Hubertus von Amelunxen (born 29 December 1958, Bad Hindelang, Allgäu) is a philosopher, art historian, editor, curator, photography critic, and professor for philosophy of photography and cultural studies. Amelunxen has authored and published several books focusing on the history and theory of photography and has curated several international exhibitions. He served as president and provost at the European Graduate School, based in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta from October 2013 until June 2018.

Academic career

Hubertus von Amelunxen studied Roman languages, German Studies, and Art History in Marburg and Paris. In Paris he visited the lectures by Michel Foucault at the Collège de France and by Jacques Derrida at the École Normale Supérieure. He obtained his Ph.D. in Roman Studies at the University of Mannheim with the thesis ''Allegory and Photography. Research on French Literature''. Amelunxen started his academic career by lecturing in Basel on time and photography (1991). He became a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1991-1992), representing Victor Burgin. In 1995 he obtained a 5-year tenure at the Muthesius Hochschule for Art and Design in Kiel, where he founded the Center for Interdisciplinary Project Studies. Afterwards, in 2000, he taught at the University of Düsseldorf and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp). In 2001 he became founding director at the International School of New Media in Lübeck, a position he held until 2005. From 2005 to 2009 he served as rector of the École Européenne Supérieure de l'Image (ÉESI) in Angoulême/Poitiers, France. From 2010 to 2013 he served as president of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Braunschweig.

The European Graduate School (EGS)

Since 2002 Amelunxen has been a faculty member of the European Graduate School, a private graduate school based in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta, which specializes in philosophy, critical thinking and art therapy. In 2006 he obtained the Walter Benjamin Chair at the EGS, specialized in Media Philosophy and Cultural Studies. From October 2013 to July 2018, Amelunxen served as president and provost at the European Graduate School. Under his term, the EGS has expanded to Malta and its programs have gained full European accreditation.

Archivio Conz

Hubertus von Amelunxen has been the Academic Director of Archivio Conz in Berlin, Germany since 2020. The Archivio Conz brings together Lettrism, Concrete Poetry, and Fluxus in a collection of over 4,000 works including artwork, literature, documents, personal belongings and editions catalysed by the Italian publisher, collector, and also photographer Francesco Conz.

Curatorial work

Besides his academic endeavours, Amelunxen has been active as curator and member of artistic organisations. From 2001 until 2007 Amelunxen was a visiting curator at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montréal. During this time, he was responsible for the Tangent series of exhibitions and accompanying publications, which brought "contemporary artists into dialogue with the CCA Collection and [resulted] in newly commissioned works." While at the CCA, he played a role in the acquisition of an important group of works by Gordon Matta-Clark. In 2003 Amelunxen was appointed member of the Fine Arts Section of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. In 2014 he was appointed member of the first Artistic Advisory Board at the Public Art Experience, in Luxembourg. Amelunxen has curated several international exhibitions, working shoulder to shoulder with well-known artists such as Cy Twombly, Iannis Xenakis, Dieter Appelt, Peter Weibel, Naoya Hatakeyama, among others. His exhibitions have been shown in different galleries and museums of North America and Europe.

Editorial work

Amelunxen has been active as an editor. He first became member of the editorial board of the Mannheim series of papers Mana-Analytika (Média Medusa) in 1987, a position he occupied until 1992. In 1988 he became editor of the well-known German magazine on the history of photography Fotogeschichte, which is published in Marburg and Frankfurt am Main. Since 1996, he is a member of the German editorial board of the French series of papers Esthétique, Editions l’Harmattan, a publication based in Paris.

Books

Exhibitions

Academic initiatives

Personal life

Hubertus von Amelunxen married Christine Marx in 1990; they divorced in 2012. They have two sons. Amelunxen lives and works between Berlin, Switzerland and Malta.