Friederike Schäfer is an art historian and occasionally pursues cultural/curatorial projects. She studied Art History and North American studies (with culture and sociology as majors) at Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Washington, Seattle. From 2013 to 2017, she was a Doctoral Fellow in the project "Mobile Spaces" of the EXC Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Before joining EXC 2020 in 2021, she was the Academic Associate for Media Art / Photography at Karlsruhe University for Arts and Design (HfG Karlsruhe). She further works as a lecturer and thesis advisor at the COOP Design Research – M.Sc. Program of Bauhaus Dessau and Anhalt University of Applied Sciences.

While working on her dissertation project Claiming Space(s). Locating Suzanne Harris’ Dance Practice and Ephemeral Installations within New York City in the 1970s at Humboldt-University of Berlin, Friederike Schäfer held several fellowships, such as at the Bard Graduate Center, NYC, the Canadian Center for Architecture, Montréal, and the Terra Summer Residency, Giverny, France. In 2021, she received a Terra Publication Grant to publish her doctoral thesis with De Gruyter.

Before that, Friederike Schäfer worked as curatorial and project assistant for international exhibitions, such as dOCUMENTA (13), KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin and the archive project re.act.feminism 2 – a performing archive, AdK Berlin. She also conceives collaborative research and exhibition projects (including for nGbK Berlin, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg) and is the co-founder of CoCooN Berlin, an initiative for the development and promotion of a sustainable and decentralised conservation policy for contemporary art and culture.

WS 2023: Bard College Berlin, BA Art and Aesthetics & BA Artistic Practice and Society

AH217 Nature on Display. From Landscape Representations to Mold(er)ing Earth in Exhibition Spaces   

WS 2021/22: Freie Universität Berlin, Doctoral Studies Programme "History and Cultural Studies"

Cultural Studies. Theory and Methods after the Cultural Turn(s) (German/English)

WS 2016/2017–SS 2023: COOP Design Research – M. Sc. Programme
Master program (in English), a cooperation between Bauhaus Stiftung Dessau, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

WS 2019/20–WS 2021/22: Precourse "Academic Writing in Design Research" (with Sabine Hansmann)

WS 2022/23: Photography as Research Subject and Research Method

WS 2021/22: Gendered Space. An Exercise in Theory and Practice (with Nicole Opel, architect)

WS 2020/21: INTER-ACTION. A comparison of two methodologies (ANT and Participant Observation) in theory and practice (with Sabine Hansmann)

WS 2019/20: IN THE FIELD. A comparative approach to empirical methodologies (Participant Observation and ANT) in theory and practice (with Sabine Hansmann)

WS 2018/19: INTER‐ACTION. A comparison of two methodologies (ANT and phenomenology) in theory and practice (with Sabine Hansmann)

WS 2017/18: Body Lines & Space Knots. A theoretical journey into the relation between the built and the human (with Sabine Hansmann, Dipl.-architect)

WS 2016/17: Entangled in the Spatial Turn (with Maria Keil, cultural studies scholar)

WS 2017/2018–SS 2021: HfG Karlsruhe, Medienkunst

Introductory and foundation seminars:

WS 2017/18; SS 2018; WS 2018/2019; SS 2019: Einführung in die Fotografie: Bildproduktion in Praxis und Theorie (technical practice: Jonas Zilius)

WS 2019/20: "The art formerly known as media art": Eine Einführung in die Geschichte und Theorie der Medienkunst (with Prof. Lioudmila Voropai, Media philosophy)

Theory und reading seminars:

SS 2021: Let's Talk about Gender and Diversity! Machtdispositive, Diskurse und Praktiken

WS 2020/21: Die Spur im fotografischen Bild. Zur Frage nach dem Dokumentarischen

WS 2019/20; SS 2020: Thinking (with) Marx – Gemeinsam (über) das Kapital lesen — with Ariana Dongus (Medienphilosophie) and Hanne König (Ausstellungsdesign & Szenografie)

WS 2017/18: Zur Bestimmung des 'Fotografischen': Ein Lektüreseminar

Praxis seminars, in cooperation with art institutions

SS 2019; WS 2019/20: Online/Offline. Materielle Verknüpfungen im postdigitalen Zeitalter – In Kooperation mit dem Künstlerhaus BBK, Karlsruhe. (19 October–17 November 2019)

SS 2018; WS 2018/19: Exhibiting Photographs / Photographic Exhibitions. 200 Jahre Badischer Kunstverein. Exhibition title "Let's Perform the Archive! Fotografien ausstellen–Ausstellungsfotografien", Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (6–18 November 2018)

Project and research seminars:
with Prof. Susanne Kriemann

WS 2017/18–SS 2019: Untitled (Archiv) – In cooperation with KIT Archive

WS 2017/2018: Slow Violence

SS 2018; WS 2018/2019: Mermaid Tears

SS 2018: DOCUMERICA – in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Heike Weber (Technikgeschichte, KIT).

WS 2018/19; SS 2019: 'Brick by Brick' – In cooperation with Bundesanwaltschaft.

WS 2019/20; SS 2020: Von A bis Z bis K bis M. Auf medienarchäologischer Spurensuche im Archiv des ZKM – In cooperation with ZKM

SS 2020: Dokumentarfotografie – Die Herausforderung das "Andere" abzubilden

SS 2021: Mind Bombs. Ausstellungsprojekt Kunsthalle Mannheim – in cooperation with Sebastian Baden, curator of the exhibition "Mind Bombs" at Kunsthalle Mannheim

Seminars in cooperation with the department for Exhibition Design & Scenography:

WS 2020/21: Body and Space. AKT #1: Performative Praktiken im Ausstellungsraum – with Hanne König, Ausstellungsdesign & Szenografie.

WS 2020/21: Der Ausstellungspavillon als produktiver Konfliktraum – with Thomas Rustemeyer, Ausstellungsdesign & Szenografie.

Excursions:
among others, 10. & 11. Berlin Biennale; f/stop 8, Leipzig; former Wismut areas, Erzgebirge; Colomboscope, Sri Lanka; Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, joint exhibition with Royal Institute of Art; Manifesta 12, Palermo.

SS 2019–SS 2021: Supervision of "Vordiplome" Media Art & "Diplome im Nebenfach"

WS 2017/2018 (Forumswoche): Muthesius Kunsthochschule, Kiel

Bewegungsräume. Research and Practice Seminar

SS 2013: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte

Berlin Art Spaces Today

Current EXC 2020 postdoctoral research project: Earth(ly) Matters. How Exhibition Spaces Capture Natural Environments (2021–)

Papers and workshop contributions to the current research project "Earth(ly) Matters":

"Universalist Views in the Exhibition Space – From the Perspective of the Anthropocene Debate," CONFVisualising Universalisms, EXC FU Berlin, 6–7 December, 2024

"Earthly Matter(s) in the Exhibition Space. An Ecological Approach", TRACES – Uni Kassel/documenta Institut, 14 November, 2024

"Unearthing Hidden Energy Landscapes. A Vertical Shift in the Exhibition Space," Warburg-Kolleg Energielandschaften, DFG Kollegforschungsgruppe 'Imaginarien der Kraft', Warburg-Haus, Hamburg, 14–17 October, 2024

Workshop, in collaboration with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sabine Hansmann (HCU Hamburg): Built with Water – Anthropocene Interdependencies, Freiraum, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G), 22 August, 2024

"The Making of the Anthropocene. Earth(ly) Matters in Exhibition Spaces", CIHA, 36th World Congress of Art History, Lyon, 24 June, 2024

Guest lecturer on "Ecology and Art History" in the seminar Research Methodologies in Visual Art by Prof. Parul Dave Mukherji, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 6 May, 2024 (online)

"Un-/Making the Anthropocene. Exhibitions as Discursive Spaces," Environmental Humanities working group, UC Berkeley, 23 April, 2024

"A brief traversal through scales that pertain to the Anthropocene—via 5 objects & 5 scenes", Workshop ‘Zeitenwende(n)’ – Tipping Points Of Our Times?, The Thematic Einstein Forum "Scales of Temporality", MATH+ FU Berlin, 31 March, 2023

Trans-Humanities Summer School 2022: The Ecological Imperative. Past and Contemporary Perspectives and Practices, Bern University, 12–16 September, 2022

Stanford-Leuphana Summer Academy Berlin: Scale, 20–24 Juni, 2022 (online participation due to the COVID-19 pandemic)

Guest lecturer in the seminar Kunst und Klima, WS 2021/22, of Prof. Dr. Helga Lutz, Universität Bielefeld, 15 Dezember, 2021 (online)

Collaborations and Outreach Projects:

Conceived in 2023, the Working Group researches ecologies in and through exhibitions. Its goal is the consolidation of exhibition studies that are focused on ecologies and environments in an international network. Exhibition Ecologies is an initiative by Dr. Friederike Schäfer and Mateo Chacón Pino (Research Associate, documenta Institut | Art and Society, University of Kassel). Its current members include Dr. Linn Burchert (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte München, ZI), Dr. Lee Chichester (Ruhr University Bochum), Dr. Regine Ehleiter (University of Münster), Dr. Fiona McGovern (Visiting Professor, University of Kassel) and Magali Wagner (University of Bern).

Workshops

14–15 November 2024, University of Kassel/documenta Institut

27 February–1 March 2025, EXC 2020

Presentations

"Earthly Matter(s) in the Exhibition Space. An Ecological Approach", 14 November 2024, 6–7.30 pm, TRACES – University of Kassel/documenta Institut, Kassel

Member of the Netzwerk Naturwissen, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (since 2022)
Working Group "Petrified Times: Energizing Past Futures" (with Dr. Elisabeth Heyne, MfN; Dr. Maike Weißpflug, BASE)

27 August–2 September 2024: Artistic interventions at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin:

Susanne Kriemann "Pechblende prologue (Klapproth Cycle), 2024"
Ulrike Mohr "Archiving a matter of time, 2024"
with an interdisciplinary Laborgespräch (in German) on 2 September 2024, 5–9pm

upon invitation by Prof. Dr. Shannon Jackson, History of Art Department Chair
Participation in the Environmental Humanities working group, UC Berkeley

Books

The Exhibition Space as Green Cube? An Ecological Approach to Exhibitions, De Gruyter, Berlin, 2025 (in preparation) (Co-edited with Regine Ehleiter).

An Anarchitectural Body of Work. Suzanne Harris and the Downtown New York Artists’ Community in the 1970s, De Gruyter, Berlin, 2023.
This publication has been made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art International Publication Program of CAA.

Networks of Care. Politiken des (Er)haltens und (Ent)sorgens, nGbK Berlin, Berlin 2022. (Co-edited with Anna Schäffler, Nanne Buurman) (German/English)

10%. Concerning the Image Archive of a Nuclear Research Center, Spector Books, Leipzig 2021. (Co-edited with Susanne Kriemann, Klaus Nippert, Judith Milz) (Also available in German)

Metropolitan Views II. Berlin, Berlin. Kunstszenen 1989–2009, Deutscher Kunstverlag, München/Berlin 2010. (Co-edited with Conny Becker, Christina Landbrecht)

Metropolitan Views. Kunstszenen in Berlin und London, Deutscher Kunstverlag, München/Berlin 2008. (Co-edited with Conny Becker, Charlotte Klonk, Franziska Solte

Articles & Essays (Selection)

"Exhibiting the Un-/Making of the Anthropocene: On Changing Earthly Matter(s) in the Exhibition Space," Conference Proceedings Constant Change, Annual Conference 2023 EXC 2020, Routledge, Berlin, forthcoming 2025.

"Politiken des (Er)haltens und (Ent)sorgens. Editorische Notizen" (Co-author with Nanne Buurman, Anna Schäffler), in Networks of Care, Berlin 2022, S. 6-14.

"In-/Visibilities in Science Images. Regarding Representation Strategies of Nuclear Research in a Photo Archive," in: 10%. Concerning the Image Archive of a Nuclear Research Center,Spector Books, Leipzig 2021, S. 469-476.

"Raumaneignung als Raumproduktion/Claiming Space as Spatial Production," in: J. Becker, A. Schäffler, S. Sheikh (eds.), Glossar Urbane Praxis. Auf dem Weg zu einem Manifest, nGbK, Berlin 2021. S. 21-24/60-63.

"Brick by Brick, or If Stones Could Speak. Artistic Research Practices of a Working Group," in: Sebastian Baden (et al.), Mindbombs, Ausstellungskatalog, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld/Berlin, 2021, S. 24-26. (Co-author with Susanne Kriemann)

"The Display as Afterlife. On the Reconstruction and Representation of Ephemeral Installations Through Contact Sheets," in: Shao Dazhen, Fan Di’an, Lao Zhu (eds.), Terms. Proceedings of the 34th World Congress of Art History 2016, Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn/The Commercial Press Beijing 2019, S. 1811-1820.

"Space Beyond Architecture – Anarchitecture or Overcoming Walls," in: Sabine Hansmann (ed.), Raummaschine. Exploring Manifold Spaces, jovis, Berlin 2019, S. 53-57.

"On the Consolidation of the Ephemeral: Ulrike Mohr's Cube Contiguous to the Tauber," in: Ulrike Mohr (ed.), Anthrakotek Vol. 2, The Greenbox, Berlin 2019, S. 11-13.

"Film als performatives Dokument: Über eine mögliche Rekonstruktion der ephemeren Installationen von Suzanne Harris," in: Akademie der Künste (ed.) Skulptur als Film? (Conference proceedings), Kettler, Dortmund 2016, S. 108-120.

"Lampe/Lamp" (Co-author with Christina Landbrecht), in: Susanne Kriemann (ed.), (P)ech (B)lende. Library for Radioactive Afterlife, Spector Books, Leipzig 2016, S. 49-63.

"Über das Schwarm-Prinzip. Ein Forschungs- und Ausstellungsprojekt" (Co-author with Anna Schäffler), in: Isabelle Busch, Franziska Solte (eds.), Is This Where It Ends? Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof 2011-15, Textem, Hamburg 2016, unpaginated

"Raumproduktion zwischen Aktivismus und Instrumentalisierung. Zwischennutzung in den Berliner Kunstszenen," in: Metropolitan Views. Berlin, Berlin. Kunstszenen 1989-2009, Deutscher Kunstverlag, München/Berlin 2010, S. 71-82.

"Fachbereich Physik. Henning Larsen," in: Martina Schilling (ed.): Campus FU Berlin – Die Bauten der Freien Universität, Verlagshaus Braun, Berlin 2010, S. 90-93.

"Paradoxon Galerie. Ausstellungsräume als Synthese von Exklusivität und Alternativität," in: Metropolitan Views. Kunstszenen in Berlin und London, Deutscher Kunstverlag, München/Berlin 2008, S.99-109.

Online & Media

Open Educational Resource on the term "Anthropocene" (in German), Hamburg Open Online University, "Material Networks," December 2023. https://blogs.hoou.de/materialnetworks/category/begriffe/

UMBAU. HfG Online Journal, #1, Dezember 2021. https://umbau.hfg-karlsruhe.de (Editorial Team Issue 1, with Ariana Dongus, Katharina Weinstock)

"Political Bodies. Editorial" (Co-author Ariana Dongus), in: UMBAU. HfG Online Journal, #1, Dezember 2021. https://umbau.hfg-karlsruhe.de/posts/political-bodies

Reviews

"The Venice Biennale 2015. Exhibition Review," in: Journal of Curatorial Studies, Fall 2015, Vol. 4/Nr. 3, S. 477-481.

"Venezia To Be Or Not. Exhibition Review," in: Public, Fall 2013, Vol. 48, S. 159-162.

"Review of Beyond the White Cube? Ausstellungsarchitektur, Raumgestaltung und Inszenierung heute" in: Journal of Curatorial Studies, June 2012, Vol.1/Issue2, S. 257-262.

Editing & Copyediting (Selection)

"Wann/Was. Die Vielleicht Vermittlung und andere Programme der dOCUMENTA (13)," documenta und Fridericianum Veranstaltungs-GmbH, Kassel 2012.

"Alte Hasen. René Block im Gespräch mit Gabriele Knapstein. Gesprächsreihe KW Institute for Contemporary Art," Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln 2011. (with Valeska Schneider)

"Renata Lucas. Ernst Schering Foundation Art Award," argobooks, Berlin 2010. (with Martina Schrammek and Franziska Solte)

"Dor Guez. Al-Lydd," DISTANZ Verlag, Berlin 2010. (with Franziska Solte)