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Over the years, my writings have appeared in a wide range of contexts—here I present a selected compilation. These include essays, exhibition texts, theoretical writings on art, and (cultural) political statements. Certain themes show continuity: art commissioned by citizens—the “New Patrons”—as well as the idea of exiting from art. Other texts take a monographic approach, such as those on Santiago Sierra and Michael E. Smith. The selection includes a biting polemic on “East German Success Painting,” an early essay on curatorial (un)consciousness, and various other pieces. Since 2009, I have been writing regularly for KOW—some of these texts I consider among my best.

Der letzte Tag des Jahres

“The Last Day of the Year” is a story – my literary debut. On December 31, 2018, my girlfriend Maria Magdalena L. drowned in the Atlantic; I myself barely survived. The text recounts the weeks before and after this event. It has not yet been published. I am providing reading samples here – not in English though.

Teatro Popular. Peter Friedl, KOW

Peter Friedl is a historian. Historians want to tell (hi)stories, and that, we might say, is what Friedl does, though he doesn’t tell them in linear fashion and certainly not through to the end. Rather, Friedl creates spectacles—in Greek, theatra—: scenes where there is something to see. Situations in which something happens, or perhaps put more… Continue reading Teatro Popular. Peter Friedl, KOW

A Protocol With Universal Scope?

Published in: François Hers, Opération Nouveaux Commanditaires, Paris 2023
For François Hers’ book, I shed light on the question of whether the protocol of the New Patrons has a “universal character”.

Simon Lehner’s Safe Crash

No English version, I am sorry.

Casa Negra. Marco Castillo, KOW

Marco Castillo and his family have lived in exile in Mexico from Cuba since 2019. His new exhibition at KOW turns the spotlight on the censorship and repression regime in Cuba, which has grown more severe in recent years. What sets it apart from the exertion and impact of violence in some other autocracies is… Continue reading Casa Negra. Marco Castillo, KOW

Commoning Art. Die transformativen Potenziale von Commons in der Kunst. Vorwort.

Published in: Vera Hofmann, Johannes Euler, Linus ZurmĂĽhlen, Silke Helfrich (Eds.), Commoning Art. Die transformativen Potenziale von Commons in der Kunst, Bielefeld 2022
No English translation available.

Balot. CATPC & Renzo Martens, KOW

CATPC and Renzo Martens’s exhibition at KOW marks a new stage in their longstanding collaboration, in which they delve deep into both colonial relations and the mechanics of the art world, in order to understand and alter them. The show features six new documentary films (2022), Martens’s widely discussed film White Cube (2020), and the… Continue reading Balot. CATPC & Renzo Martens, KOW

Kunst im BĂĽrgerauftrag

Published in: Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber (Hg.), Kunst im BĂĽrgerauftrag, Leipzig/ Berlin, 2022
No English text available.

Nicht alle Macht geht vom Volke aus, manch Kunstwerk schon. Ăśber Wandel und kulturelle Selbstwirksamkeit

Published in: Franziska Richter / Friedrich Ebert Stiftung: Traum(a)land, Wer wir sind und sein könnte, Identität & Zusammenhalt in Ost und West, Bonn 2021
No English version available.

In this book, over 45 authors from different generations in East and West Germany report on their experiences of transformation over the last few decades from a wide variety of perspectives. Since I moved from the West (NRW) to the East (Dresden) in 1992, I have my own history with reunification, from which I look at today.

Jars. Sophie Gogl, KOW

I don’t want to. I can’t. I mustn’t! Not now. Maybe I’ll come back to it tomorrow. We’re perpetually compelled to postpone what we would want, should do, might wish for. Acting hasn’t felt like this in a long time: like an uncertain proposition that’s presumably inappropriate just now and may well be just as… Continue reading Jars. Sophie Gogl, KOW

Jedem Auftrag wohnt mindestens ein BĂĽrger inne (Zur Krise der Vorstellungskraft)

Published in: Magazine #34, Dilemmata, German Federal Cultural Foundation, 2021
No English text available.

This issue of KSB Magazine tackled a difficult topic: Dilemmas that we find ourselves in time and time again. I was concerned with the following: Today’s forms of representation can no longer mobilize the belief that the few adequately represent the many. At the same time, new forms of self-representation are emerging that are looking for ways to institutionalize themselves (and gain power). The dilemma is that the desire for more co-determination beyond the usual representative processes is driving actors and methods across the political spectrum, from the far left to the far right, and thus does not per se amount to more public spirit and democratic esprit. This is a challenge for committed contemporary art. It must reposition itself.

Bin ich KĂĽnstler*in oder kann das weg? Eine Trennungsgeschichte mit politischem Ende

Published in: Martin Köttering (ed.), Lerchenfeld Nr. 57, Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, April 2021
No English version available.

Published in: Martin Köttering (ed.), Lerchenfeld No. 57, April 2021, Hamburg University of Fine Arts

I was invited to write an opening essay for Lerchenfeld Magazine, in which I took up my academic work on the “Dropping out of art” somewhat humorously and without any theoretical pretensions.

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht…, Gedicht ĂĽber das Biodeutsche (Video)

Auf Einladung von Candice Breitz und Bettina SteinbrĂĽgge machte ich 2021 – mitten im Corona Lockdown – diesen Beitrag zu ihrer Reihe ‘This is Germany’.

Dierk Schmidt. Kolonnen – Hohenzollern ist jetzt ein Verb. KOW

It’s a hot potato, that restitution business. The formerly colonized demand the return of the cultural assets that were stolen from them during the colonial era or that entered German collections in questionable ways. The Federal Republic, for its part, argues that it isn’t all quite so simple—and actually rebuilds the old palace of the… Continue reading Dierk Schmidt. Kolonnen – Hohenzollern ist jetzt ein Verb. KOW

Die Gestaltung der Nähe: Kulturwandel und Konfliktarbeit im Bürgerauftrag

Published in: Norbert Sievers, Ulrike Blumenreich, Sabine Dengel, Christine Wingert (ed.), Jahrbuch fĂĽr Kulturpolitik 2019/20
No English version available.

Willst du eine Zukunft? Ein Protokoll fĂĽr neue kulturelle GemeingĂĽter

Published in: Hildegund Amanshauser, Kimberly Bradley, Navigating the Planetary. A guide to the planetary art world—its past, present, and potentials, Internationale Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst Salzburg, Vienna 2020

Leon Ferrari. Toasted Angels, Sounds of Steel. KOW

Earthworms are making themselves at home in the White House. They wiggle their way into the Oval Office and the private apartments, dangle from the flagpole on the roof, smear the star-spangled banner with their slime. Yuck. Sweet. Our exhibition opens with the video Casa Blanca, created in 2005. The desecration of a proud symbol?… Continue reading Leon Ferrari. Toasted Angels, Sounds of Steel. KOW

Citizens Commissioning Art: An innovative social and cultural policy practice

Published in: Howaldt, Kaletka, Schröder, Zirngiebl (Ed.), Atlas of Social Innovation. 2nd Volume – A World of new Practices, 2019

“The “Atlas of Social Innovation” series offers a comprehensive overview of the world of Social Innovation in a lucid way. It is featuring the perspectives of leading experts from research and practice. It gives insights into multifaceted manifestations, contexts and perspectives of social innovation.”

Alice Creischer. His Master’s Voice. KOW

Alice Creischer’s third exhibition at KOW is a snapshot of contemporary German politics, as well as an illustration of political and creative continuity. In the gallery’s downstairs showroom, the works make for a choppy survey of social developments of the past thirty years and more, developments that have been subjected to so much critical analysis… Continue reading Alice Creischer. His Master’s Voice. KOW

Ekstase der Zerstörung. Michael E. Smiths “And Babies”

“Published in: Exhibition publication Neues Museum NĂĽrnberg, 2017
No English version available.

Writing about art can be strange. I only had photos of the installation and simply began to describe what I was seeing. I had no idea what my reading of this unassuming installation would lead to – and was then filled with humility and awe at how Michael E Smith had managed to get to the heart of the Nazi history of the city of Nuremberg. I only came up with the title of the text once I understood that.”

Candice Breitz. Love Story. KOW

“Alec, you’re famous! People will listen to you,” says Alec Baldwin to himself, a few moments before sharing the details of his arrest in Cairo, his journey to Italy on a desperately overcrowded fishing boat, and his eventual arrival in the unfamiliar city of Berlin on a rainy day in September 2015. Cut. Julianne Moore… Continue reading Candice Breitz. Love Story. KOW

On the Possibility of Light. Chto Delat, KOW

More light! Build more lighthouses! Drink phosphorus! As autocrats and neo-feudalists in the United States, Turkey, Poland, Great Britain, and other countries turn off the lights, something must shine the brighter. But what? What should be done? Chto Delat?! That is the signature question under which this collective of artists, intellectuals, and activists from Moscow… Continue reading On the Possibility of Light. Chto Delat, KOW

The Chocolate Sculptures by CATPC

Published in: Eva Barois de Caevel, Els Roelandt (ed.), CATPC, Cercle d’art des travailleurs de plantation congolaise, Congolese Plantation Workers Art League, Sternberg Press 2017

I have been involved in the CATPC and Renzo Martens project for many years. Both are represented by KOW. Here I have presented – from the gallerist’s point of view – how CATPC’s sculptures are created, produced and distributed.

Mario Pfeifer.On Fear and Education, Disenchantment and Justice, Protest and Disunion in Saxony / Germany. KOW

It’s all not so simple, unfortunately. Right-wing, centrist, left-wing populism, the post-factual era, disunited and manipulated societies—it feels like an apocalyptic downward spiral, but apocalyptic moods are unhelpful. Disunion is unhelpful. The fact is: What agitates some today fills others with serenity and courage. Where emerging forms of government trigger some people’s flight instincts, others… Continue reading Mario Pfeifer.On Fear and Education, Disenchantment and Justice, Protest and Disunion in Saxony / Germany. KOW

Mobilising Solidarity. Art, Vocabulary Politics and Resolidarisation AFTER Richard Rorty

Published in: Anna Jehle, Paul Buckermann (eds.), Kinship in Solitude, Perspectives on Notions of Solidarity, Archiv Klaus-Dieter Braun, Artists Unlimited, Bielefeld 2017

In 2015 I had the privilege of moderating the symposium “Politics of Art” for the Goethe Institute in Berlin. For the following publication, I set out to outline my fundamental fascination with Richard Rorty’s political philosophy, which has informed my work (and my writing) since the early 2000s. For me, it is a key text. The only one in which I – as academically as I can, because I am actually an essayist – set out Rorty’s position in detail and then try to make clear why I think it is so valuable to art. I owe Artists Unlimited this great translation from the German original.

The Cabinet of Ramon Haze, KOW

It is a preeminent collection of the art of the twentieth century—perhaps the only one. From Marcel Duchamp to Andreas Baader and Jeff Koons, it covers almost a hundred years of cultural history, an era that has become strange to us. In the collection’s 154 items we espy glimpses of a universe of things and… Continue reading The Cabinet of Ramon Haze, KOW

Heinrich Dunst. Things, Not Words. KOW

Something is clawing away at the foundations. Swarms of thinkers are busy undermining a worldview in which the human being sits at the center. What Sloterdijk once portrayed polemically as the degressive line of development from God to man and from man to Smurf might be described as a series of narcissistic wounds dealt to… Continue reading Heinrich Dunst. Things, Not Words. KOW

Hiwa K. This Lemon Tases of Apple. KOW

Lemons are being passed around. Their juice relieves the burning in the mouth and nose. It is April 17, 2011, the last day of public revolt before the suppression of the Iraqi Spring, which was barely mentioned in the international media. Amid the protesting crowd, breathing the air laced with tear gas, are two musicians:… Continue reading Hiwa K. This Lemon Tases of Apple. KOW

Abstraction in Self-Defense. Santiago Sierra’s cruel solidarity

Published in: Vlado Velko (ed.), Public Abstraction, Arnsberg/ Cologne 2015.

As Santiago Sierra’s gallerist, I have regularly encountered dismissive statements about his work, moral criticism, even resentment. Almost always I found such statements to be based on a lack of understanding of how Sierra’s work actually works. On the basis of some important pieces, I have tried to counteract this deficit.

Mario Pfeifer. Approximation in the Digital Age to a Humanity Condemned to Disappear. KOW

Techno music plays at the far end of the earth. Squid gyrate to a strobe light, the crab industry runs like clockwork, and real men earn their peers’ respect when their fish traps are full. The sunrise is as breathtaking in Patagonia as it is in the Panoramabar in Berlin’s Berghain nightclub. Using luscious colors,… Continue reading Mario Pfeifer. Approximation in the Digital Age to a Humanity Condemned to Disappear. KOW

Gestures of Disappearance, Once More. Looking Back on a Prologue, its Melancholy, and its Method

Published in: Gestures of Disappearance, Exhibition catalogue Kunsthalle Bergen, 2015

In 2014 Kunsthalle Bergen proposed to reconstruct my exhibition “Gestures of Disappearance” from 2002. A great stroke of luck for an exhibition maker. My text for the catalog reflects once again what meaning the 2002 exhibition had for me, and how it came about.

Hito Steyerl. Left to Our Own Devices. KOW

Hito Steyerl’s first gallery show in Germany—on view are five video installations from 2012 to 2015—is infused with the Bruce Lee quotation “Be water, my friend!” In A Warrior’s Journey the kung fu master advises a companion going to war to be as formless as water, which swiftly adapts to new situations and can take… Continue reading Hito Steyerl. Left to Our Own Devices. KOW

Eugenio Dittborn. Pinturas Aeropostales. KOW

Over the past weeks, we received almost fifty letters from Santiago de Chile. Their content: around 1,600 square feet of fabric, folded up and squeezed into mailing envelopes—the pieces of twelve works Eugenio Dittborn created between 1986 and 2014. Pinturas Aeropostales: Airmail Paintings. Pictures made to travel the world by airmail from Chile that have… Continue reading Eugenio Dittborn. Pinturas Aeropostales. KOW

Catfish Instead of Buddha. Michael E. Smith’s Materialism of Basic Needs

Published in: Brigitte Franzen (ed.): Michael E. Smith, Ludwig Forum Aachen 2013

This essay is a thorough introduction to the work of the Detroit-born artist, whom KOW has closely followed since 2008. It also retells the story of how Nikolaus Oberhuber and I first discovered this work.

Zehn Schöne Inseln. Die Binnengrenzen des Kunstfeldes – Ein Beschreibungsmodell

Published in: polar Magazin 15, Berlin 2013
No English version available.

This text is the conclusion of a series of publications in which I have developed a theory on the differentiation of the artistic field since 2006. I still consider my descriptive model of different art fields (according to Bourdieu) to be helpful and useful for understanding and explaining the structural developments in contemporary art over the last few decades.

Dignity. Barbara Hammer, KOW

Das Lebenswerk der 1939 in Hollywood geborenen Experimentalfilmerin, Dokumentaristin und bildenden KĂĽnstlerin Barbara Hammer hat die Geschichte des Queer Cinema mitgeschrieben. Seit 1968 hat die erste lesbische Filmaktivistin ĂĽber 80 Produktionen mit dezidiert feministischer Perspektive vorgelegt. Zeigte unsere erste Ausstellung von Barbara Hammer 2011 vor allem ihren Beitrag zur (Selbst-)Repräsentation lesbischer Liebe und Sexualität in… Continue reading Dignity. Barbara Hammer, KOW

Tobias Zielony. Manitoba

Between 1874 and 1996, the Canadian authorities, in concert with various churches, operated so-called Residential Schools—boarding schools designed to reeducate Canada’s aboriginals. During this time, around 250,000 children were forcibly separated from their families, isolated from the indigenous cultures, and remade into “good Christians.” They were forbidden to speak their native languages; sexual abuse and… Continue reading Tobias Zielony. Manitoba

Dirt that Catches the Sun. Chris Martin’s Social Horizon of a Spiritual Abstraction

First published in: Gregor Jansen: Chris Martin, Staring Into The Sun, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Düsseldorf, 2011

On the occasion of Chris Martin’s first survey exhibition, this essay brought together central themes of his oeuvre. A thorough reception of Martin’s work, which dates back to the 1980s, only began in the 2010s. Based on conversations with the New York painter, the text was able to present much of the content and background in a compact way for the first time.

General Strike. Grundlagen zu Theorie und Geschichte des Kunstausstiegs

Erschienen in: Alexander Koch, KOW (Hg.), General Strike, KOW Issue 8, Berlin 2011

Die kommende Ăśbernahme. FĂĽr eine Entkoppelung von kulturpolitischer Definitionsmacht und Kulturadministration

Published in: P/ART FOR Art, Berlin Biennale Newspaper 2011
Co-Author: Arno Brandlhuber
No English version available.

Around 2011, cultural and urban policy debates were running hot in Berlin. At that time, KOW worked together with the architect and urbanism thinker Arno Brandlhuber. From him came the impulse for this text, which we published together in the newspaper of the Berlin Biennale. I still carry the core argument with me today: The cultural administration cannot represent the artistic community, so it should refrain from making decisions that it cannot evaluate in terms of content.

Option Lots. A Research by Brandlhuber+

Published in ARCH+ 201, Berlin, März 2011
No English version available.

Franz Erhard Walther’s Participatorial Minimalism

Published as: KOW ISSUE 1, Alexander Koch, Nikolaus Oberhuber (eds.), Berlin 2009.

During this project, the term “Participatory Minimalism” seemed to me to apply well to Walther’s approach, but also to works such as those by Charlotte Posenenske and others. See also the exhibition of the same name at KOW.

Unterlassenkreativität oder Was tut das künstlerische Nichttun, was das künstlerische Tun nicht tut?

Erschienen in: Performanzen des Nichttuns, Passagen Verlag, Wien 2008

Archiver la disparition. Eclipsés, redécouverts: Que résulte-t-il de la mise en lumière de la disparition ?

Published in: Catalog XV BIENNALE DE PARIS, 2006

Le prĂŞt Ă  porter de l’image. Anmerkungen zur Genese der Leipziger und Dresdner Erfolgsmalerei

Published in: La Nouvelle Peinture Allemande. Carre d’Art, Musee d’Art contemporain, Nimes, 2005. Arles/ Paris, editions Actes Sud 2005, pp. 20-33
No English version available.

This text is a well-founded critical examination of the then still fresh phenomenon of new painting from East Germany at the beginning of the 2000s. Keyword: “New Leipzig School”. It caused us a lot of trouble. In fact, it is written in a cheeky to mean way. But that seemed appropriate to us. Christian Janecke, with whom I wrote the text, had taught art history in Dresden since the mid-1990s and I had studied painting there before moving to the HGB in Leipzig in 1996. So we were eyewitnesses and close to the action. I also knew Neo Rauch and especially his gallerist Judy Lybke well, I often slept in the warehouse of the Leipzig gallery Eigen+Art, where I was surrounded by paintings that are discussed here.

Oops! We are Olympia? Artistic Strategy in Curatorial Practice or Why We Have No Exhibition Terms

Published in: Kunstreport 03/04, Deutscher KĂĽnstlerbund, Berlin 2004

In 2004, the self-image and role model before curators were still in the midst of negotiation. The “profession” was still young, training programs were rare, and discourse on the subject was lively. One discussion was the extent to which artistic and curatorial work were or were not different. In the early 2000s, I was considered one of the first “artist curators,” which from today’s perspective was nonsense. Anyway, I was asked to write this text and made a statement that I still find interesting today. I drew on Edouard Manet to show how he gave painting an emancipatory self-confidence – a self-confidence that, in my view, was still lacking in curatorship and the medium of exhibition at the time.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find this old text again….
An English version is unexisting.

In den Falten der Kunst. Kunst und Interkontextualität

Published in: Marcel BĂĽhler, Alexander Koch (eds.), Art and Intercontextuality, Materials for the Symposium schau-vogel-schau, Cologne 2001.
No English version available.

In October 1998 Marcel BĂĽhler and I opened the symposium we had developed on art and intercontextuality in Leipzig. “Intercontextuality” was a term we had invented to understand and conceptually describe “cross-border” tendencies in the art of the 1990s. In my opening speech I introduced this term.