Renate Buschmann

Chair of Digital Arts and Cultural Mediation

Research areas

• Art from modernism to the present
• Art and Technology
• Art and Economy
• Art and science

Research specialisations

• Curating time-based art in particular from the 1960s to the present day
• Conservation and archiving of time- and technology-based art
• Digitisation and long-term archiving of video art
• Digital accessibility of museums and collections

Research projects

• 2023 - 2025
  Open Studio - more than Close Study. Dialogue between contemporary art and science in the context of university teaching, funded by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation
• 2019 - 2020
  First retrospective and monograph on the film artist Lutz Mommartz (in cooperation with Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW and Kunststiftung NRW)
• 2018 - 2020
  "Video Online-Archiv - Erschließung und Indexierung von Bewegtbilddaten der Stiftung imai" (in cooperation with Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
• 2015 - 2018
  "The media art agency 235 MEDIA. Its significance with regard to the production conditions, economisation and internationalisation of media art", funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation
• 2015 - 2017
  "Elektronische Langzeitarchivierung von Videokunstwerken der Stiftung imai", funded by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland and the state of NRW (MKJKS)

Organisation of conferences

• "Video Art Distribution: From Alternative Art Market to Commercialisation", imai Foundation, Düsseldorf, 2018
• "The presence of the ephemeral. Media art in the field of tension between conservation and interpretation", imai foundation, Düsseldorf, 2012
• "Still Accessible? Rethinking the Preservation of Media Art", ISEA 2010 RUHR, Dortmund, 2010

Andreas Czwodzinski
Student assistant

2020 - today
Professor for digital arts and cultural mediation, WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale, Witten/Herdecke University

2020
Award Rheinischer ARCHIVARius for special achievements in archive and documentation work, awarded by the Förderverein Centrum Schwule Geschichte e.V. Cologne

2008 - 2019
Director of the Video and Media Art Foundation imai, Düsseldorf

2008 - 2019
Regular teaching appointments at universities and colleges (including Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Curatorial Summer School/University of Malta)

2013 - 2016
International lecturer and curator of the travelling exhibition "Looking at the Big Sky" for the Goethe-Institut

2007
Research assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts Münster

2006 - 2007
Freelance curator and author on contemporary art, e.g. for Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf and Heidelberger Kunstverein

2002 - 2005
Managing director of Galerie Hete Hünermann, Düsseldorf

PhD studies in art history at the University of Cologne, PhD thesis "between in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf between 1969 and 1973. The chronicle of a non-exhibition" (PhD scholarship from the Graduate Funding Programme of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia)

1993 - 1995
Junior curator at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf

1992
Master's degree in art history at the University of Cologne

Studied art history, pre- and early history and classical archaeology at the University of Cologne and Università degli Studi di Firenze

Trained as a carpenter

The seminars take place in the Studium fundamentale and cover the following topics:

• Insight into the development of time- and technology-based art from the 1960s to the present day
• Individual experience and scientific analysis of art and film
• Fundamentals of art and media theory since modernism
• Concepts and methods of digital art and cultural education
• practice-orientated knowledge of collecting, archiving, exhibiting and curating time-based and digital art

Since 2023 Non-resident permanent fellow in the research group "Access to cultural goods in digital change" (University of Münster)
 

Lectures (selection)

• Orchestra in Digital Transformation: Expanding Perceptual Possibilities of Classical Music with a Hybrid Performance Format (together with Lara Perski), DRHA (27th Annual Conference for Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts), 10-13 September 2023
• "Re:writing Flusser. On the post-digital understanding of writing in works by Johanna Reich", 11th Research Colloquium: "Medienästhetik und Pädagogik. The power of analogue, virtual and mental media", Alanus University of Art and Social Sciences, Mannheim, 11.11.2022
• "Can AI become art? The application of artificial intelligence in art", Citizens' university Witten, 27 April 2022
• "Digitale Zugänglichkeit von Videokunst: Abwägungen zwischen öffentlichem Anspruch und merkantilem Wert", Institute colloquium "VIDEOKUNST DIGITAL. A paradigm shift", Department of Art History, University of Zurich, 10 November 2021
• "From artefact to networked data. Requirements for post-digital archives", online symposium "notanarchive :: ARCHIVE PROBEN", organiser: Vollmilch and Theaterhaus Hildesheim, 06-08 May 2021
• Tribute to the 80th birthday of photographer Erika Kiffl and opening of the exhibition "Erika Kiffl: Stone - Time, Time - Traces", House of the University Düsseldorf, 19.12.2019
• "Connecting the world! Communication and dissemination strategies in time-based media art in the 80s", Symposium "Play - Replay: staging & re-staging time-based media art", Art Tower Mito (Japan) organised by The Japan Foundation, 3.11.2018
• "Video Visions. The media art agency 235 Media" (together with Dr Jessica Nitsche), Symposium "50 Years of Video. From Portapak to Instagram", Mainz University of Art and Design, 13/14 November 2018
• Keynote "The missing link in time-based art preservation", conference "NACCA Symposium 2018: From different perspectives to common grounds in contemporary art conservation", TH Köln, 25/26 June 2018
• Introduction "Video-Vision/Tele-Vision: Art leaving the conventional cycles of dissemination", conference "Video Art Distribution: From Alternative Art Market to Commercialisation", imai foundation, Düsseldorf, 8/9.5.2018
• "Extremely loud and incredibly successful. Die Popularisierung und Kommerzialisierung von Videokunst durch das Format Musikvideo", conference "Medienästhetik und Hybridisierung zwischen Musikvideo und Medienkunst", media and cultural studies, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf/Julia Stoschek Foundation, 20.12.2017
• "How television and video technology changed art - video art yesterday and today", Department of Design, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, 22 May 2017
• "Video and Art - Aspects of Intermediality", Department of Intermedial Cultural Education, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, 25 May 2017
• "Can artistic events be recorded? On the relationship between performance and video art", Goethe-Institut Minsk, 22 November 2016
• "Which video works will survive? Selection criteria and workflow in the run-up to digitisation" Conference "Retten Sie Ihre Videokassetten!", Arbeitskreis Filmarchivierung NRW, 27.10.2016
• "What's New? Re-Staging Historical Art Exhibitions", Curatorial School "Curating the New", University of Malta, 29 August - 2 September 2016
• "Always under Construction. Representation of Technology-Based Art", Curatorial School "Curating the New", University of Malta, 29.8.-2.9.2016
• "Video art in the archive: Bewahren - Vermitteln - Erforschen", Conference "50th Rheinischer Archivtag", Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Siegburg, 2 June 2016
• "The imai Foundation - Between Archive and Collection", conference "Video Matters", Ludwig Forum Aachen, 24.9.2015
• "Medienkunst zwischen historischer Aufführungspraxis und kuratorischer Inszenierung", lecture series "Kunst und Technik", Technische Universität Berlin, 24 June 2015
• Migration processes in video art. Considerations of gain and loss", 38th Hessian Archive Day, Wiesbaden, 16 June 2015
• "Second infusion? The restaging of performances", Galerie Michaela Stock, Vienna, 16 May 2015
• "Collecting, preserving and exhibiting video art", Düsseldorf Photo Weekend, Haus der Universität, Düsseldorf, 31 January 2015
• "Archivierung und Konservierung medialer Künste", lecture series "Medien Archiv Praxis", Institute for Media Studies at Philipps University Marburg, 12 November 2014
• "Video Art: History and Present", Academy of Fine Arts Trebinje/Goethe Institute Bosnia, 24.6.2014; German Days in Astrakhan (RU)/Goethe Institute Moscow, 17.5.14; Institute of Documentary Film, Saratov (RU)/Goethe Institute Moscow, 15.5.14
• "Can originality be copied? On the Challenge of Digital Reproduction in Media Art", Conference "Open Access Consequences and Opportunities for Museums and Collections", Conference of National Cultural Institutions, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, 12/13 December 2013
• "Video and Media Art. Rethinking Curatorial Practice", Goethe Institute Hanoi, 12 October 2013
• "The exhibition series 'between' (1969-73) and its restaging in 2007", symposium "Perspectives on the exhibition space", Simultanhalle Cologne, 29 June 2013
• "Light Composition: Documenta 8 by Nan Hoover - A current stocktaking", Symposium "Die Gegenwart des Ephemeren. Media art in the field of tension between conservation and interpretation", imai Foundation, Düsseldorf, 15.11.2012
• "The imai Foundation: Challenges and Goals", Loft Project Etagi, St. Petersburg, 13 June 2012; Lothinger_13_Halle für internationale Gegenwartskunst, Munich, 24 May 2012
• Lecture "Spaces of action - spaces of sensation - self-staging. The 'between' exhibitions (1969-73) at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf", conference "Die Kunst auszustellen. Künstlerische Positionen und kuratorische Konzepte, 1945 bis heute", Institute for Art History, University of Leipzig, 2-4 December 2011
• "Still Accessible? Rethinking the Preservation of Media Art", ISEA 2010 RUHR, 16th International Symposium on Electronic Art, Dortmund, 24 August 2010

Curated exhibitions (selection)

• 2020 "mommartzfilm 1964 - 2020. Premiere & Werkschau" (first retrospective on the film artist Lutz Mommartz, together with Gregor Jansen), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
• 2019 Video lounge for the imai foundation (first permanent installation at the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf)
• 2019 "furthest from the edge, furthest inside. Intimacy in media art" (together with Anne Schülke, Detlef Klepsch), Neuer Kunstraum Düsseldorf
• 2018 "WATCH OUT! imai foundation and KIT show young media art" (together with Gertrud Peters), KIT - Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf
• 2014 "The Invisible Force Behind. Materiality in Media Art" (together with Darija Šimunović), Quadriennale Düsseldorf, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf
• 2013-16 "Looking at the Big Sky", exhibition and video art programme for Goethe-Institutes worldwide
• 2012 "Pictures against the Darkness" (together with Gertrud Peters), KIT - Art in the Tunnel, Düsseldorf
• 2010 "Katharina Sieverding. Projected Data Images. Testcuts", Quadriennale Düsseldorf, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf
• 2009 "Daniel Spoerri and Eat Art", section in the exhibition "Eating the Universe - Vom Essen in der Kunst", Kunsthalle Düsseldorf,
• 2007/08 "Photos write art history" (together with Stephan von Wiese), Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
• 2007 "Chronicle of a non-exhibition. between 1969-73 in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf", Kunsthalle Düsseldorf

Screenings and artist talks (selection)

• Talk series "CLOSE-UP!", UW/H (see website of the Chair of Digital Arts and Cultural Mediation)
• Talk with Claudia Robles on the installation "REFLEXION - In Sync/Out of Sync", Johanneskirche Düsseldorf, 11.02.2022
• Lecture & Screening "LET'S DANCE. Music - Art - Video in the 1980s", Museum Folkwang, Essen, 14.06.2019; Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst Aachen, 10.10.2019
• Talk with Lutz Mommartz & Screening "Lutz Mommartz. PREVIEW: La belle histoire d'amour", Video Box, Haus der Universität, Düsseldorf, 11.10.2018
• Talk with Ira Schneider & Screening "Mr. Ira Schneider > Video Art, experimental and comedy since 1969", Video Box, Haus der Universität, Düsseldorf, 05.07.2018
• Talk with Ulrike Rosenbach & Screening "Ulrike Rosenbach. Images of Women - Feminism - Gender", Video Box, Haus der Universität, Düsseldorf, 26.10.2017
• Talk with Bettina Gruber & Screening "Bettina Gruber/Maria Vedder. On art and video in the 1980s and 1990s", Video Box, Haus der Universität, Düsseldorf, 17 May 2017
• Screening & moderation "Maschinenträume. Art between science fiction and future design", Video Box, Haus der Universität Düsseldorf, 10.11.2016
• Screening & artist talk "We can be Heroes just for one day. On heroes and anti-heroes", Video Box, Haus der Universität Düsseldorf, 15/06/2016
• Screening & artist talk "It's me. Artistic self-experiments in front of the video camera", Video Box, Haus der Universität Düsseldorf, 11.05.2016
• Screening & artist talk "Von der Trauer des Abschieds und der Freude des Ankommens", Video Box, Haus der Universität Düsseldorf, 18.12.2015