Dr. Lukas Töpfer
Dr. Lukas Töpfer
Dr. Lukas Töpfer
Research Assistant
Art History: History and Theory of Visual Culture
Institute of Art and Visual Culture (» Postal address)
CV
2008 to 2011 — BA: Art History (major) and Film Studies (minor), Freie Universität Berlin
2011 to 2015 — MA: Art History in a Global Context, Freie Universität Berlin
2011 to 2019 — Freelance work as a curator (see https://www.lukastoepfer.com/)
2019 to 2020 — Research assistant ("wissenschaftliches Volontariat") at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
2020 to 2023 — Research assistant at the Institute for Art and Visual Culture, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
April/May 2023 — Publication of the monograph "Am Abgrund der Bilder – 'Birkenau'", Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag/De Gruyter (together with Michael Müller, see https://www.deutscherkunstverlag.de/de/books/9783422801264)
Since May 2023 — Co-editor of Michael Müller's catalogue raisonné, Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag/De Gruyter (see https://studiomichaelmueller.com/catalogue-raisonne)
Since July 2023 — Research assistant in the DFG-funded project "Securities of art. Authentication as an artistic concept in times of financial crisis 1720-2020" (Director: Prof. Dr. Tobias Vogt)
November 2023 — Submission of dissertation entitled "Die Beiwerke der Leere – Die Beiwerke des Lebens. Paratext und Parergon: Konstellationen der Konzeptkunst" (supervised by Prof. Dr. Tobias Vogt and Prof. Dr. Karin Gludovatz)
July 2024 — Thesis defense as part of doctoral program (grade: summa cum laude)
October 2025 — Publication of the book "Die Menschlichkeit des Massenmörders. Zur Normalisierung und Neutralisierung der Shoah in Jonathan Glazers 'The Zone of Interest'", München: Edition Metzel (print, https://editionmetzel.de/buecher/die-menschlichkeit-des-massenmoerders.html) and Heidelberg: Arthistoricum.net (open access, https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1697)
November 2025 — Publication of the book "Die Beiwerke der Leere – Die Beiwerke des Lebens. Paratext und Parergon: Konstellationen der Konzeptkunst", München: Edition Metzel (print, https://editionmetzel.de/buecher/die-beiwerke-der-leere-die-beiwerke-des-lebens.html) and Heidelberg: Arthistoricum.net (open access, https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1693)
Research Interests
Previous research priorities (see »Monographs«):
— Conceptual Art (On Kawara, Lee Lozano, Lawrence Weiner, etc.)
— Art theory, esp. theories of the parergon (paratext, parasite, etc.)
— Visual representations of the Shoah (Gerhard Richter's »Birkenau«, Jonathan Glazer's »The Zone of Interest«, etc.)
Completed, yet unpublished research on:
— Mierle Laderman Ukeles' ecofeminist, care-oriented manifesto for »Maintenance Art« (1969) and Robert Barry's institutional critique »Closed Gallery Piece« [finished text in book length]
— the aesthetic experience of being alive (starting from Karl Philipp Moritz's »Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen« [1788] and On Kawara's »I am still alive« [1970–2000]) [finished text in book length]
Current research focus (see »Current Research Project«):
— Art history and theory of authentication (signatures, certificates, intellectual property, etc.)
— Art and finance (and their legal frameworks)
Other interests:
— Exhibition formats; theory and practice of curating
see »Exhibitions« and (as an example) the essay »Web-Site-Specificity. Zur Medien- und Ortsspezifik der digitalen Ausstellung«, in: kritische berichte, Vol. 53, No. 1 (2025), pp. 30–40, open access: https://doi.org/10.11588/kb.2025.1.108546
— Abstract painting
see, as an example, the essay »Abschattung des Unendlichen – Michael Müllers ›geschenkter Tag‹«, in: Michael Müller. Der geschenkte Tag: Kastor & Polydeukes (Ernstes Spiel. Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 1.4), edited by Philipp Demandt et al., Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag/De Gruyter 2023, pp. 57–99, https://studiomichaelmueller.com/der-geschenkte-tag-kastor-polydeukes-ernstes-spiel-catalogue-raisonne-vol-1-4
Monographs
Die Beiwerke der Leere – Die Beiwerke des Lebens. Paratext und Parergon: Konstellationen der Konzeptkunst
2025, 448 pages, German, 17 x 24 cm
>> Softcover — Edition Metzel (München), ISBN: 978-3-88960-257-2, https://editionmetzel.de/buecher/die-beiwerke-der-leere-die-beiwerke-des-lebens.html
>> Open Access — Arthistoricum.net (Heidelberg), ISBN: 978–3–98501–394–4, https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1693
Die Menschlichkeit des Massenmörders. Zur Normalisierung und Neutralisierung der Shoah in Jonathan Glazers »The Zone of Interest«
2025, 64 pages, German, 14.5 x 21 cm
>> Softcover — Edition Metzel (München), ISBN: 978-3-88960-258-9, https://editionmetzel.de/buecher/die-menschlichkeit-des-massenmoerders.html
>> Open Access — Arthistoricum.net (Heidelberg), ISBN: 978-3-98501-399-9, https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1697
Am Abgrund der Bilder – »Birkenau« (together with Michael Müller)
2023, 108 pages, German, 25 x 31.5 cm
>> Hardcover — Deutscher Kunstverlag/De Gruyter, ISBN: 978-3-422-80126-4, https://www.deutscherkunstverlag.de/de/books/9783422801264
Editorial Work
Co-editor of Michael Müller's catalogue raisonné: Ernstes Spiel/Serious Game
Since 2023, currently 3 volumes, German/English/Chinese, 24 × 31,5 cm, Deutscher Kunstverlag/De Gruyter (Berlin), https://studiomichaelmueller.com/catalogue-raisonne
Including:
»Das Unermessliche. ›Birkenau‹ und der Abgrund des Angemessenen«, in: Michael Müller. Am Abgrund der Bilder – »Birkenau« (Ernstes Spiel. Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4.1), edited by Hubertus von Amelunxen et al., Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag/De Gruyter 2024, pp. 287–315.
»Am Abgrund der Bilder: ›Birkenau‹«, in: Michael Müller. Am Abgrund der Bilder – »Birkenau« (Ernstes Spiel. Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4.1), edited by Hubertus von Amelunxen et al., Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag/De Gruyter 2024, pp. 23–176.
»Abschattung des Unendlichen – Michael Müllers ›geschenkter Tag‹«, in: Michael Müller. Der geschenkte Tag: Kastor & Polydeukes (Ernstes Spiel. Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 1.4), edited by Philipp Demandt et al., Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag/De Gruyter 2023, pp. 57–99.
//
Managing Editor:
KUNSTSAELE
2022/23, 928 pages, German/English, 28 × 34 cm, DISTANZ (Berlin), ISBN: 978-3-95476-422-8
This book was published on the occasion of the 10th anniversary and closing of KUNSTSÆLE Berlin — Editors: Geraldine Michalke & Michael Müller — Managing Editors: Ellen Blumenstein & Lukas Töpfer
Including: »Die KUNSTSAELE Berlin. Eine Übersicht«, pp. 7–18, and several short texts
//
Exhibition catalogues:
See »Exhibitions/Curatorial Practice«
Current Research Project
Securities of art. Authentication as an artistic concept in times of financial crisis 1720-2020
A DFG project by Prof. Dr. Tobias Vogt in collaboration with Dr. Lukas Töpfer
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/514731806
In the wake of advancing digitalized and globalized information technologies, the use of authentication has garnered considerable attention – not only in the fields of economics and law, but in the visual arts as well. This research project is the first to examine artistically conceived certificates and contracts, which emerged as a means of authentication that became constitutive for the status and value of artworks from the early 18th century onwards as a result of intensified capitalist and colonial trade relations. The guiding assumption is that artists in particular have reflected on these specific authentication procedures and integrated them into the structure of their works. The project addresses two central issues: first, the question of an art history of authentication in an overall social and finance-historical context; and second, the question of how authentication is conceptualized between the accessory and the work. It takes both a historical and a theoretical approach to exploring a phenomenon which has so far been only marginally and sporadically studied, and only in particular cases, but which is currently coming to the attention of a broader public in the form of digital certification practices for reproduced works of art. The hypothesis is that authentications emerge as artistically conceived entities in particular when prevailing value structures in finance undergo radical transformation. The goal is to reconstruct how these authentications have taken on the role of “Securities of art” over five critical periods between 1720 and 2020, and how they not only react to these crises, but also act as a commentary, critique, or even corrective. This is what the project aims to demonstrate by examining subscription tickets and related prints in London around 1720, caricatures and trompe-l'œils of paper money during the French Revolution era, artistically informed bonds in the Golden Twenties, authentications in New York Conceptual Art, and certificates and contracts in contemporary installations. The backdrop is thus a finance-historical spectrum ranging from the burst “South Sea Bubble” – an early speculative crisis caused by transatlantic trade in enslaved people – to the global and at the same time digital markets of the present day. The project is divided into two parts, which are intertwined in such a way as to give a different weight to art-historical constellations and art-theoretical analyses in each case. The central research questions thus address both the intertwining of art history with the history of finance and a reframing of the idea of the “work” beyond the concepts of “parergon” and “paratext” in order to analyze the shift from the authentication of art to authentication as art asserted here from two different perspectives, the historical and the theoretical.
Exhibitions/Curatorial Practice
Unless specified otherwise, the exhibitions were curated by Lukas Töpfer (see https://www.lukastoepfer.com/)
Bethan Huws: Reading Duchamp – Research Notes 2007-2014
KUNSTSAELE, Berlin, April 6 to May 4, 2019
A Closed Horizon: Five Films
Malzfabrik, Berlin, June 2 to 3, 2018
Sieben Ausstellungen
Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, March 25 to June 3, 2018
Michael Müller: Vor und hinter dem Glas
Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, December 16, 2017 to February 11, 2018
0,10 ODER DAS ÜBERLEBEN DER LEERE
Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, September 16 to December 3, 2017, co-curated by Michael Müller
Höchste Armut
Aanant & Zoo, Berlin, September 8 to November 17, 2017
Seven selected exhibitions
fourseasonsberlin, Berlin, September 22, 2017
Die Summe und der Rest
as part of the exhibition »Andreas Greiner: Agentur des Exponenten«, Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, January 23 to 31 and February 6, 2017
Der Rest eines Vorschlags
as part of the exhibition »Michael Müller: Skits – 13 Ausstellungen in 9 Räumen«, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (Room 8), November 26, 2016 to January 20, 2017
Farewell to an Idea
Plattenpalast, Berlin, 15. bis 25. September 2016, as part of Berlin Art Week 2016, organized by Neue Berliner Räume
Klasse Michael Müller
Universität der Künste, Berlin, Room 113, 116 and 120, July 22 to 24, 2016
Das Übrige. Der Rest eines Vorschlags [3rd Version]
Kunstverein Nürnberg/Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft, February 16 to 18, 2016
École normale: Sol LeWitt’s »Black Cubes (2)«
KUNSTSAELE, Berlin, June 20 to August 22, 2015
Daniel Gustav Cramer: Three
KUNSTSAELE, Berlin, June 20 to August 22, 2015
Die Zukunft hat Zeit
as part of the series »Wo der Ort beginnt« (organized by Neue Berliner Räume), Kunsthaus Dahlem, Berlin, June 2, 2015
Der Rückzug der Dinge / The Retraction of Things
8-part exhibition cycle at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, September 14, 2014 to January 19, 2015
(1) Die Melancholie der Elite / The unhappy elite
(2) The road leads back and back to the black square (II), co-curated by Bublitz
(3) Donald Bernshouse
(4) A day in an institution, co-curated by Bublitz
(5) Das Numen: Impakt
(6) Dinge
(7) Daniel Gustav Cramer
(8) Ceal Floyer: Four Floors
>> Catalogue accompanying »Der Rückzug der Dinge«/»The Retraction of Things« (50 pages/25 loose cards in metal box, English) as part of the »KW Pocket« series, Leipzig: Spector Books 2015
Secondary Narratives
4 exhibitions at 14 locations in Berlin (Daimler Art Collection/Haus Huth, KUNSTSAELE, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Plattenpalast, among others), August/September 2014, co-curated by Bublitz, Julia Martha Müller, Frederiek Weda, Neue Berliner Räume, and The Wand
One place next to another / Одно место рядом сдругим
as part of »Moscow International Biennale for Young Art«, supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Russian Federation, Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, June 18 to August 24, 2014, co-curated by Anastasia Shavlokhova
>> Catalogue: »One place next to another«/»Одно место рядом с другим« (60 pages, Russian/English), Moscow: Winzavod CCA 2014
The Missing, or: One thing next to another
KUNSTSAELE, Berlin, May 3 to July 5, 2014
Martin Bothe: Ok, fine
Plattenpalast, Berlin, May 3 to 25, 2014
Das Übrige. Der Rest eines Vorschlags [2nd Version]
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, January 16 to 18, 2014
Why art resembles manic depression
9 x 10,000 invitation cards in an apartment in Berlin-Moabit, November 30, 2013 to January 18, 2014
Das Übrige. Der Rest eines Vorschlags [1st Version]
Plattenpalast, Berlin, September 18 to 28, 2013
+
Universität der Künste, Berlin, Room 91, July 12 to 14, 2013
Group exhibition with students of Prof. Olafur Eliasson and Prof. Gregor Schneider
auch heute
KUNSTSAELE, Berlin, February 22 to April 13, 2013
Heiliges Leben
Universität der Künste, Berlin, Room 91, July 13 to 15, 2012
Group exhibition with students of Prof. Olafur Eliasson and Prof. Gregor Schneider
Fragments of an unknown city / Фрагменты неизвестного города
Krasnoe Znamja, St. Petersburg, October 27 to 30, 2011, on behalf of the Goethe Institute St. Petersburg, co-curated by Tina Gebler
Seminars
Paradebeispiele: Singuläres, Exemplarisches und Paradigmatisches in der Kunst
(WiSe 25/26, Master)
Das Außergewöhnliche. Zur Kunstgeschichte und -theorie der Gewohnheit und ihres Gegenteils
(SoSe 25, Master)
Lebenswerke und Lebensformen: Ästhetiken der Existenz
(WiSe 24/25, Master)
Ökonomien der Aufmerksamkeit: Kunst, Konkurrenz und Konsum in den digitalen Bildkulturen
(SoSe 24, Master)
Ethos und Pathos: Moral und Gefühl in der Kunst
(WiSe 23/24, Bachelor)
Reflexe der Revolution. Kunst in Zeiten des radikalen Wandels
(SoSe 23, Bachelor)
Kunstgeschichte und Popkultur. Eine Engführung
(WiSe 22/23, Bachelor)
Das Ende der Kunst
(SoSe 22, Bachelor)
Was ist ein Kunstwerk?
(WiSe 21/22, Bachelor)
Das Einfache und das Komplexe: Extremwerte der Kunst
(SoSe 21, Bachelor)
Grenzgänger*innen. Traditionslinien der Abweichung
(WiSe 20/21, Bachelor)
Sozial- und Institutionskritik in der Kunst der Moderne und Gegenwart
(SoSe 20, Bachelor)