Dr. Christoph Chwatal

• 20th and 21st Century Art History and Theory, Aesthetics
• Art and Politics: Political Theory, Theories and Practices of Assembly and Organization
• Art and Economy: Political Economy, Immaterial Labor, Community Economies
• Institutional Critique: Collective and Decolonial Perspectives, Infrastructural Critique
• Art and Activism, Tactical Media, Media Art History
• Art Criticism

Kurzbiographie

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in the research in the project “Site Complexes: Responsive Practices for the 21st Century”, funded by the NOMIS Foundation. The project is led by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Egenhofer (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. Susanne Hauser, and Prof. Dr. Stefan Neuner (both Berlin University of the Arts).

My current research focuses on political theories of organization and alternative organizational forms emerging within contemporary art—referred to as diverse or heterodox economies—extending beyond the neoliberal grasp on both art and “the” economy.

In 2023 and 2024, I served as a Lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where I taught seminars on (media) art history and (co-)supervised M.A. theses in Contemporary Art History. In the summer of 2024, I held a Juliane and Franz Roh Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich.

I received my Ph.D. in a joint doctoral program in Cologne and Amsterdam. The dissertation, titled “Contemporary Art’s Strategic-Organizational Complex,” examines artistic practices from the 1990s onward guided by longer-term, strategic, and organizational approaches. It offers a critique of short-term “project work” and tactical interventionism through the lens of political theories of organization. During my Ph.D., I held several positions: as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow at the University of Cologne, an Affiliated Researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, a Doctoral Fellow at the Stiftung Mercator, and a Lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts.

My academic work has been published in journals such as Stedelijk Studies, kritische berichte, and Third Text. As an art critic and member of AICA – Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art, I regularly contribute to publications such as springerin and Texte zur Kunst.

Ph.D. Thesis

———. “Art and Organization in the 21st Century: Contemporary Art’s Strategic-Organizational Complex.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cologne/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 2024.

Edited Volumes

———. with Timon Beyes and Sven Lütticken, eds. Art and Organizational Form: Surviving in Common. Bristol: Bristol University Press, forthcoming 2027 (under contract).

———. with Alexander Karschnia and Heimo Lattner, eds. “Teslokratie.” Special issue, springerin 32, no. 3 (forthcoming September 2026).

———. with Alexander Karschnia and Heimo Lattner, eds. Teslokratie. Ideologien des Tech-Kapitalismus. Nautilus Flugschrift. Hamburg: Edition Nautilus, forthcoming 2026 (under contract).

Book Chapters

———. “Business Infrastructures: Art and Trade Networks in Kate Rich’s Feral Trade (2003–ongoing).” In Infrastructures of Producing, Transporting and Logistics in Transnational Perspective, edited by Burcu Dogramaci and Ursula Ströbele. Berlin: De Gruyter, forthcoming 2026.

———. “Multispecies Assemblies and Organizations.” In Dissident Practices: Posthumanist Approaches to Political Economy, edited by Carmen Lael Hines and Lisa Moravec. Posthumanism in Practice 3. London/New York: Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2026.

———. “Noch-nicht-Orte: Styrohaus und Ortsspezifik im Anthropozän.” In Styrohaus, edited by Felix Dreesen and Stephan Thierbach, Taucha: Verlag Marian Arnd, 2023.

Journal Articles

———. “Forums: Representation and Collaboration in the Work of Forensic Architecture and Lawrence Abu Hamdan.” Tijdschrift Kunstlicht 41, no. 1 (2020): 66–74.

———. “Labyrinth and Rhizome: On the Work of Walid Raad.” Stedelijk Studies Journal, no. 7 (Fall 2018): 1–14.

———. “Ruins and the Void in Post-War Beirut: Spaces of Contestation and Imagination.” kritische berichte 46, no. 3 (2018): 39–46.

Articles (Selection)

———. with Ludovica Tomarchio. “Rhythmen im Stadtraum: Temporäre Intervention und Ortsspezifik.” In Kunst im Stadtraum – Leipziger Straße, 6–13. Berlin: Bezirksamt Mitte, 2025.

 ———. “Kartografien des Anthropozän: Über Brian Holmes’ politische Ökologie.” springerin 31, no. 1 (Spring 2025): 8–9.

———. “Von Beuys lernen? Ökologie und künstlerische Nachhaltigkeit.” Voices – Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, September 17, 2021.

———. “Versammlung und Commoning: Formen und Formate des Trainierens für die Zukunft.” springerin 26, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 40–45.

———. “Witnessing and Community-Making in Bouchra Khalili’s Essay Films.” Art Papers 43, no. 2 (Fall 2019): 13–17.

———. “Decolonizing the Ethnographic Museum: Contemporary Art and the Weltmuseum Wien.” Art Papers 42, no. 1 (Spring 2018): 13–18.

Book Reviews

———. “Shintaro Miyazaki, Digitalität tanzen: Über Commoning & Computing.” springerin 29, no. 4 (Winter 2023): 74.

———. “Kuba Szreder, The ABC of the Projectariat: Living and Working in a Precarious Art World.” springerin 28, no. 3 (Fall 2022): 75.

———. “Matthew Fuller and Eyal Weizman, Investigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth.” springerin 27, no. 4 (Winter 2021): 71.

———. “Sebastian Mühl, Utopien der Gegenwartskunst: Geschichte und Kritik des utopischen Denkens in der Kunst nach 1989.” springerin 26, no. 4 (Winter 2020): 73.

———. “Tom Holert, Knowledge Beside Itself: Contemporary Art’s Epistemic Politics.” Third Text, October 12, 2020.

———. “Jonas Staal, Propaganda Art in the 21st Century.” Third Text, January 16, 2020.

———. “Nora Sternfeld: Das radikaldemokratische Museum.” springerin 26, no. 3 (Summer 2019): 73.

Art Criticism (Selection)

———. with Heimo Lattner. “Wo ist das Risiko?” Kultur Mitte Magazin, December 12, 2024.

———. “Concept Car Park: ‚the collection. curated by krist gruijthuijsen‘ in der FAHRBEREITSCHAFT Berlin” TEXTE ZUR KUNST, November 17, 2023.

———. “Illiberal Lives, Ludwig Forum Aachen.” springerin 29, no. 3 (Fall 2023): 58–59.

———. “In the Mothership: Yto Barrada at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.” TEXTE ZUR KUNST, April 28, 2023.

———. “Gruppendynamik – Kollektive der Moderne, Lenbachhaus München.” springerin 28, no. 2 (Summer 2022): 60–61.

———. “Renée Green: Inevitable Distances, KW Institute for Contemporary Art and daadgalerie Berlin.” Art Papers, February 9, 2022.

———. “Hate Speech, Halle für Kunst und Medien Graz.” springerin 26, no. 2 (Spring 2019): 63–64.

———. “Anna Boghiguian, Museum der Moderne Salzburg.” Art Papers 42, no. 3 (Fall 2018): 60–61.

———. “Martha Rosler & Hito Steyerl: War Games, Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart.” springerin 25, no. 3 (Summer 2018): 56–57.

———. “Tidalectics, TBA21 Vienna.” Art Papers 41, no. 4 (Winter 2017): 61.

———. “Francis Alÿs: Le temps du sommeil, Vienna Secession.” Art Papers 41, no. 2 (Summer 2017): 55–56.

———. “Anne Imhof: Angst, Kunsthalle Basel and Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin.” Art Papers 40, no. 6 (December 2016): 62.

Conference Organization