Vika Kirchenbauer took over the professorship for Fine Arts in a Contemporary Context at the School of Art and Design in Kassel on April 1. She was previously Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Fine Arts Braunschweig, where she was responsible for basic teaching with a focus on film/video. In her practice, she is dedicated to the fundamental political and social conflicts in the artistic field. She has researched extensively on the incipient institutionalization of contemporary art in 18th century Britain. Two monographs linking the artistic and theoretical strands of her work have been published by Mousse Publishing. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions such as at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf, in international group exhibitions such as at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and at film festivals such as the Berlinale and the New York Film Festival. In Kassel, she will be researching the infrastructures of contemporary art in the field of tension between affect, state and economy.