Methodology of researching historical exhibitions

The exhibition »Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter« (ZKM, 2.12.2022 - 23.4.2023) deals with the reconstruction of historical exhibitions and presents, among other things, virtual 3D models of the exhibitions »Les Immatériaux« (Centre Georges Pompidou, 1985) and »Iconoclash« (ZKM, 2002). In this context, two workshops will be held in which international experts will discuss the curating of interdisciplinary exhibitions and their historical research.

For more than three decades, the history of art and science has increasingly devoted itself to the study of exhibitions as sites and media of production, mediation, and negotiation. Based on the current projects on »Les Immatériaux« and »Iconoclash«, the workshop will discuss the methods of a comparative exhibition historiography. Among other things, aesthetic, epistemological, and political questions and the significance of the ensembles of curators, networks, things, etc. that are virulent in exhibitions will be put to the test. A further focus is the investigation of the medial conditions of historical exhibitions and the connection between medial and methodological innovations.