Arts and Design welcomes Prof. Florian Malzacher as the new Professor of Dramaturgy and Curatorial Practice in the Exhibition Design and Scenography course. Having already worked as a substitute professor at the HfG, he is now taking on a permanent professorship and enriching teaching, research and university life with his wide-ranging experience and perspectives.

Prof. Florian Malzacher

Florian Malzacher is a curator, author and dramaturge with an international sphere of influence. Together with Joanna Warsza, he directs the university course Curating in the Scenic Arts at the University of Salzburg. He is also responsible for the nomadic discussion series The Art of Assembly, which explores the potential of assemblies in art, activism and politics. Since 2020 he is co-editor of the series “Postdramatic Theater in Portraits” at Alexander Verlag Berlin.

From 2013 to 2017, Malzacher was Artistic Director of the Impulse Theater Festival (Düsseldorf, Cologne, Mülheim/Ruhr), previously dramaturge and curator of the multidisciplinary steirischer herbst in Graz from 2006 to 2012. He worked as a curatorial advisor at the Ruhrtriennale from 2018-2020. Previous positions have taken him to the Burgtheater Vienna, the Gorki Theater Berlin, the Mousonturm Frankfurt and the Wiener Festwochen as a dramaturge.

In his artistic work, he has collaborated with renowned international positions such as Rimini Protokoll, Lola Arias, Mariano Pensotti, Tania Bruguera and regularly with the Nature Theater of Oklahoma. In addition to festivals, he has curated numerous performative projects and conferences at the intersection of theater, art and politics. Guest professorships, teaching assignments and master classes have taken him to universities and art colleges in Europe, Asia and the USA.

His publications include numerous books on curatorial practice and the relationship between art and politics as well as monographs on theater makers such as Forced Entertainment, Rimini Protokoll, Nature Theater of Oklahoma and Boris Nikitin. In 2020, his book Gesellschaftsspiele. Political theater today. His books and essays have been published in more than 15 languages.

The courses offered in the winter semester 2025/26 will also be supplemented by the following substitute professorships:

• Simone Serlenga (Media Art)
• Jenny Lou Ziegel (Media Art)
• Nadine Hartmann (Art Studies and Media Philosophy)
• Katharina Mischer (Product Design)
• Thomas Traxler (Product Design)
• Jannis Zell (Product Design)
• Lisa Ertel (Product Design)