Transregional Art Histories.
Actors, Spaces, Ecologies from the 13th Century to the Present

This research group studies art and aesthetic practices transversally, transregionally, and from ecological perspectives. With an interest in materiality and practice, it investigates works of art in relation to space and environment. Participants study paintings, sculptures, ceramics, contemporary art and sound, collections, discourses, sites, and aesthetic practices, by considering human and non-human agencies, cultural politics, and temporalities, in transregional dynamics. Major research focuses were the history of museums and archives of culture and nature in Florence and Berlin, the aesthetics of environments, and artistic engagements and entanglements with Earth’s biome. The aim is a better understanding of aesthetics and creativity in the shaping of and dependency on environments and ecologies. The research unit includes a graduate and postdoc fellowship program, developed in cooperation with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin, collaborative and individual research projects, and works in regular dialogue with scientific guests.