Viviane Tabach
Ecological Thresholds: Environment, Activism, and the Future of Museums
Seminar, English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Tuesdays, 12-16 h, weekly, 7 sessions: 29.4., 6.5., 13.5., 20.5., 27.5., 3.6., 10.6.2025, Hardenbergstr. 33, room 102

Registration on Moodle starts on 14.4.2025: https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=2647
Enrollment Key: institution

The seminar "Ecological Thresholds: Environment, Activism, and the Future of Museums" investigates the role of art institutions at the intersection of ecological crises and cultural transformation. Framing museums and art institutions as products of colonial histories and extractive practices, the seminar investigates how institutions can move beyond their origins as instruments of control and classification to become agents of ecological justice.
The theme of "Tipping Points" is central to this seminar, addressing moments when cultural, social, or environmental pressures catalyze systemic change and examining their impact on art institutions. How can art institutions confront the dual urgencies of ecological collapse and colonial legacies? In what ways can they reimagine their roles through practices of restitution, addressing ecological injustices, and fostering equitable partnerships with communities and cultures historically affected by colonialism?

Focus and Objectives:
Ecological Activism and Art Institutions: Examine how art institutions present environmental and social transformations through exhibitions, collections, and programming. How do they engage with or distance themselves from activism, and what are the limitations of representation in addressing these interconnected issues?

Colonial Legacies and Extractive Practices:
Investigate the origins of museums in the colonial era and examine how their collections and contemporary exhibitions narrate territory, nature, and culture. How might these narratives reflect or challenge extractive and hierarchical frameworks?

Radical Futures:
Explore approaches that position art institutions as platforms for ecological justice, approaching debates around restitution of artifacts, restorative practices, and environmental care.

Decentralizing Narratives:
Highlight indigenous and non-Western ecological perspectives in shaping alternative institutional futures. Examine how these perspectives challenge dominant Western narratives about nature, culture, and ecology, offering relational and interdependent understandings of the environment. The seminar will investigate if and to what extent institutions can engage with these viewpoints beyond token gestures, exploring their potential as frameworks for reshaping practices of storytelling, curation, and collaboration.

Fulfilment criteria for ungraded accreditation: Active, regular participation. Participants are encouraged to produce a piece out of the course, such as a short essay, project sketch, or express a reflection in any other media.

Viviane Tabach (she/her) is a Brazilian curator, art mediator and artist based in Berlin. Her work centers on educational methods within curatorial and artistic practices. Viviane’s research delves into what makes art institutions effective learning spaces and how the public can be better integrated into this context. She has been working on several initiatives, such as Devolver a Terra à Terra (To Return the Earth to the Earth) – an ongoing project curated by her that investigates the spiritual, political, identitarian and cultural aspects of the land; and she is part of the curatorial team of the project Dissident Paths at nGbK. She has founded and directs the project space Co-Making Matters, at Haus der Statistik, and co-founded and co-directed the art space Casa Aberta in São Paulo, where she organized transdisciplinary projects that integrated music, dance, visual arts, and other forms of expression. Viviane has been a member of the collective Cruising Curators since 2020. She was an art mediator (sobat) for documenta fifteen and co-edited the publication ‘Ever been friend-zoned by an institution?’, which explores the challenges, expectations, and discrepancies of the exhibition from the perspective of art mediation. In 2020, she worked as an art mediator for the Berlin Biennale and KW Institute for Contemporary Art and participated in the 11th Berlin Biennale’s Curatorial Workshop How Now to Gather. She has worked for institutions such as Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Sesc Pompeia, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, and others, and has collaborated with projects and spaces such as Buro Stedelijk, Scottish Sculpture Workshop, HKW, Floating University, Brücke Museum, Arts of the Working Class, Hopscotch Reading Room, OSTEN Festival, Grassi Museum, and Pilotenkueche Art Residency. Viviane Tabach holds a Master's degree in Art in Context at Universität der Künste Berlin and a Master’s degree in Cultures of the Curatorial at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig. She holds a postgraduate degree in Art: Criticism and Curatorship from PUC-SP, as well as a Teaching Practice and Bachelor of Visual Arts degrees from the Instituto de Artes da Universidade Estadual Paulista.