Martin Leibinger

I am an artist, curator, designer and researcher who works in the field of socially engaged, participatory and public art. I was trained in qualitative research and worked as research assistant for University of Montana in the United States (2021) and for Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (2022). In 2010, I received the Master of Fine Arts degree in “Public Arts and New Artistic Strategies” at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, and in 2020, I returned to Bauhaus-University to work on the dissertation ‘Being present without being there – Virtual collaboration in socially engaged and public art’.

I often combine qualitative research with artistic and curatorial practice. An example is the project “International Embassy” that took place in Ulm in 2018. The project was a temporary architecture and a boundary space that treated the topic of participation of citizens with international background in the city society. In collaboration with a community artist, the city administration, its civic partners and an IT-collective, the project served as social hub, artistic intervention and as qualitative research instrument for the city administration. Furthermore, I used curatorial practice in combination with qualitative research in the field of socially engaged art. Examples are the “Garage” Community exhibition project in Missoula, Montana, United States and the “Public Arts Garage” teaching collaboration under the umbrella of the international Graduate School Creative Approaches to Public Space (GS-CAPS) at Rennes 2 University, that also included staff and students from Queen’s University Belfast, Bauhaus University Weimar, University of Cork, Concordia University and University of Barcelona.

Publication on the Public Arts Garage teaching collaboration

Leibinger, Martin and Alexandra Toland (2023). Facilitating international transdisciplinary collaboration in a virtual academic exchange project. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd) 2023 (pp. 221–228.). Universitat Politècnica de València. DOI: 10.4995/HEAd23.2023.16276.
Experimental workshops/research
2023, “Public Arts Garage”, workshop exploring relation of body and Public Space, CAPS Summer School, Rennes.

2022, “What’s your Game”, experimental, hybrid lab on playful exploration of public space (in collaboration with Noel B. Salazar (KU Leuven), Maruška Svašek (Queen's University Belfast), Eva Urban-Devereux (Queen's University Belfast), Martin Leibinger (Bauhaus-University Weimar), Raphael Schapira (Maria Sibylla Merian Centre São Paulo), Eilis Lanclus (KU Leuven), EASA conference, Belfast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJeGPoCkLt8)

2022, “Hanging-Out-On-Street-View”, experimental exploration of online space with Maruška Svašek, Queen’s University Belfast.

2021, “Garage – Community Art Project”, curatorial project and research on international virtual collaboration in socially engaged and public art, Missoula Montana. http://garage-missoula.com)

2020, “Being present without being there”, research on collaboration across social worlds and audience reception in socially engaged art as part of dissertation thesis, Manifesta biennial, Marseille.

2018: “International Embassy”, citizen dialogue, community art project and research study on participation of citizens with international background, Ulm. www.martin-leibinger.com)
Artistic Interventions
2014 – 2015: Urban intervention, exploring public space through, body and object, teaching project, Aicher-Scholl-Kolleg, Ulm.

2007 – 2012, artistic interventions in public space, using ethnographic methods and encouraging encounter and dialogue in public space, e.g. “Auszeit”, Weimar; “Public Kitchen”, “Oxford Bench Conference”, Oxford; “Vario Leutzsch”, Leipzig.
Recent Teaching/Curatorial Collaboration
2022, “Public Arts Garage”, international virtual teaching collaboration (co-initiator and coordinator, teacher) and research on virtual group work. https://pag2022.uni-weimar.de

2022 Virtual Tinkering exhibition, Queen’s University Belfast, an interdisciplinary collaboration between postgraduate students from anthropology, visual art, drama, dance, sonic arts, literature, design, history, art history and film studies, co-curated with Maruška Svašek.
Selection of Collaborative Projects

Internationale Botschaft (International Embassy), Ulm, 2018. Transdisciplinary project about the participation of international citizens in the urban community in collaboration with the community artist Carly Schmitt, the IT-collective Widerstand und Söhne and the city administration of Ulm. Photo: Nadja Wollinsky

Kusha, Ulm, 2018. Action in public space with Rafram Chaddad. Photo: Martin Leibinger

Alles Muss Raus, exhibition project with interventions in public spaces, Ulm 2017. Installation for reusing neglected infrastructure by Nicolas Vionnet and Wouter Sibum in collaboration with Joe Rocher and Sebastian Neubig, Museum Ulm and city administration, Foto: Nadja Wollinsky

Cafe Beirut, exhibition project and open space for meeting and encounters with art and contemporary culture in the Middle East, Ulm, 2016. Performance Palmystery with Wafa Hourani, the Tattoo crew No Pain No Gain and the hackerspace Verschwörhaus. Foto: Katrin Häckert

Research on reception of art in social context in the frame of Manifesta 13, in a residential high-rise building. 2020. Photo: Aziz Boumediene