Curriculum Vitae
Studied Theater Studies, Media Culture Studies, and Philosophy at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich. Scholarship from Allianz and a certificate in the course “Curating in the Performing Arts.” PhD on the topic Curatorial Research: Neo-Baroque Research Practices in the Dispositif of Theater and Exhibitions in the inter-university doctoral program Science & Art at Paris-Lodron University Salzburg and the Mozarteum, awarded summa cum laude. In 2023, coordinated the university course Curating in the Performing Arts, and from 2024–2025, co-leads the program. Since March 2025, Scientific Researcher at the documenta Institute.
Research Focuses
Historical analysis and discourse history of large-scale exhibitions / documenta
Transdisciplinary and collaborative methods in the arts
Curatorial research with a particular focus on Baroque exhibition practices
Research Project
Exhibitions as Infrastructural Practice:
On Work, Structure, and Responsibility in Exhibition Practices
This research project focuses on the infrastructural and work-related conditions of large international exhibition formats, exemplified by the documenta. The central focus is not on curatorial programming or artistic production, but rather on the often invisible backstage level where processes, networks, and structures come into play, enabling the exhibition activities in the first place.
Particular attention is given to the personnel infrastructure: temporary work relationships, forms of project-based organization, coordination processes, and the diverse actors who operate beyond the visible stage of the exhibition. The term "infrastructure" serves here as a means to explore the interplay of organizational processes, institutional logics, and personal dynamics. In this way, exhibition concepts can also be examined from the perspective of infrastructure. The goal is to investigate the complex framework behind the public presentation of art – including those working realities that often remain invisible but are crucial to the functioning of the cultural sector. The focus is less on evaluating individual structures and more on a nuanced view of processes of facilitation, responsibility, and visibility within cultural production contexts.
Lectures
06/2025: "Forms of Resistance: Contemporary Artistic Activism," University of Salzburg
01/2025: "Collective Curating in and Beyond Dance Institutions," Praxis of Producing Across Art Forms: Theory and Practice for Equitable Ecologies, hybrid lecture at UAL (High Holborn) as part of the AHRC Future Ecologies Projects
09/2024: "Maintenance 2.0 – Research Lab 1 and 2," as part of the research fellowship for the project Maintenance 2.0 by Gwendolin Lehnerer, Kunststiftung NRW
Publications (Selection)
Monographs
Lehnerer, Gwendolin. 2025. Curatorial Research: Neo-Baroque Research Practices in the Dispositif of Theater and Exhibitions. Munich: Epodium, 2024. (PhD dissertation).
Edited Volumes
Lehnerer, Gwendolin, and Martina Fladerer, eds. 2022. Welten im Wandel: Beyond Sciences and the Arts. Munich: Epodium.
Lehnerer, Gwendolin, Nicole Haitzinger, Sigrid Gareis, and River Lin, eds. 2025. Collective Curating in Performing Arts. OnCurating, Issue 59/2025.
Articles
Lehnerer, Gwendolin. 2025. "Polyphonic Horizons: Connectivity as a Curatorial Paradigm." In Collective Curating in Performing Arts, OnCurating, Issue 59/2025, eds. Sigrid Gareis, Nicole Haitzinger, Gwendolin Lehnerer, and River Lin.
Lehnerer, Gwendolin. 2025. "Interview with Zora Snake: ‘Dance as Dialogue: The Collaborative Practice of the ModaPerf International Biennale.’" In Collective Curating in Performing Arts, OnCurating, Issue 59/2025, eds. Sigrid Gareis, Nicole Haitzinger, Gwendolin Lehnerer, and River Lin.
Lehnerer, Gwendolin. 2025. "Interview with Florian Malzacher and Milo Rau: 'This is like a miracle. How did we get here?'" In Collective Curating in Performing Arts, OnCurating, Issue 59/2025, eds. Nicole Haitzinger, Gwendolin Lehnerer, and River Lin.
Lehnerer, Gwendolin. 2025. "Sympoetic Entanglements: Fabrizio Terranova in Conversation with Donna Haraway." In Matters of Difference, Berlin: Neofelis.
Lehnerer, Gwendolin. 2024. "Climates: A Curatorial Research Project." TURBA. Exhibiting Liveness, Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2024.
Lehnerer, Gwendolin. 2022. "A Leap into Trans: Resistant Practices at the Intersection of Science and the Arts." In Welten im Wandel: Beyond Sciences and the Arts, eds. Martina Fladerer and Gwendolin Lehnerer, Munich: Epodium.