Sen.Sct. Dr.phil.
Sarah Kolb
Art historian and theorist, philosopher, curator
Department of Art History and Art Theory
University of Art and Design Linz, Austria
Based in Vienna, Austria
Sarah Kolb is an art scientist and curator based in Vienna and Linz. She is a founding member of Mycelial Space and of Viktoria – Space for Artistic Research and Social Design in Vienna. With her ongoing research project Topologies of Artistic Research. Relational Knowledge in Art and Theory, she is FWF Elise Richter Senior Fellow at the University of Art and Design in Linz. Before she was Visiting Professor of 20th century art history at the University of Salzburg, research associate at the University of Art and Design Linz and lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Within her PhD project The Aesthetics of Transformation. Image Topology after Henri Bergson and Marcel Duchamp, she was fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies Vienna, at the Research Center for Media and Cultural Communication in Cologne and at the Duchamp Research Center of the Schwerin State Museum. Together with Anne von der Heiden, Sarah Kolb has been conducting a comprehensive research project on Roger Caillois’ »diagonal sciences« since 2011. Beyond that, she was curator at the Vienna Secession and research associate at the Documentation Centre for Contemporary Art basis wien.
Field of research | Area of activity
Art history & art theory of the 20th and 21st centuries, artistic research, philosophy of science, transdisciplinary studies
Keywords related to mycelial space
Topologies, transversal paths of nature, vibrant matter, relational knowledge, aesthetics of transformation, socially engaged art, practices of share & care
Related projects
Topologies of Artistic Research. Relational Knowledge in Art and Theory, FWF Elise Richter Project N° V 813-G, AUT
Mycelial Space (founding member)
Selected publications
Ästhetik der Transformation. Bildtopologie nach Henri Bergson und Marcel Duchamp, Bielefeld 2023 (upcoming)
Logik des Imaginären. Diagonale Wissenschaft nach Roger Caillois, ed. with Anne von der Heiden, Vol. 1: Versuchungen durch Natur, Kultur und Imagination, Berlin 2018, Vol. 2: Spiel/Raum/Kunst/Theorie, Berlin 2022 (upcoming)
»Dizziness as Method. Caillois and the Lure of Material Space«, in: Dizziness – A Resource, eds. Ruth Anderwald et al., New York/Berlin 2019, 138–145
»There is no progress, change is all we know.« Notes on Duchamp’s Concept of Plastic Duration, in: The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics (06/2019), 87–108