One of the first work groups at the nGbK called itself “Grundlagenforschung” (Basic Research) and that was what it aimed to do. It addressed the fundamental question of the “functions of fine art in our society”, producing an exhibition at Berlin’s Technical University and six volumes of material intended “to both complement and document the lectures and discussions that preceded the exhibition” as well as “providing fundamental insights on the subject,” as the first volume put it. ¹ This was followed by further materials and studies in the field of art and education/university teaching (including Aesthetic models for teenagers, presented using examples from interior design and fashion).

The work of many project groups has aimed to produce knowledge and materials and to then share and communicate them in an artistic manner. In the reader marking fifty years of the nGbK, a distinction is made between collective, artistic, and activist research practices, ² with Beatrice von Bismarck adding the concept of curatorial research. ³ Again and again, projects have set themselves the goal of highlighting one-sided narratives, closing gaps in knowledge, and focusing attention on supposedly negligible or long-ignored subjects. The reader underlines the fact that the nGbK has facilitated engagement with topics that were not receiving exposure in state museums and universities, as well as using methods that were considered unscientific by such institutions. The research methods range from archival work to case studies and interviews through to interdisciplinary explorations and field trips.

As a result, while the nGbK positioned itself against conventional art-historical and academic methods and narratives, its activities also overlapped with university contexts. The project Nur eine Woge (Just a wave, 1977), for example, was based on a research project application initiated by assistant staff and students at Berlin’s Technical University, drawing on a specific seminar. ⁴ A year later, the project Gröpelingen 1878-1978. Geschichte eines Stadtteils (Gröpelingen 1878-1978. History of a District), developed by students from Bremen’s Design Academy, was presented at the nGbK. The group planned to “develop ideas for the visual communication of Gröpelingen’s history over the past century in painterly form.” They conducted interviews with local residents and “studied archive materials to gather the most important information about the history of Gröpelingen, and especially the Lindenhof neighborhood.” ⁵ The Left Performance Histories (2018) project, that aimed to “explore the history of performance in the former satellite states of the Soviet Union through archival research and discursive presentation formats,” ⁶ also had a direct academic background. It emerged from research conducted between 2015 and 2018 within the academic network Aktionskunst jenseits des Eisernen Vorhangs (Performance art behind the Iron Curtain) that was supported by the German Research Foundation and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (who also co-funded the publication).

The project Licht Luft Scheiße (Light Air Shit, 2017-2019) was also based on a partnership with a university institution, Berlin’s Botanical Museum. In this case, however, the different backgrounds and assumptions of the work group’s members meant there were differences of opinion concerning the meaning of research. ⁷ Which is no wonder if one considers the vagueness of most attempts to define artistic research. As a result, what each work group understands by “curatorial research project” varies depending on its members. According to Florian Wüst, the members of the Licht Luft Scheiße project group shared “a view of curatorial practice or a practice of artistic research that opens up contexts beyond the boundaries of genre and consciously allows subjective associations in the selection and composition of material.” ⁸

This reference to “subjective associations” resembles the definition proposed by Kathrin Busch when she describes artistic mindsets and forms of aesthetic theory as practices “that do not submit to strict methods, that resist being assigned to specific disciplines, or that allow themselves to blend facts and fiction.” ⁹ It was also Kathrin Busch who, together with the nGbK’s then director Lilian Engelmann and Ingrid Wagner from Berlin’s Senate Office for Culture and Europe, developed a new funding model for artistic research for the independent scene that was elaborated and presented in 2017 in the form of two workshops. ¹⁰ This resulted in the founding of the Society for Artistic Research in Germany in 2018 and the creation of a grant program ¹¹ by Berlin’s Senate, as well as the exhibition Radical Passivity: Politics of the Flesh, created at the nGbK by Kathrin Busch and Ilse Lafer in 2020 in cooperation with the Society for Artistic Research.

Within the nGbK itself, this increased profile of artistic research coupled with the desire to better do justice to the level of research required for certain projects led to the creation, in 2017, of Format B for projects running over several years: projects of two or three years could receive a maximum budget of €79,999 (two years) or €99,999 (three years). ¹² In this way, the nGbK sought “to give project groups the opportunity to implement curatorial research projects, to deal with cultural and socio-political themes in a fundamental way, or to take up current tendencies and engage with them more intensively.” ¹³ To date, three Format B projects have been completed: Licht Luft Scheiße (2017-2019), … oder kann das weg? Fallstudien zur Nachwende (2019-2021), and Curating through Conflict with Care (2022-2024), while another one will present their work in the end of 2024 (Salt. Clay. Rock, 2023-2024).

The possibility of “dealing with themes in a fundamental way” goes hand in hand with the belief that the knowledge generated is provisional and many-voiced. According to its own self-description, the project Left Performance Histories makes proposals, it approaches, it explores, and it poses questions. ¹⁴ The group responsible for … oder kann das weg? Fallstudien zur Nachwende is similarly cautious: “Without claiming to map or depict the art of the Nachwende in its entirety, the case studies point to an ongoing search for a new and distinct language, as well as for new images and methods. Constellations of thematically linked works can be seen as prompts for a conversation about artistic practices of the last decades.” ¹⁵

In this sense, it can be said that besides hosting research that is artistic, collective, activist, and curatorial, the nGbK is also constantly questioning, updating, and expanding its understanding of research and knowledge.

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Anna-Lena Wenzel, 2024

Projekte

2024

Salt. Clay. Rock

2024

Curating through Conflict with Care

2023

AK Schule der Zukunft

2021

… oder kann das weg? Fallstudien zur Nachwende

2020

Radikale Passivität: Politiken des Fleisches

2019-2021

Die Pampa lebt

2019

Licht Luft Scheiße. Perspektiven auf Ökologie und Moderne

2019

50 Jahre neue Gesellschaft - Lernorte

2019

Im Dissens?

2018

Left Performance Histories

2017

Künstlerische Forschung – ein neues Fördermodul für die Freie Szene

2016

Necessità dei volti

1987/88

Das Verborgene Museum

1978

Gröpelingen 1878-1978. Geschichte eines Stadtteils

1977 

Aufschlüsse über die Wirklichkeit – Projektstudium Visuelle Kommunikation. 1: Materialien zur Kunsthochschuldidaktik

1977

Nur eine Woge

1970

Ästhetische Leitbilder von Jugendlichen, dargestellt am Beispiel der Wohnraumgestaltung und der Mode

1970

Funktionen bildender Kunst in unserer Gesellschaft