Strategies of Survival:Artistic Responses to Economic Misery in Former Communist Countries of Europe

After having studied art history and philosophy at the Dresden University and the New School for Social Research (NYC), I have pursued my interest in contemporary art concerned with issues of society, feminism and current transformation processes in Eastern Europe. I am active as an independent theoretician, curator as well as an art critic. Since 1999 I have been holding guest professorships at the Dresden University, at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, at Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau as well at at the Art Academies of Leipzig and Dresden. After having curated a site-specific project of activist artists Nancy Spero and Leon Golub in Dresden in 1998, I have worked at the curatorial department of the Dia center for the arts in New York for some months. Subsequently I have curated numerous exhibitions, f.e. Let's talk about Sex in 2001, featuring Hannah Wilke, Nancy Spero, Charles Atlas e.a. or more recently "Hotel Chalupecky" in 2006 featuring the award winners of the Czech "Chalupecky Prize" including Jan Mancuska, Katerina Seda, Jiri David e.a. During the last years I have been active largely in Eastern Europe. My research fellowship at the University of Oxford in 2004 resulted in a paper on the Art of Transition on economic conditions for artists in these countries. In 2006 I have curated the German-Polish conference "Mechanisms of Oblivions" and published the conference book with Revolver Publishers Frankfurt. Presently, my essay "Artists on Trial: Feminist Art in Poland-Between Censorship and Activism" will be published in the "Comparative Perspectives Symposium: Feminist Art and Social Change" at Rutgers University Chicago.