 2010s, Milan: Lenz.
“Architecture of Intimacy,” in Worlding Ecologies, Verlag/CCA, NL.
“You Took the Words Out of My Mouths” in Varela, Castro, et al. Hegemonie bilden: pädagogische Anschlüsse an Antonio Gramsci. Beltz Juventa.
“Cio’ che si infila tra le fessure della griglia”, in Tiziana La Melia, Vengo da una lunga tradizione di persone che non usano le parole, pubblicato da Archive Books, Berlino/Milano.
2022
• “Hijacking the Institution” in Gregor Peschko (ed.), Institutions and radical possibilities, Halle Kunstverein, Halle.
“In un perpetuo stato d’agitazione,” In Ruins.
“Geographies in Motion: Archiving the Peripatetic Collection. Carola Spadoni”, in BE #29, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien.
“Sticky Matter. The work of Jia-Jen Lin.” In BE #29, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien.
2021
“All the Rooms Need Decorating”, in Sarah Entwistle, You Should Remember to Do Those Things Done Before That Have To Be Done Again Museo Nivola e Sternberg Press, Berlin.
2020
“The Out and the Rooted.” On Emma Howes, published by K. Vergal, Berlin.
Bueti, Federica, Paolo Caffoni, and Karoline Meunier. "On Vai Pure by Carla Lonzi.
2019
“Imminent Movements” text commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation for the publication of the March Meeting 19 and 14th edition of the Sharjah Biennial
“The Unruly Quotidian.” Commissioned by Louise Hobson, Grand Union, Birmingham.
“Voices, Birds, Stone Tools”, text for the exhibition of Agnieszka Polska at Kargl Gallery, Vienna, April.
“Touching Across Time” in Agnieszka Polska’s The Demon Brain. Published by Walther König,
Berlin.
2018
“Spills: Retrospective reflections and contaminated afterthoughts,” in Binder – The Journal of the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam. Available online: http://bindermfa.pzwart.nl/ .
•“Lose Yourself (There is Life In the Breaks). With Anne Boyer, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Eduard Glissant, thejunkmanofafrica, Fred Moten, Simone Weil, “in Madison Bycroft, Afternoon In Medias Res. Published by CAC Brétigny, France.
•“Erotic as Power: On the Work of Julie Favreau” in Julie Favreau. Published by Kunstlerhaus
Bethanien and Canada Council of the Arts.
“It Will Make No Fetish of Self. Or Rather, It Will Seek a Multiplicity of Forms” in Kitty Kamp,
STRT Kit #3 AIR Antwerpen.
•IN THE BORDERLAND (Notes on Biho Ryu’s Letters from the Netherworld) in Biho Ryu,
Letters From the Netherworld. Published by Kunstlerhaus Bethanien.
•“Writing as Transformative Practice” in Alex Martinis Roe, To Become Two: Propositions for Feminist Collective Practice. Published by Archive Books, Berlin.