Alisa Oleva is a walking artist based in London who works within the spaces and streets of the city, exploring the politics of public space, how the city moves us and how we move it, urban choreography and urban archaeology, traces and surfaces, borders and inventories, intervals and silences, passages and cracks. She creates one-to-one and collective performances, walking scores, personal and intimate encounters, gatherings, soft parkour sessions, walkshops, soundwalks, and audiowalks.
Alisa holds a BA and MA from The Courtauld Institute of Art and an MA in Performance from Goldsmiths. She is currently doing a fully funded practice-based PhD at the University of East London.
Bursaries and awards
Another Route, supported by Arts Council England, the British Council and the Jerwood Developing Artists Fund, 2022/2023
IETM Global Connector, 2023
DYCP (Developing your Creative Practice), Arts Council England, 2021
London Creative Network, Artist Development, Project Part-Funded by the European Union, 2021
Arts Council England Emergency Fund, 2020
1927 Artist Bursaries, Arts Council England, 2020
Selected works
WALK, a series of monthly art walks in East London, commissioned by BUILDHOLLYWOOD, 2024/2025
Listening Gardens, Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, Leeds, commissioned by Compass Live Art, 2025
After Dark Reading Club, a collective reading of texts about darkness in public spaces, held at sunset, hosted by Fieldnotes, London 2025
Soundwalk: Into the Night, a night soundwalk, Nida, 2025
Sounds like home, listening walks with livestreams, Compass Festival, Leeds, 2024
Walking from the palm of your hand, a collective walk, Migrations Matter Festival, Sheffield, 2024
Walk me there, a series of one-to-one walks, Compass Live Art, Leeds, 2023
Where can I go from here?, part of How do institutions choreograph us, curated by Lorenza Peragine, a collective walk, ICA, London, 2023
Listening for change, an urban soundwalk, TO)pot: sound walks festival, CONA, The Steklenik Gallery, Ljubljana, 2022
Listening in/Listening out, an urban soundwalk, TO)pot: sound walks festival, CONA, The Steklenik Gallery, Ljubljana, 2022
Desire lines, an audiowalk and a series of walkshops, part of Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, Esch-sur-Alzette/Dudelange/La Sauvage, 2022
Listening to where you are not, a listening walk, Oscillation Festival, Q-O2, Brussels, 2022
walk – stop – listen – walk again, a collective walking and listening score, Oscillation Festival, Q-O2, Brussels, 2022
Port-to-Port, a walking art commission, Pier Projects, Felixstowe, 2021
Skyline walking, a collective video archive, commissioned by Urban Night Project, supported by Leverhulme Trust, Queen Mary University Of London, Royal College Of Art, Theatrum Mundi and the University of East Anglia, exhibited at Midnight Sun exhibition at Black Tower Project, London, 2021
City for her, a shared collective walk at a distance, part of Femhouse week: Women \ Cities \ Arts, commissioned by House of Europe and Platform TU, 2021
The Under Ground, a performative walk, part of the exhibition ‘I was approaching the place which I didn’t know yet’, Artsvit, Dnirpo, 2021
Walking Home, a walking performance over distance, commissioned by Performistanbul and LADA, supported by British Council’s #WomenPowerinCulture Grant Scheme, London/Istanbul, 2020
Walk Collage, a collective audiowalk, commissioned by Casson & Friends, across the UK, 2020
Safe/Unsafe, two simultaneous distant walks, Woven Network, online art residency, 2020
Zoom walk, a simultaneous walk via a WhatsApp group, Work Hard! Play Hard!, 2020
Let me be your eyes on this walk, a one-to-one walk over a phone call, Work Hard! Play Hard!, 2020
Listening points, a one-to-one listening session via a phone call at locations chosen for each other, Work Hard! Play Hard!, 2020
Touching with your eyes, a simultaneous walking score via a WhatsApp group, Unlocked Walks series, The Residents Association, 2020
Tracing the inside, a home performance and collective action, part of Stay LIVE at Home, commissioned by Performistanbul, in collaboration with British Council Turkey, online, 2020
View from the window, a collective looking and sharing session via Zoom, online, commissioned by Artsvit Gallery, Dnipro, 2020
Imagined Manchester, a guided audiowalk through an imagined city co-created by people who have never been to Manchester, Manchester, 2020
Shared sea walks, one-to-one walks over distance, IZOLYATSIA Residency Programme, hosted by TU Platform, Mariupol, 2019
Repeated walk, a group walk performance, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2019
Spoon, a one-to-one performance, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2019
Breadcrumbs, a 24-hour performance, part of Making an EXIT, hosted by Chisenhale Dance Space, London, 2019
Reflections walk, a one-to-one performance, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2018
24, a 24-hour phone call service, Murmansk, 2018
Please hold, an audiowalk over a phone call, Assembly of Disturbance, Red Gallery, London, 2017
Group exercises, a collective walking performance from scores, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2017
Deviations, a collective walking score, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2017
You are here, an audio guide, part of Under the Ground of Our Times, Pori Art Museum, Finland, 2017
A song for two, an audio installation, Dotyk Queer Festival, Minsk, 2017
Shortcut, a sound installation, PolArt Residency, Norilsk, 2017
40.8, an audiowalk, commissioned by GRAD, London, 2016
I’ll show you Minsk, a one-to-one performance, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2016
Eisenstein’s circle, an audiowalk, commissioned by GRAD, London, 2016
Map of silences, a soundmap installation, Artsvit, Dnipro, 2016
A silent guided tour, an urban performance, exhibited at Periscope gallery, Salzburg, 2014
The Demolition Project – collaboration with Debbie Kent
Soundwalk series, London, 2021-ongoing
(Slightly) Relaxed Soundwalks, East London, 2020-2021
The Demolition Project: Dnipro, a durational mapping installation, part of the exhibition ‘I was approaching the place which I didn’t know yet’, Artsvit, Dnirpo, 2021
Meeting places: collective mapping workshop, part of LivingMaps Live festival, London, 2021
The Shadow, a remote walking video performance, commissioned by Omnibus Theatre, London, 2021
The street: a user’s guide, an audiowalk, part of Encounter Bow Festival, commissioned by Chisenhale Dance Space, London, 2019
A/drift, an audiowalk, part of the exhibition ‘Secret Rivers’, Museum of London Docklands, 2019
The Demolition Project: Leeds, a durational mapping installation, Compass Festival, Leeds, 2018
Blueprint, an interactive walk for a geo-location triggered app, commissioned for ShadowMemory, Ural Industrial Biennial, Ekaterinburg, 2017
Walkinglab, a walking score, online
IN/VISIBLE, a performance, Camden People’s Theatre, London, 2016
The Demolition Project: London, a durational mapping installation, Power and Architecture season, Calvert22, London, 2016
Shadow, a participatory performance, B_Tour Festival, Berlin, 2015
I’m a stranger, a participatory performance, B_Tour Festival, Berlin and Belgrade, 2014
ATOM – collaboration with Timothy Maxymenko
Sonic Bus Stories, an audio piece for a bus journey, commissioned by Sonic Arts Week, made in collaboration with people in Middlesborough, 2024
Down to earth, a collective listening experience, in collaboration with Andriy Kyrychenko, commissioned by Soundcamp for Reveil, London, 2023
Radio with Ukraine, fundraiser at Iklectik and online, London, 2022
Crossing, an art residency, organised by Artsvit Gallery and PAErsche Aktionslabor e.V., Dnipro, 2021
Far away dance, a site-specific audio performance, commissioned by Soundcamp for Reveil, 2021
Walking next to each other, an audio performance for two strangers over the phone, Work Hard! Play Hard!, online, 2020
Left/Right, performance, Crossing, online residency, 2020
Paper town, psychogeographic map-making session, arebyte gallery, London, 2018
A walk through, a parkour session during the night, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2018
Fiz-ra, a collective movement session with constraints, Work Hard! Play Hard!, Minsk, 2018
Residencies
IASPIS, international artist in residence, Stockholm, 1 September–14 November 2025
Nida Art Colony, artist in residence, Summer 2025
Remember Freedom, WHW Akademija, Generation 2025
Matsu New Village, Taoyuan, Autumn 2024
Summer Residencies, a two-week residency, Chisenhale Dance Space, 2021
Place and memory, a one-month residency, Mariupol, 2019
B-tour Vilnius, a one-month residency in Vilnius, Lithuania with The Demolition Project, 2017
PolArt, a one-month residency, Norilsk, 2017
Exhibitions
Cities of the Night: Rut Blees Luxemburg, Alisa Oleva, and Chooc Ly Tan, RIBA, London, 2023
Port-to-Port, an exhibition at 113Research, OCAD University, Toronto, 2022
LADA Screens: Walking Home, an online screening of Walking Home, LADA, 2021
WalkCreate Gallery, online, 2021
Expo: Walking from Scores, CIVA, Brussels, 2021
Un-boxing, a traveling exhibition, The Arts Territory Exchange, 2020
Self-isolation scores, a series of scores, as part of the digital group exhibition ‘Ways & Means’, Skelf: a virtual project space, 2020
Shared Sea Walks and other works from Mariupol, EMERGENCE: Living Heritage / Reframing Memory, Prague Quadrennial, 2020
Selected Press, Books and Interviews
Walking is so simple yet so deeply complex: In conversation with Alisa Oleva, interviewed by Nastia Svarevska, Fetch London Magazine, 2025
WALK: Who walks the streets? Who owns the city? A year of walking in East London, interviewed by Adrian Burnham, 2025
Walking from Scores, a walking score for the book edited by Elena Biserna, les presses du réel, 2022
Maps of Intimacy: Alisa Oleva in conversation with Elena Biserna, Going Out – Walking, Listening, Soundmaking, edited by ELena Biserna, les presses du réel, 2022
Round Table with Alisa Oleva, Bill Dietz, RYBN and David Helbich, moderated by Elena Biserna, Q-O2, Oscillation Public Address, Brussels, 2022
Walking, as part of Paths of (least) resistance, interview for Radio Art Zone, Luxembourg, 2022
Desire Lines, interview for ARA City Radio, Luxembourg, 2022
Walk With Me: A Performance Artist Adapts to the Pandemic, by Jennifer Hattam, Hyperallergic, 2021
Walking artist Alisa Oleva: Walk ‘home’ with me, Bianet, 2020
#FriendsFriday 51 – Alisa Oleva, Casson & Friends, 2020
Увеличительное стекло для восприятия города, Your Art, 2019
‘I follow a different person every day’: using strangers to explore the city, Guardian, 2018
Eisenstein’s Circle: Interview With Artist Alisa Oleva, GRAD, 2016
Writing, visual and audio essays
A walk to the edge, an audiowalk, Something other: On visions – Listening event, Ignota, 2021, online
Touching with your eyes, a photo essay, Livingmaps Review, 2021
Port-to-Port postcards, commissioned by Pier Projects, 2021
Score #5, for Blake Morris, 2021
Woven Scores, an online zine, design by Uliana Bychenkova, Woven Network, 2020
Letter from: Vorkuta, a photo essay, words by Gleb Napreenko, Calvert Journal, 2016
Teaching
Regular online lecturing for Materials and the Anthropocene series, OCAD University, Toronto, online, 2020-2025
Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway, BA course, 2023
Online walk/talk, DPS Tutor Platform talks, Central Saint Martins, 2022
‘Spacialised Storytelling’, video module for Royal Holloway, 2022
Second marker on Creative Social Media Course, Goldsmiths College, London, 2018-2023
Online lecture on Walking Art, Syracuse University, NY, 2022
Visiting lecturer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, MA/MFA Advanced Theatre Practice, workshop ‘Can we listen with collective ears – together apart’, 2021
Online workshop for MA/MFA Advanced Theatre Practice at RCSSD, London, 2021
Walkshops and Facilitating
Feel the rhythm of Modernist North London, a sensorial walk with Alisa Oleva, Open House Festival, London, 2025
Walkshop for an away day for Counterpoints team, East London, 2025
Into the Night: a collective night walk, RIBA, London, 2023
A walkshop with Alisa Oleva, part of Two Plus Two Makes Four exhibition, The Auxiliary, 2023
Soft parkour & site sensing workshop by Alisa Oleva, Filet, London, 2022
Moving with the City, a walkshop for Chisenhale Summer of Art, London, 2022
Walkshops for Desire Lines, Esch-sur-Alzette, Lasauvage, and Dudelange, part of Esch 2022 European Capital of Culture, 2022
A Listening Walkshop, Oscillation Festival, Q-O2, Brussels, 2022
Moving with the City, Open City London, 2021
Sudbury Walking Arts Project, a walkshop, Sudbury, 2021
Movement and parkour workshop, Trinity Laban, Sabotage series, 2020
Walking and research practices in urban spaces, a two-week residency for young artists, Artsvit, Dnipro, 2019
Curating
Workshops and Youth strands, Pushkin House, 2021-2024
Encounter Bow, a day of outdoor performances and experiences for all ages, Chisenhale Dance Space, London, 2019
ShadowMemory, a digital app for art routes around London, ArtNight, 2018