What is Christina Scheib actually doing?

In our ‘What are you actually doing…?’ section, members of the university community talk about their work.

The University of the Arts (HfK) Bremen is expanding into the city. It is establishing a presence right in the city centre with the exhibition vessel ‘Dauerwelle’ and strengthening its presence in Überseestadt with the opening of Speicher XI A – a new building featuring individually configurable studios, workshops, storage and office spaces, as well as a flexible events and exhibition hall. To ensure that everything that could happen there actually does happen, Christina Scheib has now joined the HfK team – as curator for the new premises and as a liaison between the HfK’s activities and Bremen’s cultural scene. We spoke to her.

In the past, anyone who was simply an art historian, a theatre studies scholar or, as you put it, a cultural studies scholar, and who organised cultural events, would quickly be given the title of curator. But in the field of the visual arts, curatorial work has long since ceased to refer merely to the decoration of exhibition spaces with finished artworks. Nowadays, organising art – taking a much broader view of what art actually is – seems to have something artistic and performative about it itself; it is an aesthetic act in which the very function of curating is called into question. How do you see it?
I understand my curatorial work as a mediating practice that seeks to create a space for a dialogical engagement with the artistic works and the bodies involved in them. For me, therefore, contemporary exhibition practice involves a spatially-based interconnection between institutionally determined, political and social contexts.

What appeals to you about the new HfK venues?
Both spaces offer opportunities for dialogue and the exchange of ideas from within the university out into the neighbourhood and the city. Similarly, ideas from outside should also find their way into the university community.

The ship ‘Dauerwelle’, moored opposite the Schlachte and the Weserburg Museum, is both unconventional and extraordinary as a space for art. What do you think?
To me, the ‘Dauerwelle’ seems like a peculiar in-between space that speaks of repurposing, renaming and rebuilding. On the boundary between solid ground and the river, in a state of spatial ambiguity. Here, I also see parallels with a university – that moment between one’s studies and what comes afterwards, between bureaucratic constraints and spaces of freedom; we encounter many moments characterised by such an ‘in-between’ state. I find this ambiguous situation particularly interesting.

And what about Speicher XI A?
The new large hall at Speicher XI A has been designed as a multi-purpose space, and I’m very curious to see the transformations we’ll witness there in the future. Personally, I’ve already got a few ideas, and I hope that, as well as students from the Department of Art and Design, music students will also venture to explore this space creatively.

Have you had a chance to look around the Hanseatic city a bit yet?
My impression so far of Bremen’s art scene and the people I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting in person is that they’re very welcoming and cooperative. I’m looking forward to opportunities to collaborate and also simply to experience, as a visitor, the upcoming programme at the diverse exhibition venues, theatres and much more.

How does it feel for you to be taking on the role of curator at the HfK, particularly in these times of crisis?
Fortunately, we have the arts, which help us to make sense of things and keep going.