Regine Ehleiter holds a PhD (summa cum laude) in Art History from the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig and an MA in Cultural Studies, Art History and Journalism from the University of Leipzig. Her dissertation on publications as sites of exhibition in the 1960s has been published as a book with Edition Metzel in Spring 2024.

Prior to her postdoctoral position at the Freie Universität, Regine Ehleiter has worked as a Research Associate in Art History at the University of Hildesheim (2019–20) and the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (2021–22). From 2015 to 2016, a doctoral grant by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) allowed her to undertake extensive archival research in New York and Washington, D.C. Following that she was a guest researcher at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and a Predoctoral Visiting Scholar (2018/19) affiliated with the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

Alongside pursuing her PhD, Regine Ehleiter has worked as a contemporary art curator and author for the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2011–13), the 6th f/stop Festival for Contemporary Photography Leipzig (2014), the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck (2017) and, most recently, the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (2023). In 2022, she started the ongoing curatorial project "Reading Artists' Books" with Tabea Nixdorff, in memory of Doro Boehme (1957-2020).

Notable recent publications (2023) include a comprehensive catalog essay on "The Art & Project Bulletins as a Site for Exhibition, Experimentation and 'International' Exchange", commissioned by the Kröller Müller Museum in Otterlo (NL), and the Cluster publication "HaFI 020: Erika Runge: Reflections Upon Saying Farewell to Documentary Literature" in cooperation with the Harun Farocki Institut (co-edited by Clio Nicastro and titre provisoire).

From 2022 to 2024, Regine Ehleiter was a Professional-Track Postdoc at EXC 2020, conducting a research project on literary writing practices by contemporary artists.

• SoSe 2022 | MA-Seminar: "Writing as Artistic Practice", Institut für Theorie (IfT), Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (HGB Leipzig)

• SoSe 2022 | MA-Seminar: "From Pixel to Blockchain. Contextualising Digital Imaging Prac­ti­ces", IfT, HGB Leipzig

•  WiSe 2021/22 | Grundkurs I: "Einführung in die Kunstgeschichte und -theorie", IfT, HGB Leipzig

•  WiSe 2021/22 | MA-Seminar: "Beyond New York: Globaler Konzeptualismus", IfT, HGB Leipzig

•  WiSe 2021/22 | Workshop: "Fiktive Institutionen" (28./29.10.2020), Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle

•  SoSe 2020 | MA-Seminar: "Feministische Kunst der 1970er Jahre", Stiftung Uni­ver­sität Hildes­heim

•  WiSe 2019/20 | BA-Seminar: "Beyond New York: Schlaglichter eines 'globalen Konzeptualismus'", Stif­tung Universität Hildesheim

•  WiSe 2019/20 | BA-Seminar: "Praktiken des Publizierens in der Kunst seit 1960", Stif­tung Universität Hildesheim

•  WiSe 2019/20 | Exkursion zum Studienzentrum für Künstlerpublikationen, Weserburg, Bremen, Stif­tung Universität Hildesheim

•  WiSe 2017/18 | MA-Seminar: "Seth Siegelaub. Die Erweiterung des kuratorischen Raums", Goe­t­­he Universität Frankfurt am Main, Studiengang „Curatorial Studies – Theorie – Geschi­chte – Kritik“

•  WiSe 2014/15 | BA-Seminar: "Curating in the Expanded Field – Modelle erweiterter kura­to­ri­scher Ausstellungspraxis", Institut für Kulturwissenschaften, Universität Leip­zig

Former research includes an EXC 2020 post-doctoral research project, Writing as Artistic Practice (2022–2024).

Research interests:

• Exhibition Histories
• Conceptualism
• Artists' publications with a specialisation on books, magazines and ephemera of the long 1960s
• Contemporary Photography and the history of photo books
• Intersections of Literature and Art

PhD project Praxisformen des Ausstellens in Publikationen. Zum Wandel des Öffentlichwerdens von Kunst in den 1960er-Jahren

In my PhD dissertation I examined the international emergence of experimental exhibition practices in publications in the period from 1963 to 1970. I conceived three thematic chapters on participation, 'dematerialization' and internationalism, focusing on the potentials, desired effects and possible attributions historically associated with the use of the publication format in the exhibition context in the 1960s. The 'portable galleries' by Barbara Block and Christian Chruxin in West Berlin, catalogue exhibitions by Seth Siegelaub in New York, expository projects by the Japanese conceptual artist Matsuzawa Yutaka and bulletin exhibitions by the Amsterdam gallery Art & Project are analysed in in-depth case studies. Due to their unorthodox medium and mode of appearance, many of these projects did not enter the discourse under the term 'exhibition' prior to my study.

Methodologically, I work with the concept of 'entangled histories' and praxeology. By bringing together case studies that previously existed primarily within individual, nationally shaped art historical narratives, the study contributes to an interconnected transnational history of exhibiting in publications; it identifies manifestations of synchronicity, both in the context of personal contacts and in terms of retrospectively reconstructed parallels. The central motif of the exchange, as it characterises the sending of ephemera in mail art, is also reflected in my writing: Chapter 3, on 'Internationalism', for instance, makes the points of contact and interdependencies between the examined exhibition practices in the Netherlands and Japan a structuring principle

Talks

• “Writing Beyond Sense: The Political Power of Asemic Writing in Mirtha Dermisache’s Artists’ Publications of the 1960s and 1970s”, accepted conference paper, Centre for Artists’ Publications, Bremen (28-29 Jun 2024).
• “Ausstellen in Publikationen. Zum Wandel des Öffentlichwerdens der Kunst in den 1960er-Jahren“, plenary lecture, Humboldt University Berlin, at the invitation of the DFG Graduate School “Literatur- und Wissensgeschichte Kleiner Formen” (22 Jan 2024).
• “Konzeptuelle Foto-Publikationen der 1960er Jahre“ (Conceptual photo publications of the 1960s), as part of the series “Fotografie in Büchern” (Photography in books), Düsseldorf Central Library, organised by Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber (9 Aug 2023).
• “Die ‚tragbare Galerie‘. Transformationen der Ausstellungspraxis in den 1960er-Jahren“ (The ‘portable gallery’. Transformations of exhibition practice in the 1960s), lecture, Dresden University of Fine Arts, at the invitation of Prof. Angela Matyssek as part of the lecture series “Ausstellen / Exhibiting” (16 Jan 2023).
• “Wall & Page: Julia Borns ‘Title of the Show’ (2009) im Kontext konzeptueller Ausstellungen der 1960er-Jahre (Wall & Page: Julia Born’s ‘Title of the Show’ (2009) in the context of conceptual exhibitions of the 1960s), lecture, Bauhaus University Weimar as part of the Bauhaus Masters Lectures of the Visual Communication programme (22 Nov 2022).
• “Wall and Page: Spaces of Display”, lecture, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, at the symposium „Von hier aus... noch zu bestimmen“ (17 Jun 2022).
• “Praxisformen des Ausstellens in Publikationen“, lecture (online), Nachwuchsnetzwerk Junge Kunstgeschichte (7 Feb 2022).
• “Jenseits anthropozentrischer Maßstäbe? Zur Denkfigur des ‘Planetarischen’ im Kunstdiskurs der Gegenwart” (Beyond Anthropocentric Parameters? On the concept of the 'Planetary' in Contemporary Art Discourse”, lecture (online), Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (21 Jan 2022).
• “Comparability as an ideal. Seth Siegelaub’s concept of the standardization of the exhibition situation”, lecture, University of Bielefeld, at the symposium “Curatorial Practices of Comparison” (15 Nov 2018).
• “Designing participation. Christian Chruxin's conceptual linking of publication and exhibition in the programme of the West Berlin gallery situationen 60 (1963-1966)”, lecture, HfG-Archiv Ulm, at the conference “Gestaltung ausstellen. Zeigeordnungen, 1950-1970” (30 Oct 2018).
• “‘A verbal-visual experiment in repetitive photographs’: Reconstructing Lucy Lippard's exhibition Groups (1969/1970)”, lecture, Central St. Martins College of Art, University of the Arts, London, as part of the workshop: “Wall and Page Display. Reconsidering Presentational Context in Photographic Exhibitions” (18 Apr 2018).
• “The Publication-as-Exhibition. Expanding the Terms of Display”, lecture, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London (7 Feb 2018).
• “Printed Exhibitions. Expanding the Terms of Display”, lecture, Tromsø Kunstforening, Norway (24 May 2017).
• “My Gallery is the World Now: Seth Siegelaub and the catalogue-as-exhibition”, lecture, Plymouth University, “New Voices” conference, Association of Art Historians (25 Nov 2016).
• “The Publication-as-Exhibition. Unfolding situations 60’s Portable Galleries”, lecture, German Consulate General New York, at the workshop “Artists’ Publications: Revisions of Multiples and Conceptual Photography around 1970” (20 May 2016).

Organised academic events

• “Erika Runge und das systemsprengende Potenzial des Glücksanspruchs | Screenings und Gespräche” (Erika Runge and the system-shattering potential of the claim to happiness | Screenings and Talks). Organised workshop in cooperation with the Harun Farocki Institut, Berlin, at the EXC 2020 “Temporal Communities”, Freie Universität Berlin (29 Nov 2023).
• “Assemblage Berlin. 60 Years of Intermediality in Literature”. Festival, cooperation of the EXC 2020 “Temporal Communities” of the Freie Universität Berlin and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (15-17 Jun 2023).
• “Wall and Page Display. Reconsidering Presentational Context in Photographic Exhibitions, 1950-1970”. Workshop at Central St. Martins College of Art, University of the Arts, London, in cooperation with the Afterall Exhibition Histories Research Group (18 Apr 2018).
• “Printed Matter: Conceptualism and Dissemination”, conference panel at the IAWIS/ AIERTI conference (Images and Words Reproduced), Université de Lausanne, Switzerland (13 Jul 2017).
• “Kommentare zum Wert der Kunst” (Comments on the Value of Art). Panel Chair (Nachwuchsforum) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz as part of the 33^rd German Kunsthistorikertag, March 2015 (co-chaired by Andrea Haarer and Clara Wörsdörfer), supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation for Art History.
• “Artzines”. Organised Symposium at D21 Kunstraum Leipzig as part of the exhibition Thanks For Sharing!, May 2010. Supported by the Foundation for the Arts of the State of Saxony, the City of Leipzig and ProHelvetia.
• “Die Permanenz des Ästhetischen. Perspektiven der philosophischen Ästhetik” (The Continuance of the Aesthetical. Perspectives from the Field of Philosophical Aesthetics). Student-organized lecture series 2007/2008, co-organized with Sarah Linke, Stefan Niklas, Melanie Sachs, Sabine Sander, Robert Zwarg. Supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Institute for Cultural Studies, University of Leipzig.

Edited Publications and Monographs

The Exhibition Space as Green Cube? Ecological Matter(s) in Art Institutions, ed. by Friederike Schäfer and Regine Ehleiter, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter (in prep for 2026). 

Regine Ehleiter, Megumi Andrade Kobayashi, Sebastián Barrante, and Barbara Bausch. Reading Mirtha Dermisache. con·stel·la·tions 2. Hamburg: Textem Verlag, 2025.

Ausstellen in Publikationen. Zum Wandel des Öffentlichwerdens von Kunst in den 1960er-Jahren, Munich: Edition Metzel, 2024.

Mirtha Dermisache: To Be Read, exhibition cat. A–Z Space for Experimental Graphic Design / oxfordberlin, 7 Jun – 11 Aug 2024, ed. by Regine Ehleiter, Berlin: EXC 2020 Temporal Communities, 2024.

HaFI 020: Erika Runge. Überlegungen beim Abschied von der Dokumentarliteratur / Erika Runge: Reflections Upon Saying Farewell to Documentary Literature, ed. by Regine Ehleiter, Clio Nicastro and titre provisoire (Cathleen Schuster / Marcel Dickhage), Berlin: Harun Farocki Institut, 2023.

Get lucky!, exhibition cat. 6th Festival for Photography f/stop, Leipzig, 7-15 Jun 2014, ed. by Regine Ehleiter, Christin Krause and Thilo Scheffler, Leipzig: Lubok Verlag, 2014.

Thanks For Sharing! Artzine exhibition and symposium, exhibition cat. D21 Kunstraum, 8 May –30 Jun 2010, ed. by Regine Ehleiter, Leipzig: D21 Kunstraum, 2010.
 

Scholarly articles in journals and exhibition catalogs (selection)

“Verlag der Gebr. König, Köln – New York”, in: Andreas Prinzing (Hg.), Kasper König A–Z, Berlin: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König (forthcoming, 2025). 

“Materializing Absence, Absent Materials: Mirtha Dermisache, Roland Barthes, and the Politics of Publishing”, in: FKW // Zeitschrift für Geschlechterforschung und Visuelle Kultur), edited by Kathrin Barutzki and Franziska Brandtner (in prep, 2025). 

“Between Reading and Viewing: the Asemic Writing of Mirtha Dermisache’s Artists’ Publications”, in: Regine Ehleiter, Megumi Andrade Kobayashi, Sebastián Barrante and Barbara Bausch. Reading Mirtha Dermisache. con·stel·la·tions 2. Hamburg: Textem Verlag, 2025, pp. 6–24. https://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-45887 

Regine Ehleiter. “Mirtha Dermisache’s Illegible Publications”. Scratch [Blog], June 6, 2024. https://scratchingthesurface.fm/stories/mirtha-dermisache. 

“Mirtha Dermisache: To Be Read”, in: Mirtha Dermisache: To Be Read, exhibition cat., A–Z / oxfordberlin, 7 Jun – 11 Aug 2024, ed. by Regine Ehleiter, Berlin: EXC 2020 Temporal Communities, 2024, pp. 2–30. 

“Mäandernd zwischen Medien, Zuschreibungen zuwiderlaufend: Erika Runge und die ‘Dokumentarliteratur’” / “Meandering Between Media, Resisting Definition: Erika Runge and ‘Documentary Literature’”, in: Erika Runge. Überlegungen beim Abschied von der Dokumentarliteratur / Erica Runge. Reflections Upon Saying Farewell to Documentary Literature, HaFI-Hefte 020, edited by Regine Ehleiter, Clio Nicastro and titre provisoire (Cathleen Schuster / Marcel Dickhage), Berlin: Harun-Farocki-Institut, 2023. 

“The Art & Project Bulletins as a Site of Exhibition, Experimentation and 'International' Exchange”. In Art & Project: A History [Exhibition Catalogue Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, 30 Sep 2023–25 Feb 2024]. Rotterdam: nai publishers, 2023, pp. 180–193.

“Window Display”, in: Colophon. Magazin für Kunst und Theorie der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität und der Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, No. 1 (Display), Munich: Hamman von Mier, 2021, pp. 3-5.

“Im Umkreis der Bücher. Günther Förgs Künstlerbücher als Produkt der Bibliothek“ (In the Proximity of books. Günther Förg’s artist’s books as a product of the library), in: Hans Werner Holzwarth (ed.), Günther Förg. Works in the Friedrichs Collection, Berlin: Holzwarth, 2019, pp. 187-192.

“Von der Wand auf der Seite in den Raum der ‚portablen Galerie‘: Ausstellungen und Publikationen der Berliner Galerie situationen 60 zwischen Dokumentation und Kunst”, in: MAP – Media | Archive | Performance 9, May 2018 (accessible online).

“The exhibition as a catalogue. Suggestions for an expanded understanding of display”, in: Ausstellen des Ausstellens. From the cabinet of curiosities to the curatorial situation, exhibition cat. Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 2 Mar–17 June 2018, Cologne: König, 2018, pp. 129-133.

“What is emerging”, in: What is emerging. Scholarship holders 2016/17 of the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral and the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, exhibition cat. Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, 12 Feb–26 Jun 2017, ed. by Oliver Kornhoff, Cologne: Salon Verlag, 2017, pp. 13-35.

“The Why and What of: The New Context of Art”, in: Books and Ideas After Seth Siegelaub, exhibition cat. Centre for Book Arts, New York, 4 Oct–14 Dec 2013, Berlin: Sternberg, 2016, pp. 10-15.

“Wandarbeiten in der Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden seit 1970 – eine Auswahl“, with Dirk Teuber, in: Auf Zeit, exhibition cat. Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 20 Jul–27 Oct 2013; Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 4 Aug–20 Oct 2013, ed. by Johan Holten and Friedrich Meschede, Cologne: König, 2013, pp. 67-73.
 

Book and Exhibition Reviews

‘Analogfotografie in der digitalen Gegenwart. Zur Ausstellung Analog Total. Fotografie heute im Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig’, exhibition review, in: Photonews 3/22, n.p.

‘I Never Write, I Just Do’, book review of ‘Seth Siegelaub. “Better Read Than Dead”: Writings and Interviews, 1964–2013’, in: Texte zur Kunst 31/122, June 2021, pp. 207-2011.

‘Alwin Lay. Perforation. Der regelmäßige Durchbruch‘, in: Eikon – Internationales Magazin für Fotografie und Medienkunst 110/111, June/September 2020, pp. 34-37.

‘Publishing Manifestos. An International Anthology from Artists and Writers’, book review, in: Camera Austria International 146, June 2019, pp. 85f.

‘(Post-)Conceptual: Vom Raum zum Buch zur Ausstellung’, review of the exhibition more Konzeption Conception now at Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, in: Kunstchronik 68: 12, December 2015, pp. 590–593.

‘Mirror on the Wall’, review of the exhibition Per Speculum Me Video at Frankfurter Kunstverein, 31.10.2013-5.1.2014, in: Eikon – International Magazine for Photography and Media Art 84-85, March 2014, pp. 108-109.

‘Clive Phillpot: Booktrek. Selected Essays on Artist’s Books’, book review, in: Camera Austria International 124, December 2013, pp. 91-92.

‘Rebellion against Aesthetics’, review of the exhibition Better Books: Kunst, Anarchie und Apostasie at ZKM, Karlsruhe (3.11.2012-6.1.2013), in: Spike Art Quarterly 34, 2012, pp.120-121.

‘Liner Notes. Selbstreflexives Sourcebook. Über das Büchermachen im Umfeld der Leipziger Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst’, in: Kunststoff Kulturmagazin 16, 2009, p. 52.
 

Shorter catalog texts and other publications (selection)

“Tita Salina and Irwan Ahmett”, in: Territories of Waste, exhibition cat. Museum Tinguely, Basel, 14 Sep 2022–8 Jan 2023, Basel: Museum Tinguely, 2022, p. 83; “Eloise Hawser”, in ibid., p. 37.

“Von der Linie zum Raum“, in: Benno Blome, 66 Zeichnungen, Bielefeld: Kerber, 2022, pp. 1-2.

“A look at the 1960s: remarks on the concept of ‘a book in the form of an exhibition’” in: Jae Kyung Kim (ed.), ein Buch in Form einer Ausstellung, Berlin: einBuch.haus, 2021, pp. 18-25.

“Lucy Lippard: Groups”, in: Camera Austria International 147, Sept. 2019, pp. 49-52.

“Metahaven”, in: Power of the Powerless, exhibition cat. Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (16 Nov 2013–9 Feb 2014), ed. by Johan Holten, Cologne: König 2013, pp. 105-106.

“Christo & Jeanne-Claude”, in: Bilderbedarf. Braucht Gesellschaft Kunst? (Does society need art?), exhibition cat. Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 20 Oct 2012–17 Feb 2013, ed. by Johan Holten, Cologne: König 2012, p. 101; “Alfredo Jaar”, in: ibid., p. 129; “Francis Alÿs”, in: ibid., p. 137.