Alicja Khatchikian is a Berlin-based artist and researcher whose work unfolds at the intersection of documentary, fine art, and ethnographic approaches. Through images, text, collage, and archival materials, she questions borders, memory practices, and the body as a site of lived experience. Moving outward from her family biographies, her work stems from an interest in stories and in how context and time shape the meaning we make of them. She works primarily with analog photography, embracing slowness and scarcity as both method and way of looking. She has exhibited internationally, including at Villa Oppenheim, Bivy, PhMuseum Days, and the Rotterdam Photo Festival. Alongside her artistic practice, she works as a freelance photographer and facilitates image-based workshops focused on artists' books and collaborative learning.

Education
2022 Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, photography class of Ute Mahler and Göran Gnaudschun, Berlin
2017 Il libro fotografico. Culture, progetti, professioni, pratiche, Summer School SISF, Pieve Tesino, Italy
2016 Master’s Degree (with honors) in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Univ. of Vienna
2011 Bachelor’s Degree in Political Sciences, Univ. of Trieste

Workshops and Teaching
2024–2027 Eigenseiten, image- and book-based workshops across Berlin
2022 Our body/selves, self-portraiture workshop with Stephanie Telomere, UdK Berlin

Group Exhibitions
2025 Re-Membering: Traces of Armenian life in the diaspora, Villa Oppenheim, Berlin
2023 A sense of place, Photographic Exploration Project, Berlin  
2022 One eye sees, the other feels, Zone Magazine, Daste, Bergamo
2022 Fünfzehn, Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, Quartier 206, Berlin
2021 Rain Makes Little Lakes, Bivy, Anchorage, Alaska
2021 Die Rose ist ohne Warum, Stiftung Schloss Neuhardenberg, Germany
2020 Transitions, Rotterdam Photo Festival

Solo Exhibitions
2017 Denali Thai Food, Bivy, Anchorage, Alaska

Collaborative Projects
2018 Bakunin, theatre performance, premiered at the Swamp Pavilion, Venice Biennale of Architecture and Laboratorio Artistico Pietra, Torino

Selected Features
2025 The Prince Edit, Volume I, A/W 2025
2024 On Envy, by fffllleeessshhh
2024  POP Adriatico – Porto Osservatorio Partecipato, Adriatico Book Club
2023 Chronographies and the experience of transience by Steve Bisson, published on Urbanautica, Journal of Visual Anthropology and Cultural Landscapes
2022 Edited, selected graduates from the International Center of Photography in New York and the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin

Academic Publications and Talks
2019  ‘Between archive and repertoire: The Ju|’hoansi San Living Museum in Grashoek,’ in W. Zips and M. Zips-Mairitsch (eds), Bewildering Borders: The Economy of Conservation in Africa, pp. 121-135, Berlin and Zürich: LIT Verlag

2018 ‘Attempts at collaboration between ethnography and performance (or: how to fail better?),’ in Art, Materiality and Representation conference by Royal Anthropological Institute, British Museum, London

2018 ‘Trespassing Borders: Encounters and Resistances in Performance Art,’ in T. Fillitz and P. van der Grijp (eds), An Anthropology of Contemporary Art: Practices, Markets, and Collectors, pp. 163-178, London: Bloomsbury

2017 “On participation, beyond participation: a conversation with Maya Quattropani”, roots§routes – research on visual cultures, No 24 | January – April

2016 “Intertwining discourses: a visual history of bodies”, roots§routes – research on visual cultures, No 22 | May – August

2016 ‘Trespassing borders: encounters and collaborations in performance art,’ in Anthropological legacies and human futures conference by the European Association of Social Anthropologists, Univ. of Milano-Bicocca

2014 ‘The performing body-in-space through the lens: The Living Museum in Namibia,’ in Anthropology and Photography conference by Royal Anthropological Institute, British Museum, London

(Last update: September 2025)