Academic activity

Since 2024: researcher and doctoral candidate at the DFG-Graduate School 2638 “Normativity, Critique, Change”.

Master in Film Studies at Freie Universität Berlin.
Masters thesis: Verhältnissetzung durch Kinoarchitektur. Der Kasch als Element räumlicher Vermittlung und Abschirmung im Kinoraum. (English: Relationality through cinema architecture. The cache as an element of spatial mediation and shielding in the cinema space.)

Bachelor in Cultural Anthropology and Media Studies at the University of Basel.

Professional activity

Since 2022: Project coordination archive digitization (with an emphasis on film, video and audio)
DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program

2020-2022: Handling of film copies, program coordination, text editing         
Sinema Transtopia / bi'bak

2015-2019: Webmaster
Bildrausch Filmfest Basel

Das Kino als Asyl? Kartografien des Kinos als urbaner Schutz- und Möglichkeitsraum (working title)
(English: The Cinema as Refuge? Cartographies of the Cinema as an Urban Space of Shelter and Potentiality)

The doctoral project aims to deepen questions about the normativity of spatial relations in regard to the cinema as a space of refuge and potentiality. The argumentation follows four theoretical perspectives, which correspond to each other through a preoccupation with spatial enclosure and opening:

1) The urban class and gender politics of silent cinema, as it has been addressed by feminist film theory (Heide Schlüpmann, Miriam Hansen and Gertrud Koch) in the wake of the ‚Frankfurt School’. Special attention is spent to the idea of the cinema space as a “refuge” (Adorno/Horkheimer).

2) In a second part, the cinema is examined with a focus on the relationship between interior and exterior space: What relationship does the cinema as a “refuge” constitute to an urban outside? This question is investigated by examining the relationship between interior and exterior spaces in Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural notion of the “shelter” (Wright 1963). Using the work of Doris Agotai (2012), a connection will be made from Wright’s architectural writings to theories of cinematic framing (including, but not limited to, André Bazin’s idea of the cache). This creates a basis for the corresponding investigation of both filmic and architectural interior-exterior relationships.

3) The third perspective examines the connection between urbanity and architecture, the cinema, and the filmic space as an interlocking, processual relationship that takes place through processes of spatial opening and enclosure. The methodological and theoretical approach here is based on Adrian Ivakhiv’s (2013) media-ecological film theory.

4) The fourth perspective returns to the idea of the cinema space as a “refuge”. Against the backdrop of the previous considerations, the cinema space is understood as a “Sammelraum” (a room of gathering) (Rudolf Harms, 1929) of a differing audience, which enables relationships and demarcations between the inside and outside of the filmic and the urban space. Finally, the question arises to which extent the relationship between processes of opening and enclosing in the cinema space offers the possibility of negotiating community and social difference within an urban topology.

Research Interests:

• Classical film theory
• Media ecology and media aesthetics
• Urban studies and architectural theory
• Cartography and perspective
• Qualitative social research
• Cultural Studies
• Critical Theory
• Pop culture
• Political aesthetics
• Postcolonial Studies
• Feminist practice and theory
• Theories of the documentary
• Archival practice and theory

Texts

Beobachten, wie es anders sein könnte
On the political potential of ‚Observational Cinema’ in City Hall (Frederick Wiseman, 2020) and For the Many (Für die Vielen) (Constantin Wulff, 2022). Published in 2024 in Protokult, the blog of the Duisburger Filmwoche. Link: https://protokult.de/blog/distanzmontage-beobachten-wie-es-anders-sein-koennte/

Im Kino mehrheimisch werden
On post-migrant and transnational cinema practice. Published 2023 in: Schmitt, Elisa Maria, Theresa Zwerschke: Bewegliche Bilder. Berlin 2023. Published in print only.

Fokus #2: Architektur und Neoliberalismus
Editor. Published 2020 in Jugend ohne Film.
Link: www.jugendohnefilm.com/fokus

I'm all lost in the supermarket, I can no longer shop happily
On utopia, apocalypse and the neoliberal city in Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016). Published 2020 in Jugend ohne Film (with Max Grenz). Link: www.jugendohnefilm.com/im-all-lost-in-the-supermarket-i-can-no-longer-shop-happily-nocturama-bertrand-bonello

Cinderella’s Slums
On postmodern architecture, the politics of Disney World and neorealism in The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017). Published 2020 in Jugend ohne Film. Link: www.jugendohnefilm.com/cinderellas-slums-the-florida-project-sean-baker

Gemeinsam Einsam – Laptop-Musikvideos
On loneliness, community and digital aesthetics in the music videos of Kevin Abstract, Holly Herndon, Vince Staples and Nok from the Future. Published 2016 in Norient – Network for Local and Global Sounds and Media Culture. Link: www.norient.com/video/gemeinsam-einsam

Wolken beobachten mit Cinderella
On four different Cinderella film adaptations: Aschenputtel (Lotte Reiniger, 1922), Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi/Wilfred Jackson/Hamilton Luske, 1950), La jeune fille et les nuages (Georges Schwizgebel, 2000), Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh, 2015). Published 2015 in Y+ Young Swiss Magazine: Issue No. 6 on the topic of “Flirt”. Published in print only.


Film programs, screenings, exhibition projects and events

Mapping the Archive
Co-curation with Natalie Keppler. Online platform with digitizations of films and videos from the archive of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. Link: www.mappingthearchive.de

If the Berlin Wind Blows My Flag - Art and Internationalism before the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Associate curator of the exhibition project If the Berlin Wind Blows My Flag - Art and Internationalism before the Fall of the Berlin Wall as part of the 60th anniversary of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program.
Venues: daadgalerie, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k, Akademie der Künste, Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin. Link: https://www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de/en/events/if-the-berlin-wind-blows-my-flag-art-and-internationalism-before-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall/

Soul Sisters - Sisterhoods: Screening of the films Iris (1971), Baroque Statues (1970-74) and Alice (1974/79) by Maria Lassnig and Damned If You Don’t  (1987) by Su Friedrich
Co-curation with Natalie Keppler.
Venue: daadgalerie, Berlin.

Italian guest workers in Berlin: Screening of Lottando La Vita – Lavoratori Italiani a Berlino (Videobase: Anna Lajolo, Alfredo Leonardi, Guido Lombardi, 1975)
Co-curation with Natalie Keppler.
Venue: daadgalerie, Berlin.

Berlin Lost – Searching for Traces of a Jewish Berlin: Screening of Ein Verlorenes Berlin (A Berlin Lost) by Richard Kostelanetz & Martin Koerber (1983) and Cooperation of Parts by Daniel Eisenberg (1987)
Co-curation with Natalie Keppler.
Venue: daadgalerie, Berlin

Cinematic approaches to West Berlin: Open air screening of the films Aufenthaltserlaubnis  by Antonio Skármeta (1978), Das Schlesische Tor (The Silesian Gate) by Clemens Klopfenstein (1982), Berlin: Tourist Journal by Ken Kobland (1988) and Austausch / Exchange by Egon Bunne (1982)
Co-curation with Natalie Keppler.
Venue: Courtyard of Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin.

Screening of Persistence (Daniel Eisenberg, 1997). Followed by a conversation between Shelly Silver and Daniel Eisenberg
Co-curation with Natalie Keppler.
Venue: daadgalerie, Berlin.

Exhibition “Mapping the Archive” with films, videos and documents from the archive of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program
Co-curation with Natalie Keppler.
Venue: daadgalerie, Berlin.

Film talk accompanying a screening of Özgürlesen Seyirci (Audience Emancipated) (2016) by Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim initiative (as part of the conference “Cinema of Commoning”)
Audience discussion with Senem Aytaç, member of the collective Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim initiative.
Venue: Sinema Transtopia, Berlin

Cinema of Commoning 2022
Conceptual editing, coordination of film prints and organizational involvement. Symposium on alternative cinema practice with a collectively curated film program that was shown simultaneously in independent cinemas in Bangkok, Jakarta, Istanbul, Dubai, Santiago de Chile, Cluj-Napoca and Luanda.
Venues: Sinema Transtopia (Berlin), CCC - Centro de Cine y Creación (Santiago de Chile), Cine Geração (Luanda), Cinema Akil (Dubai), Cinema ARTA (Cluj-Napoca), Documentary Club (Bankok), Forum Lenteng (Jakarta), Kundura Cinema (Istanbul). Link: https://cinemaofcommoning.com/2022/

Accounting the Household!
Film program on reproductive and care work after deindustrialization in the north of Berlin.
Venue: Sinema Transtopia, Berlin. Link: https://sinematranstopia.com/en/program/film-series/mit-dem-haushalt-rechnen