Elsa Westreicher

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin Design- und Architekturgeschichte

Elsa Westreicher has been a research associate at the Chair of History of Design and Architecture in the Department of Design at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle since the winter semester 2025/2026. 

She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins in 2012, graduating with First Class Honours. From 2013 to 2014, she pursued her interest in cultural studies at the New School for Social Research as a recipient of a DAAD scholarship. Alongside her work as a graphic designer, she was actively involved with S A V V Y Contemporary – The Laboratory of Form-Ideas from 2014 to 2020. There she began to engage more deeply with questions of coloniality in design theory and practice, which led to the establishment of a design department and the curation of the project Spinning Triangles: Ignition of a School of Design (Dessau, Kinshasa, Berlin, Hong Kong; 2018–2019). Her subsequent work included several collaborative projects with collectives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Germany, as well as an ongoing collaboration with Mwano Studio in her birthplace Kinshasa, which she continues to co-direct with artist Nada Tshibwabwa. In 2025, she completed her Master’s degree in Design Studies at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, with a thesis on sign writing practices in Kinshasa. She was subsequently awarded a graduate scholarship from the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Her current research expands on the ambivalences of global design histories, with a particular focus on decolonial potentials in design-historical inquiry.

Recent collaborations include: Ya Makanisi (Kinshasa, 2026); Académie des Beaux-Arts Kinshasa (Kinshasa, 2026, 2024); Urbane Künste Ruhr (Bochum/Essen, 2024); nGbK (Berlin, 2023); ZKM (Karlsruhe, 2023); Program for Artistic Research Berlin (2022–2023); Laboratoire Kontempo (Kinshasa, 2021–2025); Afrika Diva Collectif (Kinshasa, 2020–2025); the Bauhaus Cooperation (Berlin, Dessau, Weimar, 2020–2021); Lagos Biennial (2019, 2024); among others.

Lehrangebote

Alle Lehrangebote

Published endeavours

Publications

  • Westreicher, Elsa. 2026. „‚Minor gestures‘ im Entwurf: Als Gestalterin Erin Manning hinterherdenken“. In Intervention, edited by Lena Beetz, Christian Dietz, Miriam Zimmermann, Aaron Wunner, und Burg Giebichenstein, Kunsthochschule Halle. Neuwerk – Magazine for Design Studies #12. Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle.
  • Westreicher, Elsa. 2026 [pub. Sep. 2026]. „Sign writing in Kinshasa.
    A practice negotiating coloniality through typographic mark making.“ Journal of Design History. Design History Society, London.
  • Wassner, Julia; Westreicher, Elsa; Burg Giebichenstein, Kunsthochschule Halle. (Hgg.). 2024. Blackout. Neuwerk – Magazine for Design Studies #10. Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle.
  • Westreicher, Elsa. 2019. „Intimität, Transparenz, Dringlichkeit. Vor ein paar Morgen lagen Meilen zwischen gestern und heute“. In Wildes wiederholen: Material von unten: Dissidente Geschichten zwischen DDR und pOstdeutschland #1, herausgegeben von Elske Rosenfeld und Susanne Husse. Archive Books.

Talks, Symposia, Workshops [Selection]

  • 2026. Symposium „Ruptures and Reckonings: A Decade of Critical Design“, Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle, Halle (Saale). WithAndrew Gilbert, Dandara Maia, Imad Gebrael, Mara Recklies, Pablo Abend.
  • 2026. Talk „Lettrage à Kinshasa : Traces et strates d’une pratique“ and workshops; Program „(Dés)apprendre : Ouvrir des espaces pour une approche décoloniale du design“, Mwano Studio, Ya Makanisi, Académie des Beaux-Arts Kinshasa, Kinshasa.
  • 2025. Talk „Sign writing in Kinshasa: An Entangled and Transmodern Practice“; Conference „Revisiting Design History: Global Cross-Cultural Interactions & Narratives“; Design History Society, London
  • 2025. Co-intervention with artist Mega Mingiedi during the seminar „Dekolonisierende Perspektiven und Strategien in der Kunstpädagogik“ [Decolonising perspectives and strategies in art pedagogy], Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle, Halle (Saale).
  • 2025. Talk; Seminar „Praxisbasierte Designforschung“ [Practice based design research], Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd.
  • 2024. Symposium „Formes, Lettres, Identités? Type design à Kinshasa“, Académie des Beaux-Arts, Kinshasa.
  • 2023. Talk and Workshop; „Bauhaus: Colonial Design and Feminism 1918–1935“; Die Dekoloniale, Berlin.
  • 2020. Talk; Conference „Adapt and Extend: New Modes of Design“, Weltformat Festival, Luzern. With Juan Pablo García Sossa.
  • 2019. Contribution; Conference „Bauhaus. Utopia in Crisis“, Camberwell College of Arts, London. Round table with Paul Goodwin, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Sebastian Helm, Grant Watson.
  • 2018. Contribution; Conference „Para-Institutions“, Kunsthochschule Kassel. Round table with Elena Agudio, Nora Sternfeld, Christopher Wessels.