Bilderfahrzeuge Research Group
Continuing project, initiated in 2013 by former Warburg Institute director, Professor Peter Mack, in collaboration with Professors Andreas Beyer (University of Basel), Horst Bredekamp (Humboldt University of Berlin), Uwe Fleckner (Warburg-Haus Hamburg) and Gerhard Wolf (Kunsthistorische Institut in Florenz); funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and realised in cooperation with the Max Weber Foundation.
• Objective: to explore the migration of images, objects and ideas in a broad geographical and historical context. The metaphorical term Bilderfahrzeuge (“image vehicles”) is a neologism created by Aby Warburg. It alludes to the specific significance he ascribed to images within cultural history due to their distinct mobility.
The Bilderfahrzeuge Research Group hosts a lecture series at the Warburg Institute; it also holds regular conferences and occasional workshops, and curates exhibitions. The group consists of 15 scholars in the UK and in Germany; each scholar conducts research within their specialist field while working in close collaboration with the other members of the group.
The current project is ‘Bilderfahrzeuge. Aby Warburg’s Legacy and the Future of Iconology’. A full description and details of the individual research sub-projects which contribute to it may be found on the dedicated Bilderfahrzeuge website. The research participants are listed there and also in the relevant project publications list: