Between 2000 and 2005, my dual role at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig included the conception and development of a training module that integrated curatorial practices into artistic education. It was the first model of its kind in Germany. In 2000, Beatrice von Bismarck joined the Academy, and together we developed this program, which we gave an independent form within the institution under the /D/O/C/K project area.
We worked directly on the discourses of the time and with key figures from the contemporary scene, creating experimental projects that were new in terms of both form and method for all involved—delicate and often conflict-ridden. Critique of institutions and the de-hierarchization of relationships between students, teachers, and artists mobilized forces that sometimes became uncontrollable. The conditions of project and exhibition work that we created ourselves were intense and led to legal disputes. Above all, however, it became clear to everyone: Our work—art—is not separate from or outside of societal realities; it IS social reality.
From these exploratory activities, Beatrice von Bismarck’s program “Cultures of the Curatorial” later emerged. In 2005, before I left, we compiled the results of our work in the publication Beyond Education.