Sebastian Mühl is a Berlin-based scholar, researcher and curator. He completed a phd thesis on the revival of utopian thought in contemporary art, his monograph Utopien der Gegenwartskunst. Geschichte und Kritik des utopischen Denkens in der Kunst nach 1989 was published with Transcript in 2020. Mühls films and moving image projects focus on the politico-aesthetic utopias of modernity.

Mühls research interests include Global Art and Exhibition Histories, Critical Theory and Visual Studies, but also Artistic Research, Aesthetic Epistemologies and the interplay of Art & Politics and Art & Science.

From 2013 to 2017, Sebastian was Research Assistant to Juliane Rebentisch at Offenbach University of Art and Design. He was a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Cultural Analysis at Klagenfurt University and Lecturer at the Department of Art and Design at Hochschule für Künste Bremen. In 2020, he joined the Dresden State Art Collections, where he launched the digital platform voices, featuring online screening programs on sustainability and the transcultural. In 2021/22, Sebastian hold a Guest Professorship for Perception Theory at HfG Offenbach and for Visual Culture at the Faculty of Humanities of Klagenfurt University.

In 2023, Sebastian joined the faculty of the LMDA Institute of Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture at the Art Academy of Latvia.

The following news section is currently not updated. More information on recent projects and publications on Research Gate and Academia.

Book Review: Utopien der Gegenwartskunst

Rezension über Utopien der Gegenwartskunst, von Christoph Chwatal, erschienen in der Springerin, Heft 4/2020 Magazin zur Kritik und Theorie der Kultur der Gegenwart.

OUT NOW

The monograph Utopien der Gegenwartskunst. Geschichte und Kritik des utopischen Denkens in der Kunst nach 1989 is available now. Get a copy from your local book store or directly from Transcript.

Podcast: Welche Utopien hält die Kunst bereit?

“What does Utopia, this non-place that we still haven’t found yet, promise us?” Sebastian Mühl and Ellen Wagner are guests in the Podcast Off_Line, the podcast of the Offenbach Academy of Art and Design. Moderation: Felix Kosok

Screening: Satellites in der Bundeskunsthalle Bonn

Screening von Satellites in der Ausstellung Fragments from now. For an unfinished future, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland – Bonn, 30.06-06.09.2020, Pressekonferenz: 30.06.2020, 11 Uhr.

 

Eine Ausstellung der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, kuratiert von Beate Eckstein und Annelie Pohlen.

Probe, Übung, Test: Die Vorwegnahme von Zukunft in der Gegenwartskunst

Lecture „Probe, Übung, Test: Die Vorwegnahme von Zukunft in der Gegenwartskunst“ in the ring lecture “Digital and visual Utopias”, Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt, 16. June 2020.

Moderna galerija: The national museum as a site of self-historicization

Paper on „Moderna galerija: The national museum as a site of self-historicization“ at the 2020 International Conference “Curating the Contemporary in the Art Museum”, SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, and University of Copenhagen, 12-13 March 2020.

Screening: Satellites im Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

Screening von Satellites in der Ausstellung Fragments from now. For an unfinished future, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 15.11-15.12.2019, Eröffnung: 14.11.2019, 19 Uhr.

 

Eine Ausstellung der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, kuratiert von Beate Eckstein und Annelie Pohlen.

Katalog: Fragments From Now

Katalog zur Ausstellung Fragments from now. For an unfinished future, im Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 15.11.-15.12.2019, und in der Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, 20.03.-03.05.2020. Kataloggestaltung: *minus Berlin.

Picturing Negativity

Paper on „Picturing Negativity. Contemporary Art after Revolution and Critique“ at the 5th International Conference for PhD Students and Recent PhD Graduates, University of Ljubljana, 12-13 September 2019.

Equality in Colors

Paper on „Equality in Colors. Dammi i Colori and the Postmonumental Painting of the Community“ at the Painting Politics Symposium 2019, Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium, Auckland, New Zealand, 26-27 July 2019.

Images as Agents in Digital Public Spheres

Third International Workshop on Visual Research for Doctoral Students: Images as Agents in Digital Public Spheres, organised by Prof. Anna Schober-de Graaf, Dr. des. Sebastian Mühl and Mag. Erec Gellautz at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, 27-28 June 2019.

On aesthetic indeterminacy

Paper „On aesthetic indeterminacy“ at the TVAD Symposium 2019: Artists and the Philosophers We Love, Research group Theorising Visual Art and Design, School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire, UK, 20-21 June 2019.