Beitragsreihe | Exhibition Ecologies

Das Bücherbeet. Künstlerisch-kuratorische Essays zu Kunst und Ökologie

Seit April wird eine Vitrine im ZI als eine Art Hochbeet von Nanne Buurman (Forschungsgruppe Kunst, Umwelt, Ökologie) kuratorisch-forschend „begärtnert“. Fortlaufend neu arrangiert und ergänzt, entstehen in dieser experimentellen Versuchsanordnung im Laufe des Jahres immer wieder neue Konstellationen zwischen den ausgestellten Materialien, die saisonal jeweils andere inhaltliche und ästhetische Querverbindungen in Erscheinung treten lassen. Der prozessual und assoziativ angelegte visuelle Essay zu Ambivalenzen von Naturkonzeptionen und ökologischem Denken in Moderne und Gegenwart lädt zur Reflexion über romantisierende, biopolitische, völkische und ökonomische Dimensionen des Ökologischen in Kunst und Kultur ein.

Das Bücherbeet. Künstlerisch-kuratorische Essays zu Kunst und Ökologie

The Missing Link: Linn Burchert and Alexandra Masgras review Vernetzte Welten, on view at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

By the 1970s the term globalization gained currency in academic and corporate discourse as a means of describing the increasing interconnectedness of economies and cultures. Now an indubitable fact, globalization stirs attention across the political spectrum. While right-wing detractors are touting a protectionist vision of the (ethnic) nation-state, centrists retreat to shallow attempts to defend globalization as a peace-promoting, culture-enriching project. The contradictions brought about by globalization are also reflected in the legacy of the left. In the late 1990s and early 2000s left-wing groups mobilized an alter-globalization movement, which contended with social injustice and uneven distribution under capitalism, yet was unable to revive the internationalist political ambitions of the labor movement of the early twentieth century. In this context, an exhibition thematizing global interconnections is bound to navigate a political minefield. The exhibition Vernetzte Welten. Globalisierung im Fokus [Interconnected Worlds: Globalization in Focus] at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg (10 April–24 August, 2025) embraces the liberal celebration of multiculturalism while gesturing vaguely at the inequalities that capitalist globalization has perpetuated.

Mimesis or Ecology? Alexandra Masgras and Linn Burchert on Bauhaus Ecologies at the Bauhaus Museum Dessau

Since the Bauhaus centennial in 2019, academic and popular interest in what is often hailed as the world’s most famous design school has flourished. Arguably, the institution’s plight at the hands of right-wing municipal governments and later of the ruling Nazi party generated interest in several aspects of the Bauhäuslers’ practice identified as progressive. Their internationalism, the struggle against tradition and convention, as well as their gender-bending practices have all received renewed attention in recent years. The exhibition Bauhaus Ecologies held at the Bauhaus Museum Dessau (4 April – 2 November 2025) advances this line of inquiry by investigating the school’s engagement with what is now broadly defined as ecological thinking. Curated by Regina Bittner and Vera Lauf of the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Bauhaus Ecologies showcases some of the latest academic research into the Bauhäuslers’ engagement with natural form and back-to-the-land practices, which assimilates well to contemporary notions of environmentalism. By the organizers’ own estimations, the exhibition “explores approaches to ecological thinking in modern design.” As this statement implies, the display favours a genealogical over a historical lens, by showcasing several areas of artistic practice that prefigure contemporary trends in bio-design and sustainability. While this curatorial approach highlights the Bauhaus’ much-lauded prescience and contemporary relevance, it is less effective in charting the school’s relation to the cultural, scientific, and political ambivalences of the emerging environmental discourses of the early twentieth century.