Podcast

She writes with 0.1 millimeter fine writing on wafer-thin paper. She works with brain scans, bulletproof glass and quotes from Paul Celan, Bob Dylan and Anne Carson. Berlin-based artist Paula Doepfner (*1980, Berlin) combines medical precision with literary depth and a multi-layered visual language. In the exhibition »Paula Doepfner ›I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'‹«, which the Kunstforum der TU Darmstadt is showing until June 29, 2025, her work unfolds between fragile written images and monumental spatial installations. The medical sketches that the artist made during brain operations at Charité Berlin, poetic texts and the United Nations Istanbul Protocol form the starting point for her complex works.

In the first episode of the second season of »Schönheit & Verstand«, we talk to Paula Doepfner about her artistic practice, her research into the documentation of torture, her fascination with neuronal structures and the role of literature in her work. Together with Julia Reichelt, the director of the Kunstforum, Ute Hochhuth leads the conversation.

How does Paula Doepfner deal with the themes of suffering, violence and transience? How does she translate medical content into an artistic form? And can art give hope in spite of all the heaviness? These questions accompany us through an intensive conversation about inner worlds, vulnerability and the beauty of language.

Further information:

• Website of the artist

Travel is in her blood, but by the time she is able to realize her dream, she is already 44 years old. »Even as a tender child, I had the greatest longing to get out into the world«, writes Ida Pfeiffer (* 1797 Vienna – † 1858 ibid.) in the book about her trip to the North in 1845. As far as is known, Ida Pfeiffer is the first woman to circumnavigate the world on her own. She became one of the most famous travel writers of her time. She also made a contribution to science and, at the instigation of Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter, became the first woman to be made an honorary member of the Society for Geography in Berlin, as well as an honorary member of the Paris Geographical Society. Today, however, traveling has become a matter of course for many people. Destinations on distant continents are no longer unusual. Nevertheless, it is still worth mentioning when women travel alone.

In the third episode of »Beauty & Mind«, we welcome Dr. Gabriele Habinger from the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Vienna. Among other things, she researches the anthropology of tourism and travel and is the author of the biography »Eine Wiener Biedermeierdame erobert die Welt – Die Lebensgeschichte der Ida Pfeiffer« as well as the editor of Ida Pfeiffer's travel letters entitled »Wir leben nach Matrosenweise«. We will also be talking to Dr. Allegra Bauman, urban sociologist at the Institute of Sociology at TU Darmstadt, who wrote her dissertation on the influence of cruise tourism on urban infrastructure and is currently researching tourism and quality of life in small towns. Together, we will shed light on Ida Pfeiffer's life and ask how tourist travel came about, what women's travel was like in Ida Pfeiffer's time, how tourism has developed and what opportunities and risks tourism offers under today's circumstances.

Further information:

• Website of the Department of Urban and Spatial Sociology at the TU Darmstadt
• Website of the Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Vienna
• Website of the publishing house with further information on the books by Dr. Gabriele Habinger
• BBC podcast on Ida Pfeiffer

Literature:

• Gabriele Habinger (2022): »Eine Wiener Biedermeierdame erobert die Welt. Die Lebensgeschichte der Ida Pfeiffer (1797 – 1858)« (208 pages, Promedia Verlag, ISBN 978-3-85371-508-6)
• Gabriele Habinger (2006): »Frauen reisen in die Fremde. Diskurse und Repräsentationen von reisenden Europäerinnen im 19. und beginnenden 20. Jahrhundert« (400 pages, Promedia Verlag, ISBN 978-3-85371-254-2)
• Gabriele Habinger (2023): »›Wir leben nach Matrosenweise‹. Briefe einer Weltreisenden des 19. Jahrhunderts« (264 pages, Promedia Verlag, ISBN 978-3-85371-524-6)
• Ida Pfeiffer (1991): »Nordlandfahrt. Reise nach Skandinavien und Island im Jahre 1845« (288 pages, Promedia Verlag, ISBN 978-3-90047-847-6)

In 1699, at the age of 52, a woman traveled to Suriname to discover and study insects until 1701. At this time, Maria Sybilla Merian (* 1647 Frankfurt am Main – † 1717 Amsterdam) was already a recognized entomologist and successful businesswoman, not least thanks to her talent and skill as a painter. As a pioneer of entomology, she was the first to depict insects in all stages of development and in their living environment, especially the respective host plant. Today, the scientific field of ecology looks at the interactions between living organisms and their environment. And the topic is more topical than ever.
 

For the second episode of the new podcast »Schönheit & Verstand« (Beauty & Mind), we welcome historian and writer Barbara Beuys, author of the biography »Maria Sibylla Merian. Artist – Researcher – Businesswoman« and doctoral students Johanna Berger and Magarita Hartlieb from the Department of Biology at TU Darmstadt, who are working on the topic of biodiversity in their dissertations and as part of the BioDivKultur project.

Further information:

• Website of the BioDivKultur project
• Website of the publishing house with further information on the book »Maria Sibylla Merian. Künstlerin – Forscherin – Geschäftsfrau. Eine Biographie« by Barbara Beuys

Literature:

• Barbara Beuys (2017): »Maria Sibylla Merian. Künstlerin – Forscherin – Geschäftsfrau. Eine Biographie« (285 pages, Insel Verlag, ISBN 978-3-458-36180-0)

From May 5 to October 27, 2024, the Kunstforum der TU Darmstadt is showing the exhibition »MILLI BAU. 5000 km to Paris«. It is the first exhibition of its kind to honor the work of journalist and photographer Milli Bau (* 1906 Darmstadt – † 2005 ibid.). Her impressive photographs, of which around 800 can be seen in the exhibition, bear witness to the more than 40 trips Bau undertook from 1948 onwards, later as a feature journalist for Hamburg's »Welt« newspaper. They are a sign of cosmopolitanism and cultural understanding – and an impressive testimony to an emancipated, fearless and curious woman.

In the first episode of the TU Art Forum's new podcast »Schönheit & Verstand« (Beauty & Mind), Julia Reichelt, director and curator of the TU-Kunstforum, and Alice Pawlik, co-curator and curator at the Weltkulturen Museum Frankfurt as well as ethnologist and cultural anthropologist, present their curatorial concept. They take us on Milli Bau's travels, shed light on important aspects of her life and tell us which photos in the exhibition are their favorites.

Literatur:

• Julia Reichelt, Alice Pawlik (2024): »MILLI BAU. 5000 km bis Paris« (Exhibition catalog, 364 pages, Kunstforum der TU Darmstadt, ISBN 978-3-948908-04-1)
• Julica Norouzi (2017): »MILLI BAU. 5000 km bis Paris« (220 pages, Kerber Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7356-0389-0)