Laila Zaidi Touis (b. 1990, Barcelona) is an artist with a background in medicine and clinical research. Her artistic practice explores subjects such as human intimacy, identity, chance encounters, and the boundaries between authenticity and performance. She embraces a certain “mediumlessness”, allowing each work to take the form it requires: installations of telephones or televisions from different eras, meals mounted on walls beneath framed photographs of strangers’ living rooms, or transparent photographic portraits of strangers seated at tables laid with their favorite meal, mounted on suspended Plexiglass sheets. At other times, the work consists simply of the exchange of energy during encounters with strangers. Her works often create situations in which strangers become participants, witnesses, and sometimes collaborators.

Her work has been presented at Museum Wiesbaden (2024–25), as a nominated artist for the supplementary program of Alison Knowles’ retrospective; the OSTEN Festival in Bitterfeld-Wolfen (2024); Theater der Welt, Frankfurt/Offenbach (2023); Senckenberg Naturmuseum, Frankfurt (2024–25); Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt (2024); FRAGILE, Berlin (2022); DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Frankfurt (2022); and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2017). In 2023, she presented her solo exhibition Dinner with the Stranger at Neuer Kunstverein Gießen. Her installation Unreliable Witness was presented at the Städelschule graduation exhibition BONDS at Trianon in Frankfurt in 2026. 

She graduated from the Städelschule in 2026 as a Meisterschülerin, having studied with Hassan Khan and Monika Baer. She received the Städelschule Rundgang Prize in 2023, awarded by Frankfurter Künstlerhilfe, and a DAAD STIBET I graduation scholarship at the Städelschule in 2026.

Her artistic practice has received repeated press coverage in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Journal Frankfurt, as well as coverage in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Hessischer Rundfunk, Wiesbadener Kurier, Gießener Allgemeine, Gießener Anzeiger, and Arts21. She was also interviewed by the art publisher Hatje Cantz.

EXHIBITIONS / SHOWS (Selection)

2026
UNRELIABLE WITNESS interactive installation at BONDS, Städelschule Graduation show in TRIANON 11 - 25 July 2026, Frankfurt am Main/Germany

CAREDFOR UGMBH (HAFTUNGSBESCHRÄNKT) at RUNDGANG 2026 Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main/Germany 

2025 
DINNER WITH THE STRANGER at MUSEUM WIESBADEN artist of the supplementary program of the retrospective of Alison Knowles 20. September 2024 – 26. Januar 2025

THE FRANKFURT PROTOTYPE collaborative group project new urban building typology that creates affordable and sustainable living space with Niklas Maak, Daniel Birnbaum i.a. at SENCKENBERG NATURMUSEUM, Frankfurt am Main/Germany, October 2024 – January 2025

SELF CARE was an immersive multimedia installation with my own’s apartments furniture modified at at RUNDGANG 2025 Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main/Germany 

2024
Artist Talk MUSEUM WIESBADEN 24 October 2024 Artist Talk Laila Zaidi Touis
during DINNER WITH THE STRANGER at MUSEUM WIESBADEN artist of the supplementary program of the retrospective of Alison Knowles 20. September – 26. Januar 2025

KÜNSTLERVORTAG/ Artist Talk Laila Zaidi Touis at Institut für Kunstpädagogik an der GOETHE UNIVERSITÄT FRANKFURT 11th June 2024

36 at Rush Hour. Cultural Festival along Hanauer Landstraße Rush Hour 3rd to 22nd September 2024, HEUSSENSTAMM


WIND IN WOLFEN Multichannel video Installation at OSTEN Festival für Kunst und gegenseitiges Interesse, 1. bis 16. Juni 2024 in Bitterfeld-Wolfen

HEIßE LUFT - SELECTED MODELS Publication with Hassan Khan and his class. Book Lauch at Gabriel Caruana Foundation in Malta alongside Fresh Fabrik, 25th May 2024, Villa Psaigon, Dingli, Malta


JUNGE KUNST MIT ZUKUNFT im Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt am Main Click here
02. und 3. Mai 2024, Austellung
04. Mai 2024 Benefikauktion im Rahmen der Nacht der Museen

2023
DINNER WITH THE STRANGER Solo show in NEUER KUNSTVEREIN GIEßEN e.V
Einführung: Dirk Zschocke
Ausstellungsdauer: 23.09.–05.11.2023
Küstleringespräch: Freitag, 06.10.2023, 19 Uhr
Finissage: 05.11.2023, 14–18 Uhr

Edition III LOOK & PLAY Group show with Commune 6x3 at PARFÜMERIE Frankfurt am Main July 2023

STORIES BETWEEN TWO CITIES: GESCHICHTEN AUS FRANKFURT UND OFFENBACH AM MAIN
Installation in FESTIVAL THEATER DER WELT 2023 (29.06.-16.07.2023: Landing. Mobile Research Incubator Units)

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE STRANGER shown at RUNDGANG 2023 Städelschule
(Awarded Rundgangpreis 2023 Städelschule der Frankfurter Künstlerhilfe e.V. )
Dürerstraße 10, Frankfurt am Main

2022
MOSTLY SUNNY Group Show with Sung Tieu i.a. at FRAGILE
Curated by Maurin Dietrich and Jonas Wendelin
Leipzigerstr. 63, 10117 Berlin/Germany


THE FRANKFURTER PROTOTYPE exhibition about current anf future development our current collaborative project with architect Dr. Niklas Maak.
FKA SIX curated by Pola van den Hövel, Marlene A. Schenk and Laura Helena Wurth.
Project Space in Ring Center 1, Berlin/Germany

27 and POETRY FOR SCULPTURES Exhibited at RUNDGANG Städelschule 2022
Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt am Main/Germany

THE DANCE OF LIFE Screening at DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum
Frankfurt am Main/Germany

2020
THE DANCE OF LIFE Multitudinary performance
Cuauhtémoc, PLaza de Espanya Ciudad de México/ Mexico

2019
POESÍA ABS0LUTA Hosted by Laila Zaidi featuring Rafael Martín Calvo
Cashmere Radio, Berlin /Germany

2018
CRYPTOAMNESIA #13 LAILA ZAIDI TOUIS FT. ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY & "CREATIVE ORIGINS"
Cashmere Radio, Berlin/Germany

2017
POETRY AND THE MUSEUM at FESTIVAL OF FUTURE NOWS 2017→ ∞
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart
Berlin/Germany

2017
ISN'T EVERYTHING POETRY
Curious Fox Books, Berlin/Germany

AWARDS & RECOGNITION:

2026
Städelschule DAAD Absolventenstipendium, Graduation Scholarship STIBET I, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Städelschule (Nominationbased; nominated by Städelschule Rectorate)

2024
JUNGE KUNST MIT ZUKUNFT 2024 im Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt am Main Click here
Benefikauktion im Rahmen der Nacht der Museen

2023
Rundgangpreis Städelschule 2023 (Sponsor Frankfurter Künstlerhilfe e.V.) Hier lesen

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Dr. Laila Zaidi Touis

studio.lailazaiditouis@gmail.com
Instagram: @lailazaiditouis8

 

📌 🗓 SAVE THE DATE 08-06-2024 EN Are you born on June 8th? We’re celebrating your birthday. Bring a birthday candle and join us at the OSTEN Festival in Bitterfeld-Wolfen. @festival_osten This event is for free ✌️. Enjoy many other artwork
Feliç Diada de Sant Jordi 🌹🐉📚✨️ most beautiful day in Barcelona, International Day of the Book. "Poetry for Sculptures "(2021) Reading Apollinaire's poem “Las estatuas dormidas” (The Sleeping Statues) to statues on W
Exciting things coming up this summer at the OSTEN Festival in Wolfen @festival_osten @raumlaborberlin, the Cohabitation Class of Städelschule, Raúl Lima and I are preparing contributions to the Festival this summer, specially for the Pa
Just reminding the internet how I look like 🤪 while looking forward to ☀️ being able to wear summer dresses again 🌺
Throwback 🌿🌴
Some from this last exhibition of my ongoing work Dinner with the Stranger. In this work I go and have dinner at stranger's that contact me via an ad. The meal needs to be the strangers favorite meal, and the dinner takes place in his/her home. I al
Some Foto documentation of my ongoing work Dinner with the Stranger. In this work I go and have dinner at stranger's that contact me via an ad. The meal needs to be the strangers favorite meal, and the dinner takes place in his/her home. I always ta
Foto by Frank Röth from Frankfurter Allgemeiner @faz from my work this Rundgang 2024 at Städelschule