Vita
Studied Sociology and Political Science at the University of Kassel (B.A.) with a Master's degree in Sociology at the University of Kassel. From 2022 - 2023 Research assistant at the University of Kassel with Prof. Dr. Heinz Bude (Chair of Macrosociology). Since 2023 Research Fellow at the documenta Institut.
Research project
The art of participation. An image-hermeneutic analysis of photographically documented participation practices at the world art exhibition documenta.
As a singular instance of contextualization and mediation of contemporary art, the exhibition series documenta has from the outset been particularly interested in the relationship between art and space, which must accordingly be placed at the center of praxeological reception research that seeks to reconstruct the concrete reception and participation practices within the framework of a spatial arrangement and its practical-performative design at the respective documenta exhibitions in a methodologically controlled manner, to interpret them and subsequently identify patterns within the diversity of these practices. In contrast to previous empirical studies of documenta, the aim of the project is not to examine the resources and competences of the audience at the various exhibitions in order to explain participation in documenta. Instead, the concrete participation practices are to be analyzed as idiosyncratic, polysemic and productive practices of the actors on the basis of photographic material. To this end, the project draws on image-hermeneutic methods of qualitative social research. The photographs document material-bodily, interactive and atmospheric constellations, which are to be analyzed interpretatively in their own logic with recourse to segment and constellation analysis and then contextualized. In this way, the project hopes to gain insights into the different modes of participation in the exhibited artworks and programs in connection with their spatial arrangement in the respective exhibitions.
Main research areas
History of ideas
Sociology of intellectuals
Sociology of art
Qualitative social research (including image hermeneutics in the sociology of knowledge)
Projects
Collaboration in the project Antisemitismus und postkoloniale Debatten am Beispiel der documenta fifteen
Editorial office
Bude, Heinz (Ed.) (2026): Seeing through China. Mi You und Andreas Schmid im Gespräch mit Heinz Bude. Berlin: Hatje Cantz. (Editing, translation, proofreading) [coming January 2026]
Lectures
11 I 2024 Wer sind ruangrupa? Was ist lumbung? Kollektivität zwischen Partizipation und Gemeinschaft (Universität Regensburg)
Events
09 I 2025 Kojèves verkannte Autorität. Marius Kemper talk with Heinz Bude (book presentation), Kassel
Publications (selection)
I. Monographs
Kemper, Marius (2025): Kojèves verkannte Autorität. Wien; Berlin: Turia + Kant.
II. Articles
Kemper, Marius (2025): Wer sind ruangrupa? Was ist lumbung? Zur Institutionalisierung von Kollektivität in der Gegenwartskunst. In: Zeitschrift für Kultur- und Kollektivwissenschaft 11(2)[forthcoming]
Kemper, Marius (2025): Der lange Sommer der sobat-sobat. In: Bude, Heinz/Mendel, Meron (Ed.): Kunst im Streit. Antisemitismus und postkoloniale Debatte auf der documenta fifteen, Frankfurt, p. 15-34.
Kemper, Marius (2025): „Make friends, not art“ und die Grenzen der Gemeinschaft. In: Bude, Heinz/Mendel, Meron (Ed.): Kunst im Streit. Antisemitismus und postkoloniale Debatte auf der documenta fifteen, Frankfurt, p. 113-150.