Leon Meschede
Leon Meschede (b. 1999, Halle/Saale, Germany) is a Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker whose work explores how history is constructed, remembered, and politicized particularly in the context of East Germany post-socialist identity. His essay films blend archival material, interviews, and fictional elements to reimagine political memory and ‘lost futures,’ influenced by hauntology, speculative fiction, and postmemory theory.
He studied Fine Arts at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design and spent semesters abroad at Seoul National University and in Mongolia. His recent work ‘The Eastgerman Futurists’ received the Jury Award at the 2025 Art Prize of the Saalesparkasse Foundation.
He has received scholarships and grants from the DAAD, Columbia University School of the Arts, and the Korean International Cooperation Agency.
His films have been presented at the Art Foundation of Saxony-Anhalt (Halle/Saale, Germany), gr_und (Berlin, Germany), Galerie KUB (Leipzig, Germany), Ecobuddy Institute (Seoul, South Korea), The Nordic House (Reykjavík, Iceland) and Lkham Gallery (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia).
Currently he is a Fellow of the Werkleitz Professional Media Master Class (PMMC 25), where he is producing a new short film, further exploring forms of speculative documentary and poetic historiography across East/West contexts.