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Kunsthistorisches Institut

Dr. Virginia Marano

Virginia Marano (she/her) is an art historian and curator. She is currently an associate scholar in the Lise Meitner Group “Coded Objects” at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut. 

She holds a PhD in art history from the University of Zurich. To conduct her doctoral research, she was awarded an ESKAS doctoral scholarship (2018–2021) and a FAN Grant (2021). In 2022, she was a SNSF Doc.Mobility fellow in the Art History Department at Hunter College/CUNY. Her thesis examined the diasporic dimension in the works of Jewish women sculptors in Post-war New York, previously assimilated to feminism but not yet connected to the question of exile. She is also the co-director of the research project "Rethinking Art History through Disability" at the University of Zurich, which aims to rethink the intersections of disability theory and art history through the lens of the non-normative body. 

In 2023, she was a Research Fellow at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, working on the PNRR–PEBA project for the Removal of Physical, Cognitive, and Sensory Barriers in Cultural Sites, funded by the NextGenerationEU program. In addition to her academic work, she serves as a Curatorial Assistant at MASI, Museo d’Arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano. She has previously worked at the Mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Vienna, 2017), Artipelag (Stockholm, 2018), and Last Tango (Zurich, 2020–2021). She is a Board Member of the Fondazione Centro Giacometti and an Advisory Board Member of the Biennale Bregaglia.

Her work thrives on interdisciplinary collaboration and focuses on access as a critical space for rethinking the relationships between art, science, and technology. Instead of approaching accessibility as a fixed or technical matter, she investigates it as an open process—marked by uncertainty, experimentation, and care—that exposes the ableist structures embedded in cultural and technological systems. Grounded in intersectional feminist theory, her research-based curatorial practice develops methods of decentralization and shared inquiry. Understanding access as a shifting encounter between bodies, materials, and tools, she seeks to build a vocabulary that connects the humanities with design practice. Her work asks what kinds of environments and meanings arise when we design not only for bodies, but with them—and how access can become a site of ethics, imagination, and cultural creation.

In May 2025, she was appointed Junior Research Fellow in the Young Investigator Group Preparation Program (YIG Prep Pro) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Chair of Architectural Theory, Department of Architecture, for the period January 2026–December 2027.

Research Interests

  • Gender and feminist theories in contemporary art
  • Exile studies
  • Critical disability studies / Crip theory and disability aesthetics
  • Creative and embedded access / Access intimacy
  • Decentralised exhibition making

Teaching

  • Fall Semester 2024: Guest Lecture “Das olfaktorische Museum: Düfte archivieren und Erlebnisse kuratieren,” in the seminar Riech dran! Geruch in der Kunst der Neuzeit, led by Laura Valterio at the Institute of Art History, University of Zürich
  • Spring Semester 2024: Guest Lecture “Exhibiting Advocacy: Projects on Motherhood and Abortion” in the seminar course “Icons of Life: Bilder und Interkörporalität von Leonardo bis zum Reagenzglas,” led by Laura Valterio at the Institute of Art History, University of Zürich
  • BA and MA Übung, "Being (not) at Home in the World - Exiled Women Artists and Beyond" (English), University of Zurich, Spring 2023
  • Lecture Series “Care, Disability and Art” (English), organized with Charlotte Matter, Laura Valterio, Marie-France Rafael und Judith Welter, University of Zurich & Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, spring 2023
  • Field trip to London “Bodies of Difference: Disability, Art History, and the Museum” (English), with Charlotte Matter, Laura Valterio, and Jess Bailey, University of Zurich, fall 2022

Publications

Peer-reviewed articles in international journals and edited volumes

* Full versions of publications marked as “in print” or “accepted” will be made available upon request

Edited Volumes

Jess Bailey, Virginia Marano, Charlotte Matter, and Laura Valterio, eds., Words for Disability and Art History (forthcoming)

September 2025: Tobia Bezzola and Virginia Marano, eds. David Weiss. Il Sogno di Casa Aprile. Carona 1968-1978, pp. 25-40. Patrick Frey: Zürich & MASI Lugano, Switzerland. With texts by Virginia Marano, Stephan Kunz, Bice Curiger, and Andreas Schwab. ISBN: 978-3-907236-84-0.

Non-Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters 

Activities

Organized Conferences, Workshops and Symposia

Artist Talks

Selected conferences and lectures 

  • 10 July 2025: Paper Presentation, Becoming Wings: Deviance, Agency, and the Art of Misfitting in Sarah Biffin and Lorenza Böttner, within the “Deviant Women”. Women and the Visual Arts Research Symposium, organized by  Helena Anderson and Valéria Fülöp-Pochon on behalf of the Women and the Visual Arts Research Cluster, University of Bristol.
  • 25 February 2025: Research Project Presentation at the “Coffee+Jam”, 25.02.2025, Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT), organized by Anna-Maria Meister, the Architekturtheorie Team at KIT and the Coded Objects group at the KHI.
  • 17–19 October 2024: Respondent, Extending Subjects panel, within the symposium Objects: Between Absorption and Isolation, organized by the Lise Meitner Group “Coded Objects,” KHI – Max Planck Institute. 
  • 13 September 2024: Paper Presentation, "(Re)-Evaluating Artistic Norms and Temporalities: Feminist and Disability Perspectives in Contemporary Practice," within the Re-Evaluation in Feminism(s) and Contemporary Art conferences, organized by Katy Deepwell and Alexandra Kokoli, Middlesex University’s Hendon Campus, London. 
  • 30 November 2023: Invited Lecture, Anthills and Archives: Womanifesto Roots Down, with Varsha Nair, HSLU Lucerne.
  • 29 November 2023: Invited Lecture, Misfitting: Functional Diversity in Art History, co-presented with Laura Valterio and Charlotte Matter, as part of the Critical Disability Studies series organized by the Equalities Committee, Faculty of Humanities, University of Bern.
  • 24–25 October 2023: Paper Presentation, "Exile and Kinship: The Making of Diasporic Lines in the Works of Eva Hesse and Gego," at the conference Understanding Displacement in Visual Art and Cultural History: 1945 to Now, organized by the University of Manchester and Manchester Art Gallery, UK.
  • 28–29 September 2023: Co-Presenter, "On the Use, Reuse, and Misuse of Medical Materials in Art: A Conversation with Vincent Barras and Jillian Crochet," workshop Biomedical Visions: Aesthetics, Epistemology, and Medical Practice, with Laura Valterio and Charlotte Matter, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin.
  • 18 January 2023: Invited Lecture, “Learning from Disability in Art History,” with Charlotte Matter, and Laura Valterio, for the Swiss Disability Network, organised by Brian McGowan, University of Zurich.
  • 8 December, 2022: Invited Lecture, “Learning from Disability in Art History,” with Laura Valterio and Charlotte Matter, lecture series Kunstgeschichte/n verlernen, umlernen, neulernen, Bauhaus University Weimar [online].
  • 14–17 November 2022: Paper Presentation, "Hitting Home: Representations of the Domestic Milieu in Feminist Art," Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, University of Johannesburg.
  • 15 November 2021: Seminar Lecture, "Diasporic Home and Exiled Bodies: Spaces of Memory in the Work of Jewish Women Sculptors in Post-War New York," Doctoral Colloquium WiSe 2021/2022, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Participation in Roundtables

  • Round table, "Rethinking Art Brut," with Monika Jagfeld, Director of Open Art Museum, St. Gallen, at Museum Ballpark, Luzern, Switzerland, 4 November, 2023.
  • Roundtable and launch event for gta papers CARE, in collaboration with the Chair of Architecture and Care (Prof. Anna Puigjaner), ETH Zürich, 23 May 2023.

Curatorial work

2025–2026
David Weiss. Il Sogno di Casa Aprile. Carona 1968–1978
Co-curator with Dr. Tobia Bezzola, in collaboration with The Estate of David Weiss.
MASI Lugano, Switzerland, 28 September 2025 – 1 February 2026.

2024–2025
Ear to the Ground
Curator, Fondazione Centro Giacometti, Stampa, Switzerland.
5 July 2025 – 12 October 2025.

Luigi Ghirri. Viaggi. 
Curatorial project assistant, MASI Lugano, Switzerland
8 September 2024 – 12 January 2025.

2022
Borderless Encounter: Soshana trifft auf Giacometti und Yanaihara
Curatorial support, JAM – Joint Art Management, Lucerne, 27 October – 26 November 2022.

Chryssa: Eccentric Abstraction
Curator, Blue Velvet Projects, Zurich, 10 June – 3 September 2022.

Io e il colore. Augusto Giacometti e Katarina Lichtner
Fondazione Centro Giacometti, Stampa, Switzerland, 12 June – 28 August 2022.

2021
Matthias Oppermann. Wie es mich sehen liess
Fondazione Centro Giacometti, Stampa, Switzerland, 4 September – 17 October 2021.

I volti di Soshana e Alberto Giacometti
Fondazione Centro Giacometti, Stampa, Switzerland, 3 July – 29 September 2021.

Weiterführende Informationen

Dr. Virginia Marano

Dr. Virginia Marano

virginia.marano@uzh.ch; virginia.marano@khi.fi.it
 

CripTech Creativity: Rethinking Access through Art and Technology

21 March 2025
Organized by Virginia Marano and the Lise Meitner Group "Coded Objects"

Normative ways of seeing and moving through spaces have long dominated the discourse in art and architecture history despite their fictitious and exclusionary nature. And in architecture practice, accessibility is often treated as a construction checklist or a compliance measure. But what if access were instead a creative, disruptive, and transformative force? How would places, spaces, and the value of interpersonal relationships change with the embrace of the entire spectrum of experiences and perceptions taking place?

Histories of radical disability movements highlight the tension between institutional frameworks and community-driven practices rooted in autonomy and collective worldmaking. At the same time, material innovations—such as haptic technologies, sensory mapping, and multisensory environments—redefine interactions between bodies and built spaces. By examining these intersections in a context of architecture and art history—disciplines that have long been dedicated to the knowledge residing in perception but also perpetuated their visual and normative primacy—the workshop opens up new ways of thinking about access, agency, and the politics of space, all under the premise that accessibility is not simply a question of inclusion but a generative process for reimagining the material-discursive world.

Alternative approaches to design emphasize adaptation and fluidity over rigid norms and normativity. Crip technologists expose biases within digital aesthetics while generating new ways to engage with technology. DeafSpace reframes architecture—not as an act of accommodation, but as an approach that centers Deaf experiences from the start. Similarly, blind and low-vision designers rethink spatial navigation through tactile, haptic, and auditory interfaces, challenging ocular-centric norms and expanding how space can be perceived and constructed. Neurodivergent-led design resists standardized environments that impose cognitive strain, advocating for flexible, responsive spaces that support sensory and perceptual diversity.
This workshop brings together different thinkers and practitioners who challenge conventional narratives of accessibility, and instead explore how disabled subjectivities generate new forms of embodied knowledge. Extending access generates friction and renegotiates spaces; it disrupts norms and resists assimilation. 

For more information on the program: here

This workshop is organized by Virginia Marano (MASI Lugano/KHI) and the Lise Meitner Group “Coded Objects” (led by Anna-Maria Meister) at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut. “Coded Objects” as method of refraction examines how processes form values through objects—and how objects inform processes in societies.

[Image description: The very first Deaf Club in the metaverse is housed in a navy Victorian, twinkling against a crepuscular sky. A neon marquee sign that reads “DEAF CLUB” invites visitors into a brightly lit space. Created by lead artist Melissa Malzkuhn with the support of engineers and 3D designers, this virtual gathering space is both a living museum of Deaf storytelling and artistry and a reincarnation of Deaf clubs that were once a vital community hub.]

Project website

Creative Access and Digital Innovation

23 January 2024 16:30 – 18:30 CET (online)

The event features four professionals and experts in the fields of accessibility and emerging digital innovations: Kamran Behrouz (Visual Artist, Zurich), Saverio Cantoni (Visual Artist, Berlin), Georgina Kleege (University of California, Berkeley) and Nina Mühlemann (Artist, Bern Academy of the Arts). The event explores the role of new digital technologies from an artistic and academic perspective, delving into issues related to digital knowledge and spatial fruition. Guests and the participating group will have the opportunity to discuss and initiate a discussion on the points of convergence between art, scientific research and digital innovation with a view to new strategies for accessibility and inclusion. 

The online panel discussion is curated by Virginia Marano, a Fondazione Giorgio Cini fellow in the PNRR–PEBA project for the Removal of Physical, Cognitive and Sensory Barriers in Cultural Sites (EU-funded grant – NextGenerationEU).

The event will be held in English and will have live American sign language (ASL) interpretation by First Choice Interpreting Service.

For more information on accessibility and to register, please visit this link. 

Image credit: Liza Sylvestre, Captioned-Channel Surfing (still), 2016.

[Image description: Movie still, close-up of a white man and woman wearing summer clothes in a
rural setting looking excited in a phone booth. A caption reads “They are so young and excited and
happy."]

 

 

Project website

Institute Colloquium Spring 2023: Care, Disability and Art

A lecture series with artists and researchers exploring the social and political dimensions of care at the intersection of gender, race, and disability in art and art history

Program (PDF)

[Image description: A layout in gray tones with ornamental elements and the title of the lecture series in large, slightly slanted letters. In-between is an image of a work by Jilian Crochet, a soft sculpture with organic shapes covered with velvet. The flyer, created by Rietlanden Women’s Office, looks like it was designed with adhesive strips on a photocopier.]

Project website

Workshop “Unlearn the Body: New Approaches on Disability and Art History”

This two-day workshop, taking place at the University of Zurich in June 2022, brought together a diverse group of thinkers to share and explore different approaches to engage with disability in art and art history. Panteha Abareshi held a keynote lecture entitled “The Disabled Body as Fundamental Taboo.”

[Image description: A graphic work by Panteha Abareshi featuring a photo of a hand-held dynamometer, a device used to measure the strength of muscles. The black-and-white photo is framed by color test strips on either side. Below that, capital letters read: The Medical Gaze Is a Weapon.]