(Un)mapping Infrastructures of Modern Art. Transnational Perspectives in Modern and Contemporary Art

CALL FOR PAPER

(Un)mapping Infrastructures of Modern Art, IV: Infrastructures of supporting travels and exhibiting modernism transnationally (1940s-1990s).

Workshop 8.-10. October 2025, Poznań, Poland

Deadline: 01.02.2025

Prof. Dr. Bärbel Küster (University of Zurich), Prof. Dr. Marta Smolińska

Poznań, Poland (Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Fine Arts, Poznań, Poland and other venues)

For more information 

This research group since 2015 focuses on the infrastructures of modern art from a transnational perspective. The involved institutions in the project are the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte München, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, the Universiteit van Amsterdam, the University of Zurich and the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Fine Arts.

The original meaning of “infrastructure” (from the Latin infra, and structura) refers to a substructure or ground, and to static constructions which, like nodal points, establish important lines of connection and guarantee supply. Applied to the arts, the term may be said to designate institutions such as museums, exhibition venues, biennials, private collections, production sites (studio, workshops, laboratory, academies, art schools) and universities but also funding institutions, publishers, and other (academic) authorities that contribute to relevant discourses, networks, and the publicizing of art.

Taking a transnational, non-Eurocentric perspective, the goal of this group is to critically question these infrastructures since the modern era, as well as to examine their possible alternatives. It will ask specifically about blind spots of  the previous art historiography, multi-perspectivity, and interweaving stories, moving our understanding of modern art production beyond the dominant canon and narrative. Orders, spaces, and actors will be mapped in specific case studies in order to survey how technical, political, and economic conditions shaped the cultural field.

A series of separate workshops discusses themes such as production, transport, collecting, exhibition and display, promotion, publishing and critical discourse, and avoidance and appropriation as a practice of horizontal art history (Piotrowski). The core group of this research network brings together scholars from the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland and welcomes especially contributions to the workshops and publication from researchers outside of Western Europe and North America.

Duration
seit 2019 / since 2019

Institutional Partners
Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Universiteit van Amsterdam, University of Zurich, Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Fine Arts, Poznań.

Members of the Research Group
Prof. Dr. Burcu Dogramaci/Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Dr. Rachel Esner/Universiteit van Amsterdam
Prof. Dr. Bärbel Küster/University of Zurich
Prof. Dr. Gregor M. Langfeld/Universiteit van Amsterdam
Prof. Dr. Christa-Maria Lerm-Hayes/Universiteit van Amsterdam
Prof. Dr. Marta Smolińska/Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Fine Arts, Poznań
Prof. Dr. Ursula Ströbele/Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig
Prof. Dr. Lynn Rother/Leuphana University Lüneburg
Dr. Annabel Ruckdeschel/Justus-Liebig University Gießen

2020 Online-Workshop: Infrastructures of Collecting in Transnational Perspective, Universiteit van Amsterdam. Organized by: Prof. Dr. Gregor M. Langfeld

2021 Online-Workshop: Infrastructures of Producing, Transporting and Logistics in Transnational Perspectives, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität und das Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte München. Organized by: Prof. Dr. Burcu Dogramaci, PD Dr. Ursula Ströbele

2023 Workshop: Infrastructures of Publishing & Critiquing, University of Zagreb. Organized by: Dr. Annabel Ruckdeschel, Prof. Dr. Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Prof. Dr. Leonida Kovač 

2024 Workshop: Infrastructures of Trading and Transferring Art since 1900, Central European Research Institute for Art History (KEMKI) Budapest. Organized by: Prof. Dr. Gregor M. Langfeld, Dr. Kristóf Nagy, Prof. Dr. Lynn Rother