From the Margins to the Centre of Decision-Making

My early experiences were shaped by political activism, squatting and collective self-organisation. I became involved in initiatives challenging urban development, private property relations and the unequal distribution of resources.

Through projects and organisations such as Die Blaue Blume, Kollektiv Raumstation, WIK Kollektiv and Arterias Urbanas, I learned to organise with people who shared a desire for change, but not necessarily the same strategies, priorities or expectations.

Collective organising taught me how to build organisations without established hierarchies, secure resources without institutional backing and develop strategies under constant uncertainty.

We learned to recognise political opportunities, negotiate with authorities, work with media and develop narratives capable of changing how conflicts were perceived.

Sometimes this meant questioning the rules of property and access. Sometimes it meant finding a different language for the same action: transforming the public perception of an occupation into the creation of a community resource.

But it also meant encountering the limitations of collective decision-making: unresolved conflicts, emotional exhaustion, unclear responsibilities and the difficulty of sustaining structures beyond their founding enthusiasm.

What I learned was not simply how to resist institutions, but how difficult — and necessary — it is to build functioning alternatives.

Working as an independent artist means constantly operating under conditions of uncertainty. Funding is rarely guaranteed, resources are limited, timelines shift, and every project requires convincing people that something worth supporting can emerge from an idea that does not yet exist.

Over more than ten years, I have developed artistic projects and collaborations across Europe, North and South America, and Africa.

My work has been presented in contexts including the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Kunsthalle Mannheim and international universities. Projects such as Penthaus à la Parasit, Parasite Parking and Speculating on the Void have entered fields far beyond the art world — from real estate and mobility to finance and public administration.

With Penthaus à la Parasit, for example, I used the unused rooftops of private buildings to question the distribution of urban space. The project combined architectural prototyping, legal uncertainty, public communication and strategic timing. What started as a small intervention developed into an internationally discussed project.

This environment trained me to adapt quickly, develop prototypes with minimal resources, identify unconventional opportunities and build support among stakeholders who initially had little reason to engage.

It also taught me that a good idea is not enough. An idea needs funding, a team, communication, timing, operational execution and the capacity to survive resistance.

Precarity is not something I romanticise. But working within it has taught me how to turn limited means into collective capability.

Alongside my practical work, academic research has remained a constant intellectual foundation.

I studied Sociology, Politics and Economics at Zeppelin University, followed by graduate studies in social sciences and fine arts. I am currently pursuing a PhD in Artistic Research at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, supported by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

My academic interests have moved from political philosophy, property relations and Marxist social theory towards organisational theory, systems thinking, economic transformation and the conditions under which institutions change.

The work of sociologist and management theorist Dirk Baecker, with whom I studied at Zeppelin University, has been particularly relevant in connecting organisational questions with a broader understanding of society.

My artistic research, meanwhile, examines Parasite Art: practices that enter existing systems, temporarily adopt their logic and generate possibilities for change through adaptation, proximity and irritation.

I have edited publications, including a thematic issue of KUNSTFORUM International on parasitic paradoxes, and taught, lectured and facilitated workshops at institutions including Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the University of Cambridge, Parsons School of Design and the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

For me, theory is not separate from practice. It is a way of observing what I do, questioning my own assumptions and developing knowledge through experimentation.

One question continues to guide my research and professional development:

How can we recognise the real problem before becoming absorbed in solving the wrong one?

This question is becoming even more relevant in the age of artificial intelligence, when generating possible answers is increasingly easy, but identifying what deserves our attention remains a strategic challenge.

Through founding and developing collectives, non-profit organisations, cultural infrastructures and entrepreneurial experiments, I learned that organisational change is never only a structural or technical question.

It is fundamentally about people.

I have managed teams, coordinated interdisciplinary collaborations, mediated conflicts, negotiated responsibilities and worked through the tensions between individual aspirations and collective objectives.

These experiences challenged my early assumptions about horizontal organising. I learned that leadership and collaboration are not opposites. Different situations require different forms of responsibility.

Sometimes leadership means creating space for others to decide. Sometimes it means making difficult decisions, establishing clear priorities or taking responsibility when consensus becomes impossible.

I also learned to distinguish productive disagreement from destructive conflict. Friction can reveal hidden assumptions, inequalities and unresolved problems. But it requires trust, careful facilitation and a shared willingness to engage.

The emotional dimension of organisational work matters just as much. Teams are made up of people whose histories, vulnerabilities and expectations shape how they collaborate. Understanding these dynamics is essential, while maintaining boundaries between personal relationships and professional responsibilities.

Another important lesson concerns risk.

When resources are scarce or a political opportunity emerges, decisions often need to be made with incomplete information. I learned to distinguish between risks worth taking and risks that threaten the organisation itself — and to ensure that those affected understand and support consequential decisions.

An organisation can only transform if the people within it have the capacity, motivation and trust to move with that transformation.

After years of founding initiatives and developing projects from the ground up, I am interested in working with larger organisations, established institutions and the people responsible for their strategic direction.

I have experienced what it means to build something from zero: finding a purpose, convincing collaborators, developing a structure, raising funds, managing budgets, communicating externally and delivering results.

In small organisations, I often had to move between many roles — from fundraising and financial planning to team development, public relations, conflict mediation and operational execution.

I know how to build from zero to ten. Now I want to understand and contribute to the transformation from ten to a hundred.

What interests me about strategic consulting is the opportunity to combine my practical experience with the accumulated knowledge, specialised expertise and resources of larger organisations.

I want to work closer to where strategic decisions are made — whether in companies navigating technological change, public institutions undergoing transformation or organisations responding to ecological and societal challenges.

This is not a rejection of my bottom-up experience. It is an attempt to bring its lessons into environments with different responsibilities, greater complexity and larger possibilities for impact.

I am also looking for a more sustainable professional future, including financial stability and the ability to make longer-term commitments. I do not see this as a contradiction to my previous work, but as part of taking responsibility for the conditions under which I work.

I want to continue learning, to work with people whose expertise exceeds my own in specific fields, and to contribute perspectives that may not yet be represented at the decision-making table.

My background has taught me to look at organisations from several perspectives: as social structures, economic actors, political environments and communities of people.

I have learned to recognise opportunities that conventional procedures may overlook, to question assumptions that have become invisible through repetition, and to develop practical alternatives when familiar approaches no longer work.

I am interested in the productive potential of friction, the strategic value of unconventional thinking and the capacity of organisations to reinvent themselves.

But I also know that transformation requires responsibility, trust, coordination and implementation. Disruption without direction is not enough.

What I bring into consulting is therefore not simply a different professional background. It is an approach developed through years of working across institutional boundaries, building organisations under uncertainty and translating critical ideas into tangible action.

I have spent much of my professional life challenging systems from their margins. Now I want to help transform them from within.