Mariechen Danz and Andrea Grützner

The Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections (Kustodie) at TUD Dresden University of Technology presents two parallel exhibitions in the summer semester 2026: Circuits by Mariechen Danz and Rasenstücke (Grass Patches) by Andrea Grützner. Bringing together two distinct positions in contemporary art in Germany, the exhibitions foreground a specific institutional context: the entanglement of artistic practice, scientific research, and material teaching collections.

The Kustodie comprises more than forty teaching and research collections in the natural sciences and engineering, alongside the university’s art holdings. These include the Herbarium Dresdense, the dye collection, and historical electrotechnical apparatuses. Rather than functioning solely as repositories, these collections operate as infrastructures in which scientific, aesthetic, and cultural forms of knowledge intersect. The Kustodie’s work focuses on activating these holdings, situating them historically, and rearticulating them in relation to contemporary concerns.

Mariechen Danz’s Circuits (b. 1980, Dublin; lives and works in Berlin) unfolds across the University Gallery (Galerie der Kustodie im Görges-Bau), and Kunstverein Dresden. The exhibition brings together electrical circuits, technical devices, and physiological models—culminating in the Transparent Woman (Gläserne Frau) from the German Hygiene Museum Dresden—in a spatial arrangement that probes the relations between body, knowledge, and technology. Scientific models are translated into sculptural and installative forms that assert their own logic.

Andrea Grützner’s Rasenstücke / Erbgericht (b. 1984, Pirna; lives and works in Dresden) addresses, at the University Gallery (Galerie der Kustodie im Görges-Bau), sites shaped by layered histories of use and perception. Rasenstücke draws on botanical classification systems and visual traditions informed by collections, while Erbgericht, presented at exhibition space bautzner69 in Dresden, develops a photographic topography in which architecture, memory, and social space are reconfigured.

Initiated by the Kustodie, both projects examine how knowledge is inscribed in objects, images, bodies, and spaces—and how it can be rearticulated through artistic practice.

The Kustodie also serves as a platform for artistic research through initiatives such as the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden and the European S+T+ARTS Ec(h)o Residencies. In collaboration with researchers, artists develop process-based works that engage with technological, ecological, and social transformations.

Conceived by curator Gwendolin Kremer (Kustodie, TUD), the exhibitions position university collections as dynamic sites of encounter between art and science, where new forms of knowledge can emerge.

Mariechen Danz: Circuits
University Gallery (Galerie der Kustodie im Görges-Bau), TUD / Kunstverein Dresden
Through July 10, 2026

Andrea Grützner: Rasenstücke / Erbgericht
University Gallery (Galerie der Kustodie im Görges-Bau), TUD
Through June 26, 2026
Exhibition Space bautzner69, Dresden
Through June 13, 2026

Director: Kirsten Vincenz, Office for Academic Heritage (Kustodie), TUD Dresden University of Technology
Curatorial Head, University Gallery: Gwendolin Kremer, Office for Academic Heritage (Kustodie), TUD Dresden University of Technology
Exhibition Setup: Andreas Kempe, Office for Academic Heritage (Kustodie), TUD Dresden University of Technology