Journal
Marysia Lewandowska, Gertrud Bing with snail shell / Gertrud Bing with Pentel pen, Film stills, Hamburg, 2025
Artist’s presentation: Voicing the Void. On Gertrud Bing
Wednesday, May 27, 7 pm: Talk and discussion with Marysia Lewandowska, London, inaugural artist of the Gertrud Bing Research Residency - Hamburg, London, Florence, and Laura Tack, KU Leuven, in cooperation with the City Curator Hamburg
As part of the annual program »K.B.W.: Warburg-Haus 1926–2026. The Myth and Its Political Forms«, the Warburg-Haus and the City Curator Hamburg, together with Kunsthaus Hamburg, Villa Romana e.V., and the Warburg Institute London, warmly invite you to the reading room to a presentation by Marysia Lewandowska, the first recipient of the Gertrud Bing Research Residency, on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, 7 pm:
Voicing the Void. On Gertrud Bing
On the occasion of the centenary of the library building of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (KBW), opened in 1926, the artist Marysia Lewandowska will present her work developed within the Gertrud Bing Research Residency. The residency grant is awarded to artists who spend three months conducting research in each of the three cities—Hamburg, Florence, and London—as part of the program.
The artistic practice of the Poland-born, London-based artist Marysia Lewandowska has, over the years, focused on exploring the public functions of archives, museums, and exhibitions, with particular attention to the absence of women’s voices.
During her residency in Hamburg, London, and Florence, the artist is developing a film about the German-Jewish philosopher and art historian Gertrud Bing (1892–1964), and will present its short segment. Gertrud Bing was one of the key figures of the KBW both during its founding years in Hamburg and after the library’s exile to London from 1933 onward. She was a former director of the Warburg Institute and Professor of the History of Antiquity at the University of London. Her commitment to a multidisciplinary intellectual life continues to inspire contemporary feminist thinkers today. The research residency is dedicated to her and aims to create a unique connection between scholarly research and experimental artistic practice, with a focus on research, engagement with history, and intellectual freedom.
Following a welcome by City Curator Joanna Warsza, the artist will give a lecture and present her film created as part of the Gertrud Bing Research Residency. This will be followed by a conversation between the artist and Gertrud Bing researcher Laura Tack.
Laura Tack is a writer and scholar who authored the first monograph on Gertrud Bing, foregrounding her pivotal role in the formation and legacy of Warburgian thought: The Fortune of Gertrud Bing, (1892-1964): A Fragmented Memoir of a Phantomlike Muse, 2020 (= Studies in Iconology, vol. 16). Her work spans religious studies and art history, with a focus on interreligious dialogue and the movement of images across cultures; she is currently developing parallel practices in fiction and ceramics.
Gertrud Bing / K.B.W.: Warburg-Haus 1926–2026 / Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg