curate

Universities and museums today have great responsibilities and just as great potential. Together, they can become places of knowledge exchange, where people from different backgrounds share their knowledge, discuss their opinions and learn from each other. As part of their research, scientists often address topics that are of greatest social relevance. At the same time, curatorial work with historical collections and artistic practices, in museums as well as elsewhere, develops innovative formats for communicating these topics and encounters between science and society.

Following this basic idea, the conference asks how universities and museums, as democratic institutions, “take care” of society — for example by bringing a wide variety of actors and interest groups into conversation with each other, becoming permeable to the knowledge and ideas of their interlocutors, and confirming opposition and dissent as a basis for joint discussion. Based on the four thematic panels “Experience Nature,” “Living Together,” “Getting Healthier,” and “Shaping the Future,” curators from various Berlin cultural institutions will present and discuss different curating practices based on specific case studies. The panel contributions will be accompanied by a keynote by Elke Krasny (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) on the connection between concern and curation, as well as a discussion with Marion Ackermann (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) and Joachim Baur (Dortmund University of Technology), which looks at museums and universities as spaces of action under the title “Sorge, Wut, Courage”.

From 9:15 a.m.: Registration

9:45 — 10:00: Welcome — Eva Ehninger (HU/BUA) & Hartmut Dorgerloh (SHF)

10:00 — 10:30: Keynote — Elke Krasny (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna): Staying worried: The museum between relationship criticism and relationship work

10:30 — 10:45: Response — Eva Kuhn (HU)

Panel 1: Experience nature Moderation: Anja Steglich (Technical University of Berlin)

10:45 — 11:05 a.m.: Anna-Lisa Dieter (Humboldt Labor) & Nina Samuel (BUA): Between Showcase and Bank of the Spree: On Water as an Exhibition, Parcours and Dialogues

11:05 — 11:25: Katharina Täschner (C/O Berlin): Photography After Nature

11:25 a.m. — 11:45 a.m.: Q&A Panel 1

11:45 — 12:15 p.m.: Coffee break

Panel 2: Getting healthier Moderation: Solvej Helweg Ovesen (Humboldt Forum Foundation)

12:15 — 12:35: Mazda Adli (Charité): Your emotional city

12:35 — 12:55: Brenda Spiesbach (Berlin Museum) & Anuscheh Amir-Khalili (Flamingo e.V.): Co-curatorial practice meets feminist herb garden

12:55 — 1:15 p.m.: Q&A Panel 2

1:15 p.m. — 2:15 p.m.: lunch break

Panel 3: Living together Moderation: Sérgio Costa (Freie Universität Berlin)

14:15 — 14:35: Patrizia Dander (Gropius Bau): Kreuzberg microcosm. About the exhibition Kreuzberg: Art and Migration since 1960

14:35 — 14:55: Philipp Springer (DHM): Controversial relationship

14:55 — 15:15: Felix Sattler & Paz Ponce (TA T): Are you where you want to be? Access and co-creation at TA T

3:15 p.m. — 3:35 p.m.: Q&A Panel 3

3:35 p.m. — 4:00 p.m.: Coffee break

Panel 4: Shaping the Future Moderation: Claudia Mareis (Humboldt University of Berlin)

16:00 — 16:20: Patrick Helber & Andrea Scholz (SPK/Ethnological Museum): Remembering across borders. Transcultural Cooperation and Educational Work in the Ethnological Museum

16:20 — 16:40: Çağla İlk (Maxim Gorki Theatre): Theatre of Thresholds

16:40 — 17:00: Daniel Tyradellis (HU/ZFK): The idea of the pearl. Challenges of interdisciplinarity

17:00 — 17:20: Q&A Panel 4

Final discussion 17:20-18:00: Worry, anger, courage. Museums and universities as spaces of action: Marion Ackermann (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz) and Joachim Baur (TU Dortmund) in conversation with Eva Ehninger (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/ Berlin University Alliance)

Q&A about the interview and conference

18:00-18:15: Closing Remarks

The conference is jointly organized by the Berlin University Alliance (BUA), the Humboldt Laboratory — the Humboldt University exhibition space in the Humboldt Forum — and the Center for Cultural Techniques (ZfK) and is assigned to the BUA focus on “Fostering Knowledge Exchange.”