Global Studies: Art and Visual Media Today

The advent of globalization in the sense of an opening of markets and borders was tied with the promise of dissolving dissonances and conflict and leading to the utopia of post-histoire. To the same extent that this has not occurred politically and socially, it has led to a reduction in science’s complexity. Instead, an increasing separation of methodologies and perspectives can be observed, particularly in those fields that have to do with images and »production of culture«. Human and social sciences may deal with the same objects, but they use different, seemingly mutually incompatible approaches. Art and culture historians, film studies scholars, sociologists, ethnologists, and also representatives of museum practice have access to their own techniques for categorization, analysis, and mediation. With »Global Studies«, ZKM | Karlsruhe has set up a platform that anchors the discourse of art and media in a globalized world at an interdisciplinary level. The platform is an initiative of the project »Global Art and the Museum«, which has documented the complex transformation of the art scene against the backdrop of globalization since 2006.

With the following themes and speakers
(among others)

Art movements, networks, and genres in a regional context

Birgit Hopfener (Freie Universität Berlin), Noemie Jäger (Universität Basel), Chrischona Schmidt (Australian National University, Canberra), Nadine Siegert (Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies)

Artists as transnational actors

Rania Gaafar (Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe), Anne Linden (Universität zu Köln), Nicola Müllerschön (Universität Zürich), Malgorzata Scherf (Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig), Isabel Seliger (Universität der Künste Berlin)

Artworks in ideological and economic transfer

Sebastian Baden (Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe), Cathrine Bublatzky (Universität Heidelberg), Anna Grasskamp (Leiden University), Irina Vogelsang (Universität Passau)

Regional and global exhibition practice

Daniela Wolf (Berlin), Barbara Wolner (Hochschule Bremen)

Making globalization visible

Julia Binter (Universität Wien), Markus Hafner (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien), Ulrike Heine (Justus-Liebig-Universität in Gießen)

Theory globalization?

Jacob Birken (Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe), Dagmar Danko (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), Sarah Hilterscheid (Universität Bielefeld)

Other invited guests: Chris Dercon, Charles Esche, Thomas Filitz, Monica Jueja u.a.