Shaping futures: art and science in focus at MGGU Frankfurt!

Shaping futures: art and science in focus at MGGU Frankfurt!

In June 2025, the Giersch Museum at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main is expecting an exciting series of events that will intensively address the question of future scenarios. Under the title “Futures”, the program includes an international symposium, book launches as well as dialogue tours and workshops, all focused on the connection between art, science and environmental issues. How puk.uni-frankfurt.de reports, the central symposium will take place on June 14, 2025 and is entitled “Seeing the Unforeseeable: Art, Science, and the Imagining of Futures”. This event promises to give broad space to the role of art and science in imagining possible future scenarios.

Organized by Dr. Steven Gonzalez and Dr. Julia Schubert, the symposium will attract well-known participants from art and science, including Jordan Rita Seruya Awori, Prof. Dr. Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Prof. Dr. Mi You and Dr. Joshua Wodak. The program includes a panel discussion followed by a Q&A session as well as a dialogue tour through the accompanying exhibition “Fixing Futures”. The conclusion is a keynote lecture by Prof. Dr. Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay. Admission is free, but registration is required.

Book launch and exhibition

On June 15, 2025, Josh Wodak's book "Petrified. Living During a Rupture of Life on Earth" will be presented, which addresses the ecological and social crises of the present. This takes place as part of a subsequent discussion, which is open to anyone interested and can be attended without registering. In parallel, the exhibition “Fixing Futures. Planetary Futures between Speculation and Control” will be on view until August 31, 2025. It aims to present international artistic and scientific visions for shaping the future and to deepen them through accompanying dialogue tours and workshops.

The museum is not only enlivened by the events mentioned above, but also offers space for other interactive formats. The event “Object Lesson – Collected Futures” will take place on June 17th, also without registration and free of charge. A dialogue tour on the topic of art and science will take place on June 25th under the direction of Dr. Manpreet Jattana will be offered, while the director's tour will provide insights into curatorial practice on June 26th. Participation in these events is inexpensive, with entry for some offerings being 4 euros.

Research on art, environment and ecology

In parallel to these activities, a research group on the topic of “Art, Environment, Ecology” will be set up at the ZI from September 2024. This group strives to do so zikg.eu, a sustainable network between national and international scientists. Over a period of five years, various research projects will be carried out that deal with art historiography in the context of ecological topics.

The results of this research will be presented in the form of workshops, lecture series, collaborations and publications in order to promote the critical revision of the positioning of artists and art historical research. This initiative aims to integrate discourse on environmental justice and the challenges of climate change into artistic practice. Interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and scientists is highlighted as a central aspect as it advances the examination of the Anthropocene and the associated ecological questions.

The series of events and the new research group are part of a larger trend in contemporary art that examines a “rediscovery” of nature and its significance for art. The international project “Naturally Hypernatural” focuses on the historical development of concepts of nature and their influence on current artistic practices.

These multi-layered approaches illustrate the commitment of both the Giersch Museum and the research group to create a space for a critical dialogue about the role of art in times of ecological crises. The museum managers, led by Christine Karmann, are available at any time for further information about upcoming events and research initiatives.