Raha Golestani · Konstantin Schönfelder

Raha Golestani and Konstantin Schönfelder: In the Universe of Signs: The Semionaut Günther Uecker

In Golestani and Schönfelder’s study In the Universe of Signs: The Semionaut Günther Uecker, Uecker’s methodology is discussed as a process of “performative translation” (Bourriaud). His work is examined here as a mediating force between different worlds and media.

A central focus is placed on his print cycle Huldigung an Hafez (Homage to Hafez, 2015), in which the artist enters into an intercultural dialogue with the poetry of the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez. Uecker operates simultaneously on linguistic, medial, and cultural levels. According to the authors, the performative practice underlying his approach allows for an interpretation of this and other works by Uecker that moves beyond essentializing attributions.

  • Volume 4 · 2026
  • Deutscher Kunstverlag
  • ISBN: ISBN: 978-3-422-80353-4
  • 96 pages, german, english
  • 8 color illustrations
Authors
Raha Golestani

Raha Golestani (b. 1993) is a Tehran-born interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and art educator. She lives in Frankfurt am Main. Golestani holds a BFA in Painting (University of Tehran) and an MA in Aesthetics (Goethe University Frankfurt). She obtained her master’s degree in 2022 with a Goethe Goes Global scholarship and a thesis on the art of the Persian diaspora. She is currently researching the entanglements of Exoticism and Self-Exoticism in contemporary art on a doctoral scholarship at Goethe University. Her cultural work includes stints at the Rooberoo Mansion Cultural Institute in collaboration with the Goethe Institute in Tehran, the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, and the Frankfurt School of Painting.

Konstantin Schönfelder

Konstantin Schönfelder (b. 1994) is a freelance writer living in Frankfurt am Main. After studying Political Science in Leipzig and Washington, D.C., he earned a master’s degree in Political Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt. Parallel to his studies, he underwent journalistic training as part of a scholarship. He is the Artistic Director of the digital cultural project PRÄPOSITION, which works towards a new orchestration of text and language. In 2021, his volume of essays Gesellschaft Eine Insel won the prize as one of the “Most Beautiful German Books” from the Stiftung Buchkunst. His other works include literary radio features for the German National Public Radio as well as text publications (Neue Rundschau, Reportagen Magazin, etc.).