I am an anthropologist working on contemporary art, curatorial practices, and political theatre in Germany, particularly the postindustrial Ruhr Valley and Berlin. My ethnographic research explores the ways in which contemporary artists, curators, and art institutions (galleries, project spaces, museums, theatres) develop alternative strategies and concepts to deal with otherness and alterity. During my time at CARMAH, from June 2016 to March 2020, I conducted comparative and collaborative research with the gallery of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) in Berlin-Mitte, the artistic project space SAVVY Contemporary, and the municipal gallery of Berlin-Wedding.
As part of CARMAH’s “Transforming the Ethnographic” research area within its major Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation funded project Making Differences in Berlin: Transforming Museums and Heritage in the 21st century, my research followed the exhibition making and curatorial planning in these spaces to explore the boundaries and productive intersections of ethnographic, artistic, and curatorial work and the relations between art and anthropology more generally. This entailed investigating how contemporary artists and curators generate and can contribute to new ways of addressing some of the contentious issues facing heritage projects like the Humboldt-Forum today, and how curatorial practices and artistic spaces mobilise critical theories and position themselves within Berlin to address the contested future of German and European identity and heritage in the face of rising nationalisms and migration movements. These issues included, but were not limited to, artistic research methods and alternative forms of knowledge production, the relation of the ‘West’ to the ‘non-West’, participatory and relational visitor engagement, institutional critique, postcolonial perspectives on shared heritage and cosmopolitanism.
My approach was collaborative and recursive, since I consider artistic practices and institutions to be sites for kinds of reflexive theorising that are pertinent to core anthropological debates about subjectivity, political agency, alterity, and ethics. Among the central aims of my research were therefore, first, a rethinking of institutions as reflexive sites and public theorisers of difference and diversity in Berlin and Germany. Second, I sought to reposition contemporary art practices and communities as fields of expertise for the negotiation of Germany’s relation to European and non-European art and cultural heritage. In the process of working through these relations ethnographically, it evidently turned out to be fruitful, and indeed necessary, to interrogate and find alternative concepts to the very categories of analysis that underlied the project, such as ‘contemporary’, ‘expertise’, or ‘anthropological/ethnological/ethnographic’.
Prior to joining the Berlin team, I completed long-term ethnographic research on German public theatre institutions, freelance theatre collectives, and critical refugee theatre initiatives as part of my PhD at the Division of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK (awarded July 2016). I continue to work collaboratively with these institutions and initiatives in Berlin and the Ruhr Valley on issues such as post-Fordist labour conditions in the arts, ethical self-cultivation, and artistic representations of otherness in contemporary theatre. I am currently preparing a book manuscript based on this research, entitled State of the Arts: Anthropology, German Theatre, and Political Self-Cultivation.
Since March 2020, I am scientific coordinator and postdoc on the ERC-project Minor Universality. Narrative World Productions After Western Universalism (PI: Markus Messling), for which, among other things, I organise an art-residency and research exhibition in collaboration with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
twitter: @jonastinius
contact: www.jonastinius.com
Selected Publications
2020
Across Anthropology: Troubling Colonial Legacies, Museums, and the Curatorial. May 2020 (in print / submitted January 2020).Open-access and certified peer-reviewed edited volume contracted with Leuven University Press and international distribution by Cornell University Press. Co-edited with Margareta von Oswald. Prefaces by Arjun Appadurai and Sharon Macdonald, with an afterword by Roger Sansi. Funding for open-access publication secured through the University of Leuven Open-Access Fund, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Humboldt-University Berlin Open-Access Initiative. 450 pages with over 70 colour illustrations. (LINK)
‘Traces, Legacies, and Futures: A Conversation on Art and Temporality’ (with Nora-Al-Badri, Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Silvy Chakkalakal, Alya Sebti, and Jonas Tinius).Third Text Forum01/2020. Open-access [LINK].
‘The recursivity of the curatorial’ (with Sharon Macdonald), in: Roger Sansi. Ed. The Anthropologist as Curator. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 35-58. [LINK]
‘Troubling diversity and iterations of difference: reflections on curatorial tensions and a mapping survey’, in: Beyond Afropolitan & Other Labels: On the Complexities of Dis-Othering as a Process, edited by Kathleen Louw et al. Brussels: BOZAR, pp. 39-45.
‘Mapping Diversities in Austria, Belgium, and Germany. An introduction to the polyvalent politics of diversity and the difficulties of dis-othering’ (with Tonica Hunter and Naomi Ntakiyica), in: Beyond Afropolitan & Other Labels: On the Complexities of Dis-Othering as a Process, edited by Kathleen Louw et al. Brussels: BOZAR, pp. 11–14.
‘Phantom Palaces: Prussian Centralities and Humboldtian Horizontalities’ (with Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll), in: Jonathan Bach and Michal Murawski. Eds. Re-Centring the City. Global Mutations of Socialist Modernity. London: UCL Press. [LINK]
2019
‘We go to Venice and we will walk on water. Jonas Tinius in conversation with Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung on Bauhaus, rematriation, and photography’. Something We Africans Got7: 38–42.
‘Fieldnotes’, in: Post-Otherness Wedding / Unsustainable Privileges. Galerie Wedding – Space for Contemporary Art Berlin, edited by Solvej Helweg Ovesen and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. Bielefeld / New York: Kerber, pp. 177–181.
‘Interstitial Agents: Negotiating Migration and Diversity in Theatre’, in: Bock, Jan-Jonathan and Sharon Macdonald. (eds) Refugees Welcome? Differences and Diversity in a Changing Germany. Oxford/New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 241–264. [LINK]
2018
Alterity’, in: Tinius et al. Otherwise: Rethinking Museums and Heritage. Berlin: CARMAH, pp. 40–54. [LINK to pdf of volume]
‘Capacity for Character: Fiction, Ethics, and the Anthropology of Conduct’. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale 26 (3): 345-360. [LINK]
‘Awkward Art and Difficult Heritage: Nazi Art Collectors and Postcolonial Archives’, in: Thomas Fillitz. Ed. An Anthropology of Contemporary Art: Practices, Markets, and Collectors. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 130– 145. [LINK]
‘Artistic Diplomacy: On Civic Engagement and Transnational Theatre’, in: Breed, Ananda and Tim Prentki. (eds.) Performance and Civic Engagement. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 269-300. [LINK]
‘(Per)former de nouvelles institutions artistiques: autoritéet travail créatif au Theater an der Ruhr’, in: Troupes, compagnies, collectifs dans les arts vivants: organisations du travail, processus de création et conjonctures’, edited by Bérénice Hamidi-Kim and Séverine Ruset-Penketh. Paris: Édition L’Entretemps, pp. 407-420.
2017
‘Art as ethical practice: anthropological observations on and beyond theatre’. World Art 7(2): 227-251. [LINK to open access article]
‘Prekarität und Ästhetisierung: Reflexionen zu postfordistischer Arbeit in der freien Theaterszene’, in: Ove Sutter and Valeska Flor (eds.) Ästhetisierung der Arbeit. Kulturanalysen des kognitiven Kapitalismus. Münster: Waxmann, pp. 139–156. [LINK]
‘The Porosity of Darkness: A Conversation on Architecture, Multimedia Arts, and the Venice Biennale’ (with Danish artist Kirstine Roeppstorff and curator of the Danish Pavilion Solvej Helweg Ovesen). Mousse Magazine. 13 September 2017. [LINK]
‘Sparring Partners: An Introduction to the Gallery Reflections Series’, opening online column for ifa- gallery 2017-2018 one-year programme Untie to tie: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Societies, ifa-Galerie, Berlin/Germany. [LINK]
‘Bare Lives: A Conversation’ (Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Solvej Helweg Ovesen, Mario Rizzi, Jonas Tinius), in: Bare Lives, edited by Mario Rizzi, based on an exhibition curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and Solvej Helweg Ovesen.] Berlin: Archive books, pp. 68–75.
‘The privilege of life itself: sovereignty, power, and the figure of the refugee’, in: Bare Lives. [Exhibition catalogue, edited by Mario Rizzi, based on an exhibition curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and Solvej Helweg Ovesen.] Berlin: Archive books, pp. 68–75. [LINK]
‘Europas Interne Andere: Ein Gespräch mit dem Kurator und Künstler Moritz Pankok’. CARMAH Reflections article. Published on 4 May 2017. [LINK]
‘Anthropologische Beobachtungen zu künstlerischer Subjektivierung und institutioneller Reflexivität: Das Theaterprojekt Ruhrorter mit Geflüchteten am Theater an der Ruhr’, in: Matthias Warstat, Florian Evers, Kristin Flade et al. Applied Theatre – Frames and Positions. Berlin: Theater der Zeit, S. 205-235.
2016
‘Authenticity and otherness: reflecting statelessness in German postmigrant theatre’. Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques. 14 (2016). Open-access. [LINK]
‘Rehearsing detachment: refugee theatre and dialectical fiction’. Journal of Art and Anthropology/Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia. 5(1): 21-38. [LINK]
‘Retheorising the Avant-Garde Today: Interdisciplinary Perspectives‘ (conference report with Georgina Born and Christopher Haworth). Music, Digitisation, Mediation: Towards Interdisciplinary Music Studies (ERC-funded research project 2012-2015). 21 February 2016.
Book Review: Art, Anthropology and the Gift (Bloomsbury, 2015) by Roger Sansi. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 22 (1): 215-216. [LINK]
2015
‘Between professional precariousness and creative self-organisation: the free performing arts scene in Germany’, in: Mobile Autonomy. Organizing ourselves as artists today, edited by Pascal Gielen and Nico Dockx. Amsterdam: Valiz, pp. 159-181. [LINK]
‘Colonial copies and ethnographic conceptualism: artistic experiments at the intersection of anthropology, history, and science’, in: Allegory of the Cave Painting. A Reader, edited by Mihnea Mircan and Vincent van Gerven Oei. Milan: Mousse Publishing, pp. 257-275. [LINK]
Public Engagement
2020
Conference presentation:‘DisOthering Diversity. Curating as institutional troubling’. Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS), 5thBiennale Conference, University College London/UK, 20-24 August 2020.
Conference presentation: ‘Theatre, Chance, and the Ethnographic Encounter with the Exceptional’. Paper accepted in panel convened by Thomas Fillitz and Helena Wulff. European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Lisbon/Portugal. 20-25 July 2020.
Public congress panel: ‘Post-Heimat’. Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin/Germany. 20 March 2020.
Moderation and input: Decentring Europe (book launch and discussion with Arjun Appadurai and others), HKW, Berlin/Germany (24 April 2020).
Workshop conversation (as organiser):‘A digital museum of restitution’. Conversation with artist Emeka Ogboh. Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH), Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/Germany. 22 January 2020.
Research colloquium: ‘Curating trouble: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Art’. Public lecture in the lecture series Kunst Afrikas convened by Prof Tobias Wendl. Institute of Art History, Free Universität Berlin, Germany. 21 January 2020.
2019
Co-sponsored congress panel (as organiser): ‘The post-anthropological: Convergences across museums, colonial legacies, and the curatorial’ (with Margareta von Oswald), American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (Canada). 20 November 2019. [LINK]
Network Symposium (as organiser): ‘Post-Heimat #3’. Meeting of the Production Network Post-Heimat, funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Munich Kammerspiele, Munich, Germany. 24-27 October 2019.
Symposium (as organiser): ‘The trouble with art: Philistinism and Scepticism in the Anthropology of Art’, 2019 interim symposium of the Anthropology and the Arts (ANTART) Network of European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), convened with Prof Roger Sansi (Barcelona). Berlin/Germany. 20-22 September 2019.
Conference presentation: ‘The Porosity of the Membrane: On District Curating, Contemporary Art, and Anthropology’. Part of panel: The post-anthropological: Convergences across museums, colonial legacies, and the curatorial’ (with Margareta von Oswald), American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (Canada). 20 November 2019. [LINK]
Network meeting: ‘Recalibrating the trouble with art’ (with Roger Sansi). Introduction and opening of the first biannual network meeting of the Anthropology and the Arts Network, European Association of Social Anthropologists. Convened by Jonas Tinius and Roger Sansi at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage, Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. 21-22 September 2019.
Summer school public talk: ‘Welcome, and enjoy the ruins! Fragments on ruination’. Ancient Theatre and the Political. Summer School organised by the Michael Cacoannis Foundation and the University of Bonn (Forum Internationale Wissenschaft), Athens/Greece, 18 September 2019.
Academy keynote: ‘Industrial Ruins and the new Spree-Athens in Berlin: Convergences between three forms of ruination. Avtonomi Akadimia in Akadimia Platonos, Athens/Greece. 15 September 2019. [LINK]
Summer school keynote: ‘Welcome and enjoy the ruins!’. Ancient Theatre and the Political. Summer School organised by the Michael Cacoannis Foundation and the University of Bonn (Forum Internationale Wissenschaft), Athens/Greece, 13 September 2019.
Conference presentation: ‘We have never been postindustrial: On the irony of regeneration in industrial heritage’. On panel: ‘The Shadows of the Present: Generative Ambivalences Across Art, Heritage, and Materiality’ (Panel D09, convened by Dr Jonas Tinius and Dr Alice von Bieberstein, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the Commonwealth (ASA), University of East Anglia, UK. 3–6 September 2019.
Symposium talk: ‘Political Fiction: Of Migrants, Theatre, and the Otherwise’. 23rdInternational Symposium in Phenomenology (‘L’Epreuve de l’Etranger. Translation, Migration, Resistance’), organised by Emmanuel Alloa, Delia Popa, and Shela Sheikh. Perugia/Italy. 7-13 July 2019.
Conference presentation: ‘Dis-Othering Diversity: Reflections on Anthropological Research with Artistic Surveys’, Race, Power and Culture. A critical look at Belgian cultural institutions. BOZAR, Brussels (Belgium). 22-24 May 2019.
Conference chair and introduction: ‘Mapping Diversity: Perspectives from Austria, Belgium, and Germany’, Race, Power and Culture. A critical look at Belgian cultural institutions. BOZAR, Brussels (Belgium). 22-24 May 2019.
Keynote: ‘Ethnography as a method in theatre studies?’ Methodische Diskurse der aktuellen Probenforschung. Institute of Theatre Studies, LMU Munich/Germany. 5 April 2019.
Public seminar: ‘Migration and European Identity: Negotiating the Politics of Fiction’. EHESS research group PublicDemos organised by Prof Nilüfer Gölen, Paris/France. 1 March 2019. [LINK]
Salon and expert talk: ‘The Politics of Data. Perspectives from Anthropology, Technology, Hacking, and Museums’ [transmediale foreplay]. Green Salon, Volksbühne, Berlin/Germany. 1 February 2019.
2018
Talk and roundtable (invited): ‘Monde de l’art contemporain, partage du sensible, et passions identitaires en Europe et la Meditérranée’, 2eme Forum Franco-Allemand de la Méditerranée, Aix-en-Provence et Marseille, organisé par Sciences Po Aix, IMéRA Marseille, CFAP, et Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Aix-en-Provence et Marseille/France, 21-22 November 2018. [LINK]
Guest lecture, book launch, and seminar (invited): ‚Andere kuratorische Praktiken – Rethinking museums and heritage’. ‚educating, curating, managing’ (ecm) Masterlehrgang für Ausstellungstheorie & Praxis, University of Applied Arts & Workshop at Weltmuseum, Vienna/Austria. 16-17 November 2018.
Symposium (invited): ‘Ethnografie und Methode’. Doing Theory. Theaterforschung unn ästhetische Praxis. Studiobühne (Münchener Theaterwissenschaft), Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Munich/Germany, 26-27 October 2018.
Symposium presentation (invited): ‘Temporality, Ontology, and Contemporary Art’ (in conversation with curator and artist Wura Natasha-Ogunji) as part of Goethe-Institute Brazil funded symposium ‘Art beyond the horizon: rethinking the meridian of aesthetics and politics’. Sao Paulo Biennale of Contemporary Art. PIVÔ, São Paulo, Brazil. 28-29 September 2018.
Chair (invited): ‘Beast of No Nation (B.O.N.N.) – Gastropolitics and Migration Roundtable with Emeka Ogboh, Carrie Hampel, Regina Römhild’, opening of UP Symposium in the framework of the bi-annual curatorial programme Unsustainable Privileges (UP), curated by Solvej Helveg Ovesen and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Gallerie Wedding, Berlin-Wedding/Germany. 26-30 September 2018.
Panel (as organiser): ‘Time and Tradition: Theorising the temporalities in and of cultural production’ (convened with Prof Georgina Born), ASA 2018, University of Oxford, UK. 18-21 September 2018. [LINK]
Workshop (as organiser): ‘Anthropology, Art, and Alterity’. Two-day symposium funded by CARMAH and hosted by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in collaboration with SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin/Germany, 13-14 September 2018. [LINK & FULL PROGRAMME]
Art fair talk (invited): ‘Is culture something you own or something you share?’ CHART (Copenhagen Art Fair – leading Nordic Art Fair) talk series organised and invited by ArtForum, Konsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen/Denmark, 3 September 2018. [LINK]
Discussant (invited): ‘Aesthetic Encounters: The Politics of Moving and (Un)settling Visual Arts, Design and Literature’ (convened by Prof Helena Wulff and Prof Thomas Fillitz). Biannual Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Stockholm/Sweden. 14–17 August 2018. [LINK]
Network Panel (as organiser): ‘Art and Nativism’ (Anthropology and the Arts – ANTART – Panel)’, convened with Roger Sansi (Barcelona). Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Stockholm/Sweden, 14-17 August 2018.
Conference/Humboldt Kolleg (as organiser): “Anthropology and Performance Studies”, convened with Prof Tracy C. Davis (Northwestern) and Prof Lye Tuck-Po (Universiti Sains Malaysia). Funded by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Wenner Gren Foundation. Penang/Malaysia, 6-10 August 2018.
Conference (as organiser): ‘CARMAH Research Encounter #1’. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin/Germany, 6 July 2018.
Conference presentation: ‘Collections, Colonialism, and the Curatorial’ (with Larissa Förster and Margareta von Oswald). CARMAH Research Encounter #1. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin/Germany, 6 July 2018.
Discussant (invited): ‘The Humboldt Forum and Contemporary Art’ (presentation on Asian Art Museum in Humboldt Forum by director Klaas Ruitenbeck).Dismantling Neo-Empire: Asia-Pacific. two-day workshop at HKW and ICI. Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin/Germany. 21 June 2018.
Conference Presentation (invited): ‘Transforming the Ethnographic: Anthropology, Museums, and Colonialism’ (with Margareta von Oswald and Larissa Förster). Exchanging Perspectives: Anthropologies, Museum Collections, and Colonial Legacies between Paris and Berlin. CARMAH & Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin/Germany. 6–8 June 2018.
Panel presentation: ‘The Culture State: German Theatre, Bildung, and Political Self-Cultivation’. Panel 065: ‘The State of the Art’ (convened by Dr Michał Murawski and Dr Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov) at ‘Art, Materiality, and Representation’, Major Conference of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, British Museum/SOAS, London/UK. 1-3 June 2018. [LINK]
Panel (as organiser): ‘The Future of Anthropological Representation: Contemporary Art and/in the Ethnographic Museum’. Chair and Convenor of Panel at Royal Anthropological Institute Major Conference ‘Art, Materiality, and Representation’, British Museum/SOAS, London/UK. 1-3 June 2018. [Link to CfP]
Opening conference keynote: ‘Theatre & Migration: New Aesthetics and New Alliances’. Inaugural Conference of the Production Network post-Heimat funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Theater an der Ruhr, Mülheim (Germany). 21 March 2018.
Friedrich-Hölderlin-Gastvortrag in Allgemeiner und Vergleichender Theaterwissenschaft (invited): ‘Deep Hanging Out’: Über anthropologische Feldforschung und zeitgenössische Kunst’, Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaften, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main/Germany. 23 January 2018. [LINK]
Ringvorlesung (invited): ‘Je est un autre.’ Ein anthropologischer Blick auf Fiktion, Identität und Alterität in der darstellenden Kunst’, in: Ringvorlesung ‘Tiere, Maschinen und andere Menschen. Zur anthropologischen Kritik in den Künsten, Freie-Universität Berlin / Free University Berlin. 9 January 2018.
2017
Public Dialogue (invited): ‘Décolonisons nos réflexions/Decolonise our reflections’ (with Alya Sebti). Part of EHESS Art-Anthropology residency programme ‘Concrete Mirror’ by Alex Ungprateeb Flynn and Noara Quintana. La Colonie, Paris/France. 5 December 2017.
Workshop (as organiser): Ethnografisches (Be)Schreiben in den Künsten – Methodenerweiterung’, Sonderveranstaltung (Blockseminar) für Mittelbauangehörige des Instituts für Theaterwissenschaft, Fachbereich Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin/Germany, 26 November 2017.
Panelist (invited): ‘Sie verlassen jetzt den künstlerischen Sektor, oder: Der Trend zur Nützlichkeit / You are now leaving the artistic sector, or: On the trend towards usefulness in art’. Mit ALICE CREISCHER [Künstlerin, Berlin], MARIA-SIBYLLA LOTTER [Philosophin, Universität Bochum], MICHAEL LÜTHY [Kunsthistoriker, Universität Weimar], JONAS TINIUS [Anthropologe, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin]. Im Rahmen des UdK- Einsteinprojekts Autonomie und Funktionalisierung. ACUD MACHT NEU, Berlin/Germany. 24 November 2017.
Presentation and chair (invited): ‘Anthropology, Museums, and Diversity’. Diversity. Jahrestagung des Landesverbandes der Museen Berlin e.V., organised by Diversity.Arts.Culture – Berliner Projektbüro für Diversitätsentwicklung, Landesverband der Museen Berlin, and Museumsdienst Berlin. Märkisches Museum, Berlin/Germany. 20 November 2017.
Public Discussion (as organiser): ‘Gallery reflection # 3: Art and (New) Intersectional Feminisms’ (with Prof Alanna Lockward, Prof Kathy-Ann Tan, and Federica Bueti), ifa-Galerie Berlin, Berlin/Germany. 16 November 2017. [Link to video]
‘Back to the Future Heritage: On Palatial Space and Anthropological Collaboration’, Anthropology Department, University of Manchester, Manchester/UK. 13 November 2017.
Chair and discussant of opening keynote speech and panel discussions with Dr Christina Johansson (Malmö University, Sweden), Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (Jewish Museum Berlin), and Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński (Vienna Academy of Fine Arts). Future Memories. Remembrance Culture(s) of Migration Society, three-day workshop in cooperation with the Centre for Metropolitan Studies (Technical University Berlin), W.M. Blumenthal Academy, Jewish Museum Berlin, Berlin/Germany. 26-28 September 2017.
Chair and discussant of closing panel discussion of exhibition Cabinet of the Unknown / Cabinet d’Ignorance with curators Dr. Michael Korey (Dresden) and Ece Pazarbasi (International Fellow Curator, Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Istanbul/Berlin), Museum der Dinge/Museum of Things, Berlin-Kreuzberg, Germany. 25 September 2017.
Keynote (invited): Ethnography of the Arts: Perspectives on Theatre and Beyond’. Ethnographie der Künste, Künste der Ethnographie. Summer School at Villa Arson, jointly organised by FU Berlin and Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, 17-24 September 2017, Nice/France.
‘Kunst und Alterität: Perspektiven auf und aus der Anthropologie’, Sektion VIII: Kunst-Medien-Politik, geleitet von Prof Christian Grüny, ‘Die Phänomenologie und das Politische’, Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Phänomenologischen Forschung, Institut für Philosophie, FernUniversität in Hagen/Deutschland. 13-16. September 2017.
‘Anthropologie in/und/mit künstlerischer Praxis: Zur Ethnografie als Methode’. Eingeladener Beitrag im Workshop Aufführungsanalyse vs. Ethnographie? Zur Transdisziplinarität von Analysemethoden in der Theaterwissenschaft, Institut für Film-, Theater- und empirischer Kulturwissenschaft (IFTeK), Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz/Germany. 13 September 2017.
‘Parrhesia and Autopoiesis: Speaking (about) oneself as alternative political becoming’. Invited lecture at the Porphyra Club as part of the interdisciplinary exhibition project Born in the Purple by Berlin-Istanbul-based artist Viron Erol Vert, funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds and Kommunale Galerien Berlin, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin/Germany. 17 August 2017.
‘Anthropology and/as the Study of Everything? A Personal Story’, The School of Everything, part of the documenta14 public programme, convened at the Parliament of Bodies, Athens/Greece. 6-7 July 2017.
‘From Art to Anthropology and back: Encounters, Exchanges, and Frictions’. 2017 Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park Company of Ideas Forum, Hornby Island, British Columbia/Canada. 26-28 June 2017.
‘Bare Lives’ (with Solvej Ovesen, Mario Rizzi, Charlotte Bank, Ramy Al Asheq), Chaired moderation, artist talk, and book presentation for Mario Rizzi’s Bare Lives exhibition as part of the annual programme Unsustainable Privileges at the Galerie Wedding, Müllerstraße, Berlin/Germany. 1 June 2017.
‘Beobachtung und Methode: Ethnografische Perspektiven aus der Kunst und (Natur)Wissenschaft’ (mit Prof Jens Roselt und Prof Jörg Niewöhner), Faculty Seminar Series (Institutskolloquium), Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin/Germany. 16 May 2017.
‘Urban Decolonisation and Diasporic Formations’ (with Dr Noa Ha and Trang Tran Thu), Opening session of ‘Gallery Reflections’ series for the annual programme ‘Untie to Tie: On Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Societies’ at the gallery of the Institute für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) 2017-2018, ifa-gallery, Linienstraße Berlin/Germany. 4 May 2017.
‘Modes of Relating: An Introduction’ (with Sharon Macdonald, Jörg Niewöwner, Martina Klausner), Institutskolloquium, Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/Germany. 18 April 2017.
‘Flucht und Traum: Überlegungen zur politischen Rolle der Fiktion’ (mit Alexander Weinstock, Institut für Neuere Deutsche Literatur, Universität zu Köln). Eröffnung der RUHRORTER Salon Reihe, Dezentrale, Ringlokschuppen, Mülheim an der Ruhr/Germany. 15 April 2017.
‘An Anthropology of (German) Theatre: Artistic Institutions as Ethical Traditions’. Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews/Scotland. 13 April 2017.
‘Back to the Future Heritage: Palatial Spaces and Collaborative Anthropology’. Design & Anthropology: Landscapes and Cities Workshop, Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies & Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge/USA. 3-4 April 2017.
‘Puzzling Homes: Narrating European crisis and future heritage’ (Poster with Tal Adler and Anna Szöke). 13th Congress of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF), Congress. Ways of Dwelling, Crisis – Craft – Creativity. Göttingen/Germany. 26-30 March 2016.
‘Future Perfect: A dialogue on mobility, precarity, and temporality’ (with performing artist Wanja van Suntum). Work with/out borders. Precarity and the performing arts conference, organized by Prof Katharina Pewny et al., Performing Arts & Media, Department of Art Studies, Ghent University/Belgium. 18-19 March 2017.
Benefiz-Vortrag: ‘Die Figur des Geflüchteten: Perspektiven zum nicht-dokumentarischen Theater’. VHS-Forum, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Köln. 21. Februar 2017.
‘Ethnographic methods in theatre studies’. Methoden der Theaterwissenschaft, Konferenz organisiert von Prof Christopher Balme, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, LMU Munich/Germany. 3-4 February 2017.
‘Design, failure, and the globalization of risk’. Moderated discussion with Prof Arjun Appadurai (NYU) and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin/Germany. 10 January 2017.
2016
‘Ethnographie of Curating/the Curatorial’ (with Margareta von Oswald, Christine Gerbich, Franka Schneider, Anna Schäffler). Faculty Seminar/Institutskolloquium, Department of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin/Germany. 13 December 2016.
‘Reviewer meets reviewed’ (with Dr Roger Sansi). Seminar at the British Museum, organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute, London/UK. 17 November 2016.
‘Migration und Theater. Einige Beobachtungen zu reflexiven, künstlerischen Institutionen’ (Migration and theatre. Some observations about reflexive artistic institutions). Seminar Series (Institutskolloquium), Department of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. 15 November 2016.
‘Zwischen Sozialarbeit und Kunst: Das Theaterprojekt RUHRORTER mit Geflüchteten.’ 30. Bundestagung des Bundesverbands Theaterpädagogik e.V. Eberswalde/Germany, 28.-30.10.2016.
‘Vom Informanten zum Zeitgenossen: Expertise im Kontext der künstlerischen Arbeit mit Transkulturalität und Migration am Beispiel der Feldforschung mit Theater’. Das transkulturelle Klassenzimmer: Dinge umordnen, Erfahrungen übersetzen, Bedeutungen verändern. Konferenz des Verbundprojektes “Mobile Welten. Zur Migration von Dingen in transkulturellen Gesellschaften” (BMBF), organised by Dr Sophia Prinz and Roger M. Buergel in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg/Germany. 6–7 October 2016.
‘Ethnografisches Forschen in der Kunst’. Workshop at cobratheater.cobra performing arts festival, Uferstudios, Berlin-Wedding/Berlin. 23-24 September 2016.
‘Cultivating character: detachment in theatre and German society’. Anthropology of Character conference organised by Dr Adam Reed. Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews/Scotland. 1-2 September 2016.
‘The Art of Slowing Down’ (Discussant), EASA 2016 (Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists), Milan, 20-23 July 2016.
‘Appropriating Universal Centrality: Containing the World in Berlin’s new Humboldt Forum’ (with Dr Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll). ‘The Centre Cannot Hold’? New Monumentality, Neo-Modernism and Other Zombie Urban Utopias conference and exhibition hosted by the UCL SSEES FRINGE Centre, The Calvert 22 Gallery, and University College London/ UK, organised by Dr Michal Murawski (UCL) and Dr Jonathan Bach (New School, NYU), 10-11 June 2016.
‘On Detachment and Relations’. Chaired discussion with Prof Hallvard Lillehammer (Philosophy, Birkbeck) and Dr Matei Candea (Anthropology, Cambridge) at the Centre for Research of the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH), Cambridge/UK. 25 April 2016.
‘Rehearsing conduct and gesture: notes on art as ethical practice’. The Ethics of Gesture conference organised by Dr Lucia Ruprecht at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge/UK. 16 April 2016. Keynote: Prof Rebecca Schneider (Brown/USA).
‘Engaging art: urban diversity, public institutions, and the ‘refugee crisis’’. Experiencing Difference and Diversity in Contemporary Germany conference organised by Prof Sharon Macdonald and Dr Jan-Jonathan Bock. Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin/Germany. 14-16 April 2016.
‘Momentary Dwellers: Experimental art-ethnography collaborations and sensory research’, 13th Congress of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF), Congress. Ways of Dwelling, Crisis – Craft – Creativity. Göttingen/Germany. 26-30 March 2016.
Networks/Membership
In January 2018, I joined the editorial board of the peer-reviewed interdisciplinary anthropology journal World Art and I became a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
Since 2017, Roger Sansi and I convene the Anthropology and the Arts Network (ANTART) within the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). The objective of the ANTART Network is to advance the scholarship, discussion, and presence of anthropological approaches to the arts. It also seeks to build on its existing network of scholars, artists, and institutions to continue its exchanges with alternative cultural production venues in future EASA locations, thus building links between the university and other public or civil society initiatives.
In October 2014, I launched the independent Anthropologies of Art Network [A/A] with Dr Alex Flynn (Anthropology, Durham), which seeks to bridge the gap between artistic practice and ethnographic investigation, focusing on theory-building in contemporary art. Our inaugural conference took place at the University of Durham (‘Contemporary Anthropologies of Art’) in September 2015 with keynote speaker Prof Arnd Schneider (Anthropology, Oslo).
Since 2013, I have been accompanying the refugee theatre and arts collective Ruhrorter and document their projects and rehearsals. I am currently preparing a book chapter for Theater der Zeit on the aesthetics of the project, and have written about it in this special issue. The project has been based at the Theater an der Ruhr and has been funded by the Federal Government of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Fonds Soziokultur, and Interkultur Ruhr. From 2019-2021, the collective will be co-organiser of a major Kulturstiftung des Bundes funded European production network initiative under the working title STRANGE(R).
Between 2013 and 2016, I was founding co-convenor of the Mellon/Newton-funded Cambridge Interdisciplinary Performance Network based at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH). Through bi-weekly seminars and through three major conferences, we explored the concept of ‘performance’ as a way to stimulate interdisciplinary conversations between scholars and artists on topics like visuality and archives, the digital future, city life and the public sphere. The seminar series 2015/2016 focused the theme InterActivity: Performing Relations with an opening talk by Prof Martin Puchner (Harvard). An interesting example for one of our sessions has been published recently: “Art and anthropology after relations”. A Conversation between Roger Sansi and Marilyn Strathern. HAU – The Journal of Ethnographic Theory. Vol. 6, No. 2 (2016).