This is an abridged version of the exhibition description by Marcel Hartwig, the full text can be found here.
This exhibition is the work of MA students of the seminar “Dark Academia: Aesthetics, Culture, Genre” offered by the university’s English Department in the winter term 2024/25. We explored the world of Dark Academia, which is a style, an aesthetic, a visual form native to Pinterest and Tumblr blogs of the early 2010s. The mode is marked by a romantic idealization of archaic ideas about the university regarding disciplinary hierarchies, architecture, and curricula. It blends these fantasies with gothic representations of the campus, clothing styles, and a sinister mysticism. What seemed to be a fad has turned into a popular cultural phenomenon especially on TikTok during the Corona pandemic. The works of this exhibition try to render the aesthetic in line with the discussions and explorations made in a critical encounter with Dark Academia. We invite you to get inspired and engage with the artworks exhibited here. Feel free to wander through these works and reflect on your own academic experiences: What shadows of romanticized scholarship, what whispers of intellectual ambition or institutional critique might resonate in your personal experience of education, its promises, and its paradoxes?
The exhibition can be seen from january 20 to january 23 during the regular opening hours of the University Library:
Monday to Friday from 09:00 – 20:00
We are looking forward to your visit!
