Dr. Michael Diers

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Dr. Michael Diers, Professor of History of Art (retired)

Contact:
Mail: michael.diers@hfbk-hamburg.de

Consultation Hours on appointment only

Michael Diers has been professor of art history and history of the image at the HFBK Hamburg from 2004 to 2017. He studied art history, German studies and philosophy in Münster and Hamburg, where he gained his doctorate in 1990 with a paper on the art and culture historian Aby Warburg (Warburg aus Briefen). From 1990 to 1992, he was a research associate in the “Politische Ikonographie” study project (directed by Martin Warnke) at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen, and from 1992 to 1994, he was a research associate in the Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar of the Universität Hamburg. In 1994, he habilitated at the Universität Hamburg. From 1994 to 1999, he was a university lecturer at the Kunsthistorisches Seminar of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, and from 1999 to 2004, he was a lecturer at the Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar of the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, where he also acted as managing director from 2000 to 2002. He was appointed as an extracurricular professor in 2004. He also works independently as an author, critic and exhibition-maker.

His teaching and research follow the principles embodied in a neon sculpture by Maurizio Nannucci “All art has been contemporary”. His research has focused on the art of the Renaissance and modern art from 1800 to the present day. He specialises in photography, film and new media, political iconography, art and media theory and scientific history.
From 2001 to 2003, Michael Diers was a board member of the Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker, and from 1991 to 2001, he edited the paperback book serieskunststück (monographs and artworks), published by Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. Between 2005 and 2007, he edited the seriesFundus Bücher, published by Philo Fine Arts, Hamburg. He is co editor of the study edition of the collected works of Aby Warburg (Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1999ff.) and a member of the AICA international critics association and of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). He is also a scientific advisor (Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie, Ruhr Museum Essen, etc) and an evaluator (DFG, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, American Academy).

In early 2011, the Goethe Institut New York selected him as a member of the jury for theMINI / Goethe Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 program, which nominates young curators to oversee the gallery belonging to the New York Goethe Institut in Manhattan (Lower East Side, address: Ludlow 38) for the year.

Since the winter semester of 2004/05, Michael Diers has held a number of events (lectures, seminars and symposia) entitled spiel/raum:kunst at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.

Übers Schreiben reden am 15. April 2025 mit Saša Stanišić, Akın Emanuel Şipal, moderiert von Viktorie Knotková; photo: Jana Rothe

Program for the turn of the year

Around the turn of the year, we have plenty happening. Here's a small selection of upcoming events.

Cemile Sahin, ROAD RUNNER, 2025, installation view at Esther Schipper, Berlin; photo: © Andrea Rossetti, Courtesy of Cemile Sahin and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul

Writing in Future

Writing as an artistic practice is becoming increasingly important at art colleges and in the art world. The symposium “Writing in the Future” and accompanying exhibition shed light on precisely this development: How do artists and authors work with language? Where do transitions, frictions, and new forms arise between text, image, technology, and institutional frameworks?

View into the auditorium of HFBK Hamburg; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

Welcome to HFBK Hamburg: New semester, new faces

At the start of the 2025/26 academic year, we welcome not only many new students but also our new professors Anne Femmer, Cyprien Gaillard, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Dane Komljen and Jasmin Werner.

Opening of the Graduate Show 2025; photo: Sinje Hasheider

It's almost time – start of the 2025/26 semester

The start of the winter semester is just around the corner, and with it we welcome many new students to the HFBK Hamburg. Here is some information to help you settle in.

Pablo Torres Gómez, Earths's Ears, 2025; photo: Pablo Torres Gómez

Doing a PhD at the HFBK Hamburg

Applications for a doctorate (Dr. phil. in art.) are open until September 30 and for the PhD in Art Practice program until October 14. All relevant information can be found here.

Maria Ignatenko, false movements, 2024, work in progress; Filmstill

Being(s)

Nine scholarship holders are part of the new PhD in Art Practice program at the HFBK Hamburg—a purely artistic-practical doctorate that began in April. The focus is on the question of how artistic processes can create new forms of knowledge. Here we present the research projects and provide insights into the research practice of the supervising professors

Estefania Morales, I Drive, God Guides ( yo manejo, Dios me guía), Detail; photo: Tim Albrecht

Graduate Show 2025: Don't stop me now

From July, 11-13, 2025 (2-8 p.m.), more than 150 graduates from the 2024/25 academic year will be showing their final artistic works in a comprehensive exhibition at the HFBK Hamburg. In addition, all graduation films will be presented in the cinema hall of the Filmhaus at Finkenau 42 as part of Final Cut.

The cinema in the new film house, Finkenau 42; photo: Tim Albrecht

CineAmies

For 60 years, the HFBK Hamburg's film department has stood for radical cinematic independence. But no free expression without connections: Film needs friendship - as a network, as criticism, as resistance. What has become of this film*friendship at the HFBK? We are celebrating 60 years of Cine*Ami*es!

Open Call: Redesign Democracy - Reimagine Voting; graphic design: Konrad Renner

Redesign Democracy – competition for the ballot box of the democratic future

As part of the research project Redesigning Democratic Representation (Re·De·Re), the HFBK Hamburg is organizing a competition for the redesign of ballot boxes and the voting process on the occasion of the 2025 Bundestag elections. What could the ballot boxes of the future look like? All information on the competition and the project can be found here.

Park Ficiton, Palmen Feliz Nedra, 2003; photo: Margit Czenki/Park Fiction

Art in public space

What is public space? Where does it begin or end? What understanding of the public sphere is it based on? The current issue of Lerchenfeld magazine sheds light on these and other questions

Blick in die von Nadine Droste kuratierte Ausstellung von Master-Studierenden im ICAT der HFBK Hamburg zur Jahresausstellung 2024 (im Vordergrund die Arbeit von Paula Hoffmann und Laura Mahnke); photo: Lukes Engelhardt

How to apply: study at HFBK Hamburg

The application period for studying at the HFBK Hamburg runs from 4 February to 5 March 2025, 4 p.m. All important information can be found here.

Many people stand in front of a wall with portrait photographs

Work by Atu Gelovani at the opening of the Annual Exhibition 2025 at HFBK Hamburg; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

Annual Exhibition 2025 at the HFBK Hamburg

From February 14-16, 2025 (daily 2-8 pm) the students of HFBK Hamburg present their artistic productions from the past year. In addition, the exhibition »Fragile Uncertainties« curated by Nadja Quante, as well as the presentation of exchange students from Goldsmiths, University of London, can be seen at ICAT.

A sculpture of a small elephant that functions as a climbing frame in a park in Hamburg

Der Elefant im (öffentlichen) Raum Hamburg

The Elephant in The Room – Sculpture today

The two-day symposium on December 2 and 3, 2024, is dedicated to current issues and developments in the field of sculpture. It will be accompanied by an exhibition at the HFBK Hamburg's ICAT.

Exhibition view on the occasion of Hiscox Art Prize 2024; photo: Tim Albrecht

Hiscox Art Prize 2024

The HFBK Hamburg cordially invites to the award ceremony of the Hiscox Art Prize 2024 and to the opening of the exhibition with the nominated artists.

The cinema in the new film house, Finkenau 42; photo: Tim Albrecht

Opening of the 2024/25 semester centred on the new film house

After six decades of outstanding film education at the HFBK Hamburg, we will celebrate the opening of the new film house on Wednesday, October 16, 2024 with the start of the academic year. We will also introduce the new professors and welcome the new students.

"The New Woman - How Female Artists and Designers shaped the Image of Modernism", graphic by Liudmila Savelyeva, Karla Krey, Amira Mostafa (Klasse Digitale Grafik)

The New Woman

The exhibition "The New Woman - How Female Artists and Designers Shaped the Image of Modernism" presents more than 50 works by 14 selected female artists and designers who studied at the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg, the predecessor institution of the HFBK, from 1907 onwards. At a time when women were still denied access to many other art academies.

Detail: Installation by Mark Morris; photo: Tim Albrecht

Graduate Show 2024 - Letting Go

From 12 to 14 July 2024 (2 - 8 p.m.), more than 160 graduates from the 2023/24 academic year will be showing their final artistic works in a comprehensive exhibition at the HFBK Hamburg. In addition, all graduation films will be presented in the new cinema hall of the Filmhaus at Finkenau 42 as part of Final Cut.

Julia Scher, Territorium, 2024, installationview at ICAT of HFBK Hamburg; photo: Tim Albrecht

Finkenwerder Art Prize 2024

The US artist Julia Scher will receive the Finkenwerder Art Prize 2024, while Anna Stüdeli, who studied sculpture at the HFBK Hamburg, will be honoured with the Finkenwerder Grant from the HFBK.

Archives of the Body - The Body in Archiving

With a symposium, an exhibition, a film programme and a digital publication, the research project conceived by Prof. Hanne Loreck and Vanessa Gravenor examines the "archive" as a form of order with regard to the human body. Which body archives and discourses have become established? What potentials for political-aesthetic resistance and activism could and can emerge?

Sharon Poliakine, Untitled, 2023, oil on canvas, detail

New partnership with the School of Arts at the University of Haifa

On the occasion of a new partnership with the School of Arts at the University of Haifa, the HFBK Hamburg is presenting an exhibition by the artists Birgit Brandis, Sharon Poliakine and HFBK students.

Work by Franziska Koepsel at Annual Exhibition 2024; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

Annual Exhibition 2024 at the HFBK Hamburg

From February 9 -11, 2024 (daily 2-8 pm) the students of HFBK Hamburg present their artistic productions from the past year. In addition, the exhibition »Think & Feel! Speak & Act!« curated by Nadine Droste, as well as the presentation of exchange students from Goldsmiths, University of London, can be seen at ICAT.

photo: Tim Albrecht

(Ex)Changes of / in Art

There's a lot going on at the HFBK Hamburg at the end of the year: exhibitions at ICAT, the ASA students' Open Studios in Karolinenstraße, performances in the Extended Library and lectures in the Aula Wartenau.

Extended Libraries

Knowledge is now accessible from anywhere, at any time. In such a scenario, what role(s) can libraries still play? How can they support not only as knowledge archives but also as facilitators of artistic knowledge production? As an example, we present library projects by students and alumni, as well as our new knowledge space: the Extended Library.

And Still I Rise

For over 20 years, US artist Rajkamal Kahlon has been interested in the connections between aesthetics and power, which are organized across historical and geographical boundaries, primarily through violence. With this solo exhibition, the HFBK Hamburg presents the versatile work of the professor of painting and drawing to the Hamburg art public for the first time.

Let's talk about language

There are currently around 350 international students studying at the HFBK Hamburg, who speak 55 different languages - at least these are the official languages of their countries of origin. A quarter of the teaching staff have an international background. And the trend is rising. But how do we deal productively with the multilingualism of university members in everyday life? What ways of communication can be found? The current Lerchenfeld issue looks at creative solutions for dealing with multilingualism and lets numerous former international students have their say.

photo: Miriam Schmidt / HFBK

Graduate Show 2023: Unfinished Business

From July 13 to 16, 2023, 165 Bachelor's and Master's graduates of the class of 2022/23 will present their final projects from all areas of study. Under the title Final Cut, all graduation films will be shown on a big screen in the auditorium of the HFBK Hamburg.

A disguised man with sunglasses holds a star-shaped sign for the camera. It says "Suckle". The picture is taken in black and white.

photo: Honey-Suckle Company

Let`s work together

Collectives are booming in the art world. And they have been for several decades. For the start of the summer semester 2023, the new issue of the Lerchenfeld Magazine is dedicated to the topic of collective practice in art, presents selected collectives, and also explores the dangers and problems of collective working.

Jahresausstellung 2023, Arbeit von Toni Mosebach / Nora Strömer; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

Annual Exhibition 2023 at HFBK Hamburg

From February 10-12, students from all departments will present their artistic works at Lerchenfeld 2, Wartenau 15 and AtelierHaus, Lerchenfeld 2a. At ICAT, Tobias Peper, Artistic Director of the Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, curates an exhibition with HFBK master students. Also 10 exchange students from Goldsmiths, University of London will show their work there.

Symposium: Controversy over documenta fifteen

With this symposium on documenta fifteen on the 1st and 2nd of February, the HFBK Hamburg aims to analyze the background and context, foster dialogue between different viewpoints, and enable a debate that explicitly addresses anti-Semitism in the field of art. The symposium offers space for divergent positions and aims to open up perspectives for the present and future of exhibition making.

Non-Knowledge, Laughter and the Moving Image, Grafik: Leon Lothschütz

Festival and Symposium: Non-Knowledge, Laughter and the Moving Image

As the final part of the artistic research project, the festival and symposium invite you to screenings, performances, talks, and discussions that explore the potential of the moving images and the (human and non-human) body to overturn our habitual course and change the dominant order of things.

Solo exhibition by Konstantin Grcic

From September 29 to October 23, 2022, Konstantin Grcic (Professor of Industrial Design) will be showing a room-sized installation at ICAT - Institute for Contemporary Art & Transfer at the HFBK Hamburg consisting of objects designed by him and existing, newly assembled objects. At the same time, the space he designed for workshops, seminars and office workstations in the AtelierHaus will be put into operation.

Amna Elhassan, Tea Lady, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

Art and war

"Every artist is a human being". This statement by Martin Kippenberger, which is as true as it is existentialist (in an ironic rephrasing of the well-known Beuys quote), gets to the heart of the matter in many ways. On the one hand, it reminds us not to look away, to be (artistically) active and to raise our voices. At the same time, it is an exhortation to help those who are in need. And that is a lot of people at the moment, among them many artists. That is why it is important for art institutions to discuss not only art, but also politics.

Merlin Reichert, Die Alltäglichkeit des Untergangs, Installation in der Galerie der HFBK; photo: Tim Albrecht

Graduate Show 2022: We’ve Only Just Begun

From July 8 to 10, 2022, more than 160 Bachelor’s and Master’s graduates of the class of 2021/22 will present their final projects from all majors. Under the title Final Cut, all graduation films will be shown on a big screen in the auditorium of the HFBK Hamburg. At the same time, the exhibition of the Sudanese guest lecturer Amna Elhassan can be seen in the HFBK gallery in the Atelierhaus.

Grafik: Nele Willert, Dennise Salinas

June is full of art and theory

It has been a long time since there has been so much on offer: a three-day congress on the visuality of the Internet brings together international web designers; the research collective freethought discusses the role of infrastructures; and the symposium marking the farewell of professor Michaela Ott takes up central questions of her research work.

Renée Green. ED/HF, 2017. Film still. Courtesy of the artist, Free Agent Media, Bortolami Gallery, New York, and Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne/Munich.

Finkenwerder Art Prize 2022

The Finkenwerder Art Prize, initiated in 1999 by the Kulturkreis Finkenwerder e.V., has undergone a realignment: As a new partner, the HFBK Hamburg is expanding the prize to include the aspect of promoting young artists and, starting in 2022, will host the exhibition of the award winners in the HFBK Gallery. This year's Finkenwerder Art Prize will be awarded to the US artist Renée Green. HFBK graduate Frieda Toranzo Jaeger receives the Finkenwerder Art Prize for recent graduates.

Amanda F. Koch-Nielsen, Motherslugger; photo: Lukas Engelhardt

Nachhaltigkeit im Kontext von Kunst und Kunsthochschule

Im Bewusstsein einer ausstehenden fundamentalen gesellschaftlichen Transformation und der nicht unwesentlichen Schrittmacherfunktion, die einem Ort der künstlerischen Forschung und Produktion hierbei womöglich zukommt, hat sich die HFBK Hamburg auf den Weg gemacht, das Thema strategisch wie konkret pragmatisch für die Hochschule zu entwickeln. Denn wer, wenn nicht die Künstler*innen sind in ihrer täglichen Arbeit damit befasst, das Gegebene zu hinterfragen, genau hinzuschauen, neue Möglichkeiten, wie die Welt sein könnte, zu erkennen und durchzuspielen, einem anderen Wissen Gestalt zu geben

New studio in the row of houses at Lerchenfeld, in the background the building of Fritz Schumacher; photo: Tim Albrecht

Raum für die Kunst

After more than 40 years of intensive effort, a long-cherished dream is becoming reality for the HFBK Hamburg. With the newly opened studio building, the main areas of study Painting/Drawing, Sculpture and Time-Related Media will finally have the urgently needed studio space for Master's students. It simply needs space for their own ideas, for thinking, for art production, exhibitions and as a depot.

Martha Szymkowiak / Emilia Bongilaj, Installation “Mmh”; photo: Tim Albrecht

Annual Exhibition 2022 at the HFBK

After last year's digital edition, the 2022 annual exhibition at the HFBK Hamburg will once again take place with an audience. From 11-13 February, students from all departments will present their artistic work in the building at Lerchenfeld, Wartenau 15 and the newly opened Atelierhaus.

Annette Wehrmann, photography from the series Blumensprengungen, 1991-95; photo: Ort des Gegen e.V., VG-Bild Kunst Bonn

Conference: Counter-Monuments and Para-Monuments.

The international conference at HFBK Hamburg on December 2-4, 2021 – jointly conceived by Nora Sternfeld and Michaela Melián –, is dedicated to the history of artistic counter-monuments and forms of protest, discusses aesthetics of memory and historical manifestations in public space, and asks about para-monuments for the present.

23 Fragen des Institutional Questionaire, grafisch umgesetzt von Ran Altamirano auf den Türgläsern der HFBK Hamburg zur Jahresausstellung 2021; photo: Charlotte Spiegelfeld

Diversity

Who speaks? Who paints which motif? Who is shown, who is not? Questions of identity politics play an important role in art and thus also at the HFBK Hamburg. In the current issue, the university's own Lerchenfeld magazine highlights university structures as well as student initiatives that deal with diversity and identity.

ASA Open Studio 2019, Karolinenstraße 2a, Haus 5; photo: Matthew Muir

Live und in Farbe: die ASA Open Studios im Juni 2021

Since 2010, the HFBK has organised the international exchange programme Art School Alliance. It enables HFBK students to spend a semester abroad at renowned partner universities and, vice versa, invites international art students to the HFBK. At the end of their stay in Hamburg, the students exhibit their work in the Open Studios in Karolinenstraße, which are now open again to the art-interested public.

Studiengruppe Prof. Dr. Anja Steidinger, Was animiert uns?, 2021, Mediathek der HFBK Hamburg, Filmstill

Unlearning: Wartenau Assemblies

The art education professors Nora Sternfeld and Anja Steidinger initiated the format "Wartenau Assemblies". It oscillates between art, education, research and activism. Complementing this open space for action, there is now a dedicated website that accompanies the discourses, conversations and events.

Ausstellungsansicht "Schule der Folgenlosigkeit. Übungen für ein anderes Leben" im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; photo: Maximilian Schwarzmann

School of No Consequences

Everyone is talking about consequences: The consequences of climate change, the Corona pandemic or digitalization. Friedrich von Borries (professor of design theory), on the other hand, is dedicated to consequence-free design. In “School of No Consequences. Exercises for a New Life” at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, he links collection objects with a "self-learning room" set up especially for the exhibition in such a way that a new perspective on "sustainability" emerges and supposedly universally valid ideas of a "proper life" are questioned.

Annual Exhibition 2021 at the HFBK

Annual exhibition a bit different: From February 12- 14, 2021 students at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, together with their professors, had developed a variety of presentations on different communication channels. The formats ranged from streamed live performances to video programs, radio broadcasts, a telephone hotline, online conferences, and a web store for editions. In addition, isolated interventions could be discovered in the outdoor space of the HFBK and in the city.

Katja Pilipenko

Semestereröffnung und Hiscox-Preisverleihung 2020

On the evening of November 4, the HFBK celebrated the opening of the academic year 2020/21 as well as the awarding of the Hiscox Art Prize in a livestream - offline with enough distance and yet together online.

Exhibition Transparencies with works by Elena Crijnen, Annika Faescke, Svenja Frank, Francis Kussatz, Anne Meerpohl, Elisa Nessler, Julia Nordholz, Florentine Pahl, Cristina Rüesch, Janka Schubert, Wiebke Schwarzhans, Rosa Thiemer, Lea van Hall. Organized by Prof. Verena Issel and Fabian Hesse; photo: Screenshot

Teaching Art Online at the HFBK

How the university brings together its artistic interdisciplinary study structure with digital formats and their possibilities.

Alltagsrealität oder Klischee?; photo: Tim Albrecht

HFBK Graduate Survey

Studying art - and what comes next? The clichéd images stand their ground: Those who have studied art either become taxi drivers, work in a bar or marry rich. But only very few people could really live from art – especially in times of global crises. The HFBK Hamburg wanted to know more about this and commissioned the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Hamburg to conduct a broad-based survey of its graduates from the last 15 years.

Ausstellung Social Design, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Teilansicht; photo: MKG Hamburg

How political is Social Design?

Social Design, as its own claim is often formulated, wants to address social grievances and ideally change them. Therefore, it sees itself as critical of society – and at the same time optimizes the existing. So what is the political dimension of Social Design – is it a motor for change or does it contribute to stabilizing and normalizing existing injustices?