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DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies Imaginaria of Force

Photo: Creative Commons/YaYapas

Dr. Hana Gründler

 

Curriculum

Hana Gründler is Head of the permanent and independent Research Group “Ethico-Aesthetics of the Visual” since 2017. Her research areas include the intersections of philosophy and art (history), extending from the early modern period to the present time, with a special focus on the relationship between visuality, ethics, and politics. Hana Gründler was a Visiting Professor for “Late Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy” at the Freie Universität Berlin (Fall 2018–2019) and for “Modern Art History” at the University of Vienna (Spring 2022). In April 2025 she was a Guest Professor at the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici at the University of Urbino, with a focus on early modern philosophy. Hana Gründler is a member of the editorial team of the “Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte” (since February 2020) and a member of the advisory board of the “Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie” (since September 2024). Together with the Stuttgart Research Center for Text Studies, her research group is co-editing the “Zeitsprünge. Studies in Early Modern History, Culture and Science“ (since January 2025).

Publications (selection)

  • Ästhetiken der Freiheit. Inoffizielle Kunst und Philosophie in Prag 1948–1989 (to be published in September 2026).
  • Eastern Underground, Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte, 21/2 (2024) (with Jörg Völlnagel).
  • „(In-)Visible Actions – Disruptive Practices. Art and Philosophy in the ČSSR,“ in: Journal for Social and Political Philosophy, 1 (2024), pp. 67–84.
  • Leon Battista Alberti: Über die Seelenruhe oder Vom Vermeiden des Leidens in Drei Büchern, ed., introduced, and annotated by Hana Gründler, Berlin 2022 (with Katharine Stahlbuhk and Giulia Baldelli).
  • „Moral des Blicks oder Ethiken des Sehens?“, in: 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual. Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte und visuellen Kultur, 3/2 (2022), pp. 311–341.
  • Die Dunkelheit der Episteme. Zur Kunst des aufmerksamen Sehens, Berlin 2019.

Research project: Small Gestures, Weak Forces: Aesthetics of the Underground in the ČSSR 1968–1989

What forms can protest and resistance take under totalitarian regimes? And what role do small gestures play in this context, particularly those that occur on the fringes of visibility? Drawing on artistic practices and philosophical positions from the so-called ‘parallel culture’ of the ČSSR, the project traces the multifaceted ‘aesthetics of the underground’ and examines the impact of micro-ethical and micro-political interventions. It is precisely the performances in strictly monitored public spaces characterised by subtle interventions and deviations—such as the deliberate artistic enactment of inactivity—that complicate the question of when art is ‘political’. At the same time, the (philosophical) critique of utopias as well as of rhetorics of power and violence—which underestimate the transformative potential of ‘small-scale work’ (T.G. Masaryk) and the force of the ethical posture of individuals—enables one to question the often heroic narratives of activism. As will be shown, Czechoslovakian counterculture thus made significant, yet mostly only marginally recognised, contributions to the practice and theory of (social) responsibility and non-violent resistance. Following the underground philosopher Petr Rezek, it will also be necessary to take a critical look at the mystifications of ‘apolitical politics’ and the staging of non-violence, and to ask to what extent this can lead to an aesthetics and ‘politics of kitsch’ (Rezek 1988) that aims less at concrete actions than at emotionalization.