Vita
Studied Philosophy and Sociology in Germany and Spain at the University of Mainz and Universidad de Granada (B.A.) as well as Media Culture and Art Theories at the University of Art and Design Linz (M.A.) in Austria.
After a research stay in Peru in 2022, she completed her studies in 2023 with a thesis on the museum history of Germany and Peru ("Museos de la Memoria: Über die Förderung erinnerungskultureller Museen durch deutsche Institutionen in Peru "). From 2016 to 2023 she received a study grant from the Begabtenförderungswerk of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. Since October 2023, she has been a Scientific Associate in the Department of Art and Society at the University of Kassel and the documenta Institut. She is a member of traces - (Transdisciplinary Research Center for Exhibition Studies).
Research project
Ästhetiken des Erinnerns – Über die Un-/Sichtbarkeiten „kommunistischer“ Kunst in Deutschland und Peru ab 1968 (Arbeitstitel)(Aesthetics of remembrance - On the invisibilities/visibilities of “communist” art in Germany and Peru since 1968 (working title))
It is becoming increasingly common for museums, such as those in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin, to focus their exhibitions on the history of relations between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and countries of the so-called Global South. The reference countries are often Chile, Cuba, Mozambique and Vietnam, the so-called “brother countries” of the GDR, which, however, were subject to constant change depending on the political situation and were sometimes only unofficially referred to as such. Peru was not a brother country of the GDR, but here, too, lines of connection between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and Peru can be traced, albeit to a much lesser extent than the corresponding links with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
Peruvian government documents bear witness to the agreement on art and cultural cooperation between the GDR and Peru from 1975 to 1990. The doctoral project explores this still unknown history of intertwined art and cultural agreements between Germany (GDR/BRD) and Peru. To this end, exhibitions themselves are understood, following Jacques Rancière, as part of a “division of the sensual” (sense in connection with meaning, “sens”), which not only produces visibilities but also invisibilities. The current and historical exhibitions and histories of cooperation and relationships represent indicators of invisibility/visibility relationships and enable an analysis of the struggles for the legitimacy of categories of perception and evaluation in the (interwoven) fields of art. In particular, memory-cultural practices actively shape the sphere of the sensual, which is why the research project understands remembering as an aesthetic practice.
Main research topics
Memory and Museum Studies
Visual Culture
Narratives of working-class children in upwardly mobile literature
Post- and decolonial theories
Intertwined and colonial history of Latin America and Europe
Art theories
Lectures
07 I 2024: The German Impact on the Peruvian Musealization of Memory, Panel 1: Decolonizing Memory, Conference: Global Memories and the Dynamics of Transit, Memory Studies Association, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima
07 I 2024: To whom do Memories belong? (Workshop), International Summer School, Inside Arts, Universität Kassel
06 I 2024: Championing Memory: On the Export of German Memory Culture to Peru, Session 11: German Memorial Model Revisited: Local (Re)Articulations and Global Travels, Conference: Memorialization, Musealization and Representation of Atrocities in Global Dialogue, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW) & Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust-Studien, Wien
03 I 2024: La Promoción del Estado alemán de Museos de la Memoria en Perú como Política anticomunista, Mesa 1: Politicas de museos, archivos de memoria y monumentos profanados, Workshop Internacional: El giro conservador, los usos del pasado y la defensa de la democracia en América Latina: la agenda del siglo XXI, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO)
Publications (selection)
Bauer, Luisa; Džudžević, Dženeta; Nguyễn, Linda (2023): Empowermoment – Momente des Empowerns. In: Yaliz Akbaba und Alisha M. B. Heinemann (Hg.): Erziehungswissenschaften dekolonisieren. Theoretische Debatten und praxisorientierte Impulse. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, S. 237–280.
Bauer, Luisa (2021): Die Versöhnung mit dem Vater – Ein Appell gegen eine sozialpolitische Moral der Stärke und für mehr unapologetische Kontaktabbrüche. In: arranca! (#55).
Bauer, Luisa; Mühlsteff Julian (2021): Das postkoloniale Museum (Tagungsbericht 13.06.2021–16.06.2021). In: H-Soz-Kult.