The artist, writer and curator of film programs is located in Berlin. She studied Fine Art and social sciences at the Gesamthochschule in Kassel. 1995/96 she spent an Academic Year at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. From 1999 to 2004 she was postgraduate student at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe. 2010 she was artist in residence at the research centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN) at the University College London. Presently she is fellow artist at BM Contemporary Art Centre in Istanbul.
In her artistic work, Sandra Schäfer has previously dealt with themes of representation of gender, urbanity and (post-) colonialism. Schäfer has made repeated visits to Kabul and Teheran since 2002. She has been involved in different collaborative projects with filmmakers, activists and theoreticians. Together with the Berlin based filmmaker Elfe Brandenburger and in cooperation with actresses, filmmakers and activists from Kabul she made the film Passing the Rainbow. It is a film about actresses and strategies to undermine the rigid gender norms in Afghan society. She is co-curator of the film festival Kabul/Teheran 1979ff: Filmlandschaften, Städte unter Stress und Migration (Kabul/Tehran 1979ff: Film Landscapes, Cities under Stress and Migration) that took place 2003 at the Volksbühne theater Berlin. She is co-editor of a book with the same title, published in 2006 by b_books, Berlin. 2007/08 she co-curated the film festival SPLICE IN and lecture program on gender and society in Afghanistan, its neighboring countries and Europe. SPLICE IN took place in Kassel, Berlin, Hamburg and Kabul. In 2009 her book stagings. Kabul, Film & Production of Representation got published in the series metroZones/media at b_books, Berlin.
Films/videos/video installations/photographs (selection):
Urban settings and other kinds too (2002-11), to act in history (2008), Passing the Rainbow (2007), Traversée de la Mangrove (2006), The Making of a Demonstration (2004), A country’s new dawn (2001), Die unsichtbare Dienstleistung (The invisible services, 2000), Kontaktfreudig, offen und gewandt im Umgang (The joy of communication, open with an elegant manner, 1999), England-Deutschland (1997), Shift (1996), Doch bin ich wirklich (Of course am I real, 1996)