My focus on Dada started in 1988 with the reconstruction of the First International Dada Fair (Berlin 1920). I was subsequently involved in major retrospective exhibitions on John Heartfield and George Grosz. Symposia on the technique of Collage and on Raoul Hausmann followed suit. In 2006, after a break with Contemporary Art, I gave a talk on the Berlin Dada Fair at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I then wrote my PhD on Erwin Blumenfeld and Dada (2008) and lectured at Braunschweig University of the Arts, expanding on Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Francis Picabia, optophonetic poems and Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate, and Dada in photography. My ongoing concern with Dada is the catalogue raisonné of Christian Schad’s handful of Schadographs of 1919. Nearly one century after their creation, these works are the purest implementation of theories emanating from the Swiss Dada fraction.

exhibitions

In the 1980s and 1990s, I co-curated international blockbuster exhibitions in Classical Modern. More recent highlights were the inaugural exhibition Artist.Archive of the new building of the Akademie der Künste at Brandenburg Gate and my work on legal/illegal. Art beyond Law at Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, likewise in Berlin. In 2009, I curated a comprehensive exhibition on Erwin Blumenfeld at Berlinische Galerie. Currently, I work on smaller personal exhibitions by contemporary artists.

lectures & talks

In addition to public talks on a span of themes in Classical Modern and Contemporary, which reflect my wide interests, I regularly deliver opening speeches for personal and group exhibitions of contemporary artists. I am most attracted to contemporary artists, who select their media of expression according to their current theme – this can encompass clearly delimited art forms, but also hybrids including collage, photograms sound- and video-works, and immersive installations calling on various media.

museumskademie

I ran the museumsakademie, a commercial gallery for young and mid-career artists, from 1996 to 2002. The gallery was located at the heart of Berlin Mitte. Coming from blockbuster exhibitions on Classical Modern, the gallery was the answer to my desire to be closer to living artists and to the process of creation. My large and wonderful loft space enabled me, together with a fantastic team of young and enthusiastic interns, to curate individual and group exhibitions according to museum standards.

nänzi

Nänzi was a wonderful figurative sculptor who died suddenly in 2013. Together with Nänzi’s former partner, Dietmar H. Heddram, I manage the estate. We organize events in Nänzi’s Showroom in Berlin Schöneweide, which is south east of the city, on the way to Schönefeld airport. Our aim is to produce a comprehensive book on her work, hopefully also a film, and insure that her name stays on the map.

publications

The wide range of themes in my publications reflect my interest from Classical Avant-garde to Contemporary Art. I publish mainly in German and English, but I also write in French.

teaching

My PhD took me back to university more than twenty years after completing a Master of Arts in art history in 1984. It was pure luxury to be able to debate on exciting themes in a motivated group of people, without the pressure of having to reach a definite result.

translation

Due to my bilingual upbringing, I have always been interested in languages as systems of communication. It therefore seemed logical to study linguistics, i.a. with Prof. Herbert Pilch at the University of Freiburg. The challenge of a good translation is often underestimated, especially in the age of “google translate”. Whereas I worked as a translator in conference centers in order to finance my studies, these days, I only translate texts on art. Quite apart from my three main languages, I am able to follow a conversation in Italian, Spanish, and Russian.

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