“What Is Infrastructural Critique?” A Conference in Celebration of the Life and Work of Marina Vishmidt

The conference “What is Infrastructural Critique?”—curated by Danny Hayward and Rose-Anne Gush, and organized by Sofia Bempeza, Rose-Anne Gush, Danny Hayward, and Annette Krauss—was held at the University of Applied Arts Vienna from October 29 to 31, 2025. It featured artists and critical theorists, as well as long-term collaborators with Marina Vishmidt, who came together to think through her concept of infrastructural critique, a materialist approach to the infrastructures of contemporary art oriented towards aesthetics and political struggle in all of its interconnected modes and scales. Themes of discussion included: infrastructural critique and ecology, infrastructural critique versus institutional critique, art and political economy, art and logistics, the politics of abolition in contemporary art, infrastructural critique and music, and the relationship of infrastructure to race.

With talks and presentations by: Marwa Arsanios, Hannah Black, Maria Bussmann, Helmut Draxler, Rose-Anne Gush, Danny Hayward, Angela Melitopoulos and Kerstin Schroedinger, Taylor Le Melle Mattin, Andreas Petrossiants, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Robert Schlicht and Romana Schmalisch, Kerstin Stakemeier, Alberto Toscano.

Moderation by: Sofia Bempeza, Danny Hayward, Nanna Heidenreich, Amanda Holmes, Annette Krauss, Alexi Kukuljevic.

Rose-Anne Gush