PhD defence | Jürgen Bock – Maumaus: An (Auto)Biography of an Organisation

Through the lens of the history of Maumaus, an art institution in Lisbon dedicated to education, curation and production, my aim is to come to a greater understanding of how art and arts education – with their inherent critiques – have shifted over the last 25 years. 

My research aims to explore to what extent the history of Maumaus can be considered to mirror developments in the wider art world from the 1990s onwards. The project considers whether Maumaus has been able to provide an alternative to an increasingly accelerated world of ‘cultural industries’ or may paradoxically be understood as an institution that has enabled the system it opposes. I consider the specific socioeconomic and political circumstances under which Maumaus has been able to develop, and what such circumstances – encountered and recognised or consciously created – have in turn both enabled and disabled. 

The PhD is based on a reflexive analytical approach to achieve an in-depth understanding of today’s phenomena within what seems to be an increasingly professional art world that functions under dictates of performance indicators and productivity, based on instrumentalised modes of enquiry and experimentation.

Supervisor: Andreas Broeckmann
Opponent: Professor Mikkel Bogh
Grading committee: Professor Anna Houmann, Professor Gregor Langfeld and Professor Niclas Östlind (reserve: Professor Sven Bjerstedt)

Link for digital participation, Passcode: 798115

Jürgen Bocks profile in Lund University Research Portal