Open Call: anatomia publica – Open Stage for Scientific, Aesthetic, and Social Research Practices
September – December 2025
TA T – Tieranatomisches Theater, Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Deadline to apply: 20. July 2025
TA T’s new mediation program invites Berlin-based individuals, collectives, and knowledge communities to apply with projects in a research stage. The program fosters interdisciplinary dialogues and collaborations between scientific, artistic, and social research practices (with & beyond our academic environment).
In sharing the research process through the lens of historical dissection, the program opens new possibilities for the future of public engagement with research and knowledge production. Blurring the boundaries between production and presentation, anatomia publica rethinks how knowledge can be shared, critiqued, and transformed in public spaces in the moment of its unfolding.
#focusgroup #residency #incubator
APPLICANT'S PROFILE/S
We are looking for applicants with interdisciplinary research practices:
• Researchers from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities
• Artists, curators, knowledge producers working on scientific and social topics through interdisciplinary approaches
• Civic initiatives, connecting scientific and creative spheres
• Activists, using research and knowledge for social, political, or ecological change
PROGRAM CALENDAR
The program runs from September to December 2025. Participants will choose a two-month window during this period for their research stay. The 7 appointments will be scheduled approximately 1 per week during the two-month period, providing consistent feedback, networking opportunities and guidance throughout the program.
Please select your preferred two-month period:
• September – October
• October – November
• November – December
PROGRAM SUPPORT
Participants will have access to a variety of resources and support services, including:
•Research Fee: €2,000.00 (gross). Total fee per selected participant or group (groups are invited to to apply, but the total fee applies to the entire group).
•Consulting and Mentoring: 4 consulting sessions with the TA T team, offering feedback & support on:
> discourse, research methods and critical tools
> situated research, context relations and public engagement
> production, space dramaturgy and technical support
> project coordination, timeline and resources management
> public relations, community outreach and communication strategies
•Research Perspectives (Collaborations and networking with & beyond the University): TA T organises 1 knowledge exchange session with a member of the Humboldt extensive research community based on the participant’s research topic. If the participant is already part of the university, we will connect them with a practitioner, collective, or research community from the creative or civic sectors to foster reciprocal research collaboration. These exchanges aim to build sustainable relationships and contribute to creating a community of practice that bridges academic and non-academic fields.
•Shared Infrastructure: Access to TA T's exhibition and performance spaces, to support the public outreach of the research projects selected for anatomia publica. Meeting Rooms: Each participant will have access to a room at TA T for the duration of their two-month research stay for meetings and knowledge exchange. Basic technical equipment (monitor, projector, speakers) will be provided. A kitchenette is shared with other fellows at TA T. The use of TA T spaces must comply with our “care instructions” as our building is a protected monument.
•Public Event Production: Production support for organizing one co-designed public encounter/event with the TA T team. This event will activate the TA T spaces and present your research to a wider audience.
•Dissemination and Public Relations: The TA T team will assist with communication, public relations, and the dissemination of your event, integrating it into our institutional calendar, including events like Berlin Art Week and Berlin Science Week.
•Possibility for Co-financing & Co-Production Funds: Possibility of using the institutional connection to TA T to obtain additional funding or sponsors. A letter of support can be issued for application processes.
Listening & Feedback Circle for the Research Community in Berlin
Between September and December 2025, anatomia publica will organize a Listening & Feedback Circle parallel program, introducing an artistic method designed for transdisciplinary research communities to “listen to how we listen”. The circle will be moderated by artist, researcher, and radical pedagogue Siegmar Zacharias and is open to the participants as well as seven other Berlin-based research agents. The circle is structured in three sessions and focuses on practicing constructive critique as a cultural technique, with care at the center, exploring how feedback can be offered as a community service.
WHAT WE EXPECT FROM YOU
•Commitment: Active participation in 7 scheduled appointments, spaced roughly 1 per week during the two-month residency.
•Active Participation: Contribution to the collective exchange of knowledge, sharing feedback with other participants, and engaging in critical dialogue. Participation in the parallel Listening & Feedback Circle is not mandatory, but desired.
•Creation of Program Outputs: Collaboration on formats for public engagement, e.g., contributions to the social media campaign (#howtheworkworks) or a pedagogical booklet for children. These outputs are part of our focus on cultural techniques and foster public participation as well as interdisciplinary exchange.
•Activation of TA T Spaces: Co-designing a public event with the TA T team to present your research and facilitate knowledge exchange.
``anatomia publica allows a closer look at the 'anatomy of research' as a social event. It enters into a dialogue with this tradition of experimenting with forms of knowledge exchange and at the same time examines the challenges for the museums of the future.”
Engaging with the Institution’s History, situating knowledge
(Context as method)
anatomia publica is a mediation program curated by TA T - Tieranatomisches Theater, a research institution of the Center for Culture Techniques at Humboldt University Berlin, focused on the production, dissemination, and processing of knowledge.
The new programmatic focus of anatomia publica enters into a site-specific dialogue with the constructive imagination of the historic building that houses our institution: a “knowledge architecture” (Wissenstheater), blurring the boundaries between performance and everyday life. At the center of the building was an elevator that led from the preparation room to the anatomy theater, enabling a spectacular staging of the anatomy lecture. Supported by a spatial arrangement that highlights perspective, framing, and gaze, this former academy building for veterinary medicine and current monument was designed for a hybrid community of spectators and practitioners.
Anatomical theaters are spaces of knowledge, and with our program, we address a broader medical and cultural practice surrounding anatomical events with the dual function of a lecture and a theatrically staged, ritualized act. In these spaces, anatomists found a place to hold overview events for large audiences and demonstrate the anatomy of the human body in its entirety. In some cases, the focus was placed on the performative aspect of anatomia publica, interpreted as a “social event” and “anatomical spectacle”.
The diversity of audiences for these events is evidenced by the numerous invitations directed to a broad public, including doctors and surgeons, as well as painters, sculptors, butchers, seamstresses, and simply “all lovers of anatomy”. These invitations (originally in Latin) gave anatomical dissection a higher cultural and ethical significance, providing a strong justification for anatomia publica.
In this context, our newly aligned invitation to “all lovers of research” refers to the (fragile) gaps between production time and presentation time, understanding these as fertile ground to unfold streams of knowledge, channel inspiration, and explore the potential for affective exchange, as well as the shared use of materials between scientific and creative knowledge practices.
In line with the tradition of the Anatomical Theater, anatomia publica will focus on the dissection of knowledge—on how research is produced, framed, and presented.
anatomia publica is not merely a platform for presenting finished works, but a space for experimenting with the act and performativity of knowledge itself.
Curatorial approach & Vision
anatomia publica draws on a range of conceptual frameworks that shape its curatorial approach and vision. The program engages with the idea of curating as environmentalism, where the curator acts as a caretaker creating collaborative spaces for knowledge exchange that blur the boundaries between production and performance. It challenges the traditional roles of curators, emphasizing an open and dynamic process that invites collective participation. Additionally, the program is informed by Irit Rogoff’s work on deterritorializing knowledge, advocating for the dismantling of rigid academic structures in favor of more speculative, experimental thinking that engages with urgent contemporary issues. This aligns with the idea of resetting the academy, creating spaces where knowledge can evolve outside of predefined constraints. At the same time, anatomia publica draws on the notion of curatorial activism, focusing on the ethical responsibility of curators to disrupt hierarchies, amplify marginalized voices, and foster multi-vocality within institutions. Finally, the program embraces the concept of research communities, emphasizing the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration and shared modes of thought, where knowledge is co-produced through collective inquiry and curatorial work acts as a method of constructive cultural critique. These interconnected ideas aim to create a space where knowledge is constantly redefined, dissected, and exchanged across boundaries, inviting new perspectives and fostering a Community of Practice (CoP)beyond traditional academic structures.
References
• Ed. Shelley Ruth Buttler & Erica Lehrer (2016): Curatorial Dreams: Critics Imagine Exhibitions. McGuill-Queen’s University Press
• Annie Coombes: Engaging histories, Envisaging Futures. Vortrag während des Symposiums Exhibiting difficult histories - Humboldt Forum, Berlin 19.04.2024
• Julie Ellison (2013) ‘The New Public Humanists” Cambridge University Press, Vol. 128, No. 2 (March 2013)
• ed. Michael E. Gorman (2010): Trading Zones and Interactional Expertise: Creating New Kinds of Collaboration. MIT Press
• Bell Hooks: “Talking Back.” Discourse 8 (1986): 123–28. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44000276
• Maura Reilly (2018): Curatorial Activism, towards an ethics of curating. Thames & Hudson
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: “Righting wrongs”. In Aakash Singh & Silika Mohapatra, Indian political thought: a reader. New York: Routledge (2010)
• Elke Van Campenhout (2013)„Curating as Environmentalism.“ Bureau d’Espoir, Now Performing Arts Network (2016); Turn, Turtle! Reenacting The Institute. Berlin: Alexander Verlag, Oktober 2016. ISBN 978-3-89581-410-5.
Contact for questions & application support
Email: anatomiapublica.tat@hu-berlin.de
Contact for press & program collaborations:
Paz Ponce (she/her)
Curator of Public Programmes & Outreach
Tel: +49 30 2093 12863 (Mo, Mi, Fr; 11:00 - 17:30 Uhr)
E-Mail: paz.ponce@hu-berlin.de
Frederike Nolte (she/her)
Public Relations Assistant
Tel: +49 (0) 30 2093 12870 (Mo, Wed; 11h-13h)
Email: frederike.rebecca.nolte.1@hu-berlin.de
TA T - Tieranatomisches Theater
Zentrum für Kulturtechnik – Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Office: Gerlachbau/Haus 3, Philippstraße 13, 10115 Berlin
A program organised and supported by:
TA T - Tieranatomisches Theater
Zentrum für Kulturtechnik (ZfK) - Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
TA T Team
Felix Sattler: Head curator
Paz Ponce: Curator of Public Programmes & Outreach (Concept & curation: anatomia public)
Lilli Ebert: Project coordination
Caspar Pichner: Head of Production & scenography
Fanny Welz: Production assistance
Frederike Nolte: Assistance Communication
In Collaboration with Siegmar Zacharias
(Moderator Listening & Feedback Circle Parallelprogram)
Juliana Toro: Graphic Design
