Foto: Isotta Giulia Acquati
Annika Turkowski
Annika Turkowski is an art historian and freelance curator. After studying at the University of Hamburg, the Humboldt University Berlin and Central Saint Martins in London (University of the Arts), she worked for several years in art publishing, including for the exhibition, design and publishing collective Archive Books and the art book distribution Vice Versa Art Books. In 2016 she founded the non-profit association CUCO – curatorial concepts berlin together with Katherina Perlongo and Hanna Dölle. The curatorial collective realizes exhibitions with a focus on contemporary photography and video art in collaboration with different institutions (e.g. Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin; KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin).
Since early 2020, Annika Turkowski has been the project director of Christoph Schlingensief’s Operndorf Afrika. She plans and organizes art and educational projects with African and non-African artists and is particularly interested in a reciprocal creative exchange between the continents.
As a cultural historian and practicing curator, interdisciplinary and intracultural discourses in contemporary photography are at the forefront of her work and teaching. In her lectures and seminars, she discusses image theories of the early 20th century, such as the Mnemonsyne Atlas by art historian Aby Warburg, important historical movements in modern and post-modern photography, and questions about visual representation politics in contemporary photography. Reading and discussions are at the centre of her classes, confronting students with both classical and current photographic theories and artistic positions.