Seminar: BB12×TUB Encounters

We are currently observing how colonial narratives live on in the streets of Berlin and how museums in Europe confront this part of their history only unwillingly. Despite various efforts, the process of critical reappraisal and the decolonization of museums is progressing only slowly. How can we close the wounds of these traumas? What realms of possibility does the 12th Berlin Biennale open up to address these questions? What function can art and its institutions fulfill in this context? Whom does it speak for, whom does it represent, and how free and inclusive can it be?

The seminar BB12×TUB Encounters, led by Malina Lauterbach and Merten Lagatz, is a cooperation between the Berlin Biennale’s education and mediation department and the Institute for Art History and Historical Urban Studies at the Technical University of Berlin. The seminar critically examines the phenomenon of art biennials in two semesters. In the 2022 winter semester, students produced a zine addressing issues of decolonial repair and wounds in the contemporary urban space of Berlin. The seminar discussed these topics in dialogue with Kader Attia, Lotte Arndt, and Gabriele Horn.

Participating students (TU Berlin Modern Art History program):
Eileen Kesseler, Hoa Jin, Johannes Hollefreund, Laura Desch, Laura Lässig, Lena Affentranger, Matthis Thomsen, Klara Stierhof, Monique Machicao y Primer Ferrufino, Vangelis Pappas, Paula Wunderlich

Malina Lauterbach studied art history and curating in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main. She coordinates the BUA-funded Oxford-Berlin Initiative on Museums as Spaces of Social Cohesion and Conflict at Technische Universität Berlin. Her focus is on artistic research and the notion of matter and geology in contemporary art.

Merten Lagatz studied art history, theater studies, and German language and literature. He coordinates the translocations research cluster and works at Technical University of Berlin on cultural activism, queer collectives, and contemporary arts.

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