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Mark
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I understand teaching as a space for empowerment - in which students are encouraged to develop artistic autonomy through critical negotiation, shared inquiry, and a willingness to embrace transformation and friction as part of the artistic process.

My pedagogical approach is informed by Sternfeld’s concept of learning, drawing on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s notion of unlearning, which understands education as a critical undoing of hegemonic structures rather than the reproduction of knowledge. Further key references include bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress and Achille Mbembe’s concept of a planetary curriculum. I actively work with feedback as an artistic tool and have developed an adapted version of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process that integrates associative and experimental elements. I incorporate somatic methods that link theory- and body-based knowledge, that critically question Western traditions of knowledge production.

My teaching often begins with a question: What (political) issue is important for you right now? I want to create a space that is not about my agenda, but about the students passion and learning process. An inquiry into the political, social, or aesthetic questions that currently preoccupy the students. From there, theory is introduced as a tool that is situated, necessary, and in dialogue with practice. I understand teaching as a process of working that supports students on structural, economic, and methodological questions that shape artistic production. In practical terms, this includes opening my professional networks and creating concrete platforms for visibility and exchange, such as initiating student exhibitions and projects outside the university framework. 



WORKSHOP / COURSE FORMATS
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COLLECTIVE BODIES

Workshop, seminar / facilitated at: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Shedhalle Zurich, Kunsthalle Baden Baden, Galerie Wedding Berlin, Danseatelier Copenhagen, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, amongst others.
Various durations: one semester, five days, two hours

This workshop series focuses on performative collective strategies historically and in the present, public intervention and on the question through which embodied experiences a community can form. The workshop overviews my research and compares the performative strategies of: dance groups such as the Katherine Dunham Company; art collectives such as Guerilla Girls, and the structural approach of projects like Silent University and will provide an analysis of the methodologies of performative collective strategies, such as: costume/anonymity/uniform, collective empathy, common objectives, collaborative actions like singing in a choir. The group engages with these methodologies, embodies them and prepares for an intervention in public space to experience the strength and perils of anonymity, communal bodies and collective identity. The workshop intervenes with daily conventions of moving and witnessing, integrating sensitivity, collectivity and playfulness into the public space.


Academy of Fine Arts Vienna 2019, University of Applied Arts and Sciences Lucerne 2025, Galerie  


Wedding Berlin 2021 and Shedhalle Zürich 2020.



SEND ME A TEXT  

Seminar / project with students of Städelschule Frankfurt 2023, department for curatorial studies / one semester

In the fall semester of 2023 the students of Städelschule Frankfurt were invited to send their writings, manifestos and poems to the students of curatorial studies. In the course the students of curatorial studies curated a publication with all the submissions. Each submission was accompanied by a simple score, such as “change your body position before listening to this poem” in the book. During Rundgang 2024 we read them together with the audience in a collective listening- reading- session.

Städelschule Franfurt, 2023. 



pIAR x K++V

Seminar / project with students of the University of applied Arts and Sciences Lucerne, 2024/2025
BA Fine Arts and Mediation / two semesters

In this class the students created a program at the nGbK Berlin and at Shedhalle Zurich. Each student worked on their presentation accompanied by collective feedback sessions, presentation method classes and exchange sessions with the Ghanaian artist residency pIAR. The project not only empowered the students to present their work at external international institutions but also integrated decolonial perspectives into artistic structures, within modes of collaboration and production - the project engaged students in a critical encounter with the Ghanaian context.

nGbK Berlin 2025



QUEERING ORIENTATIONS

Workshop / facilitated at: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, SALWA Foundation Amsterdam, Fort. Biennale, Free University Bozen, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, amongst others. / 3-6 hours

Queering Orientations is a workshop combining theoretical and movement practice to explore how we orient ourselves beyond linear, A-to-B thinking. "Queer" here extends beyond sexual orientation to embrace lateral, intuitive, and tentacle-like ways of researching.
Drawing on Sara Ahmed's queer phenomenology, Hito Steyerl's "free fall" (a state without fixed ideological ground), and Anzaldúa's Borderlands as in-between space, the workshop uses embodied exercises to inhabit these perspectives. Texts and methodology are adapted to context and group.

Red Clay Studios, Tamale Ghana 2022



BODY ++ TEXT ++ STUDIO PRACTICE

Workshop, seminar / Facilitated at Fluent PRAXIS Research school and pIAR Ghana / Duration: 5 days to one semester

This class focuses on connecting text and body with tools that link theory-based, body-based knowledge and poetry. What are the traditions of western knowledge production in universities in Europe? In the beginning of this course, we alternate between continuous reading, moving and writing, giving each task the same amount of time. In this circular mode of training, we read Constance Classen’s “The deepest sense”, in which she investigates the role of the senses in European middle-ages before the enlightenment and the following emphasis on text and cognitive knowledge production. We continue with poets such as Bhanu Kapil and Kamau Brathwaite, in various modes and positions of reading and listening and learn about the idea of an embodied writing practice. After this introduction block the students bring texts or materials such as images, to research about a topic they want to work with in their practice and apply the circular training method. The idea is to share tools that students can use to structure their studio practice when initiating a new project.



TOOLS FOR IMAGE COMPOSITION

Workshop, seminar / Facilitated at University of applied Arts and Sciences Lucerne 2024 and LaCollectiz! 2019 / 5 days
The class follows a basic structure of three steps: input, improvisation/composition and reflection.

Students are invited to bring their own materials: objects, fabrics, images, or anything relevant in their work. We start by getting to know these materials from multiple perspectives: through touch, improvisation, conversation, and by situating them within broader theoretical, historical, or socio-economic contexts. The idea is to approach materials not as neutral tools, but to examine and investigate them. From there, students move into modes of improvisation and collaboration, practicing methods of composition and image-making using their bodies alongside the materials. The improvisation expands across different mediums and surfaces, individually and collectively. The reflection process facilitates a deeper understanding of each student's individual positioning within their respective referential aesthetic systems.

University of Applied Arts and Sciences Lucerne, 2024



PRACTICE COLLECTIVE MEDDLING

How to intervene when witnessing sexual and racial discrimination in public space? The workshop aims to prepare its participants to meddle in and become an ally in delicate situations.

In Muay Thai box training the practitioner first learns the technique by repetition to exert it later in the fight. It is an effective way to embody an action and internalize it. In the workshop we will not practice martial arts, but we will internalize actions like filming quickly with a phone camera, memorize details fast and practice different linguistic strategies when approaching a stranger, abuser or victim. The workshop not only gives space to learn analytical methods to deal with highly emotional situations but also to share and discuss personal narratives and experiences.

Accessible for persons with restricted mobility.
Mark