THE ART JOURNAL FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURE, ART HISTORY, AND THOUGHT

About

Art needs visibility. And it needs its own voice.

DOKUNST is an independent art journal documenting contemporary discourse within the German-speaking region and the international art scene. We understand art as an open space in which different positions, generations, and perspectives encounter one another.

We want to bring visibility to artists whose work engages our interest – established positions as well as younger and still lesser-known voices. Our aim, however, is not simply to inform. We want to look more closely, draw connections, and ask questions.

Our editorial work is guided by independent judgment. We do not understand criticism as disparagement, nor approval as a matter of courtesy. A meaningful dialogue with art emerges where different perspectives are possible.

DOKUNST therefore welcomes collaboration with galleries, project spaces, institutions, and other participants in the art world. We understand such collaboration as part of a vital cultural exchange. It does not, however, determine our editorial position.

Editorial contributions and promotional content are kept clearly separate. This ensures that readers can distinguish between journalistic or editorial work and material published as part of a partnership or advertisement.

Our interest is not confined to what is already visible. We also seek to discover positions that have yet to find their place within contemporary art discourse.

DOKUNST observes the present, questions history, and searches for what lies beyond the obvious.

Because art needs a public.
But the public sphere also needs a point of view.

Rüdiger Steinhardt / Chefredakteur

Flora Wilhelm / Editorial Assistant

Jhonny Osuna /Digital Edition

Anna & Alexander Elias/ Style Editor and Technology Editor

Esteban Velazquez von Wilhelm / Publisher

Rüdiger Steinhardt combines a keen sensitivity to the built and visual worlds with a profound passion for literature, architecture, art, and the defining questions of our time. His perspective moves naturally between museum, gallery, studio, and social discourse, seeking less the obvious than the connections that emerge beyond it.

His engagement with modernism, postmodernism, and the conditions of contemporary life shapes his perspective as much as his tireless curiosity about new artistic positions. As Editor-in-Chief, he is responsible for DOKUNST’s editorial direction, developing themes and areas of focus, overseeing the selection of artistic positions, and providing the editorial work with its coherent structure.

His aim is not simply to reflect the art world, but to bring into view those questions that most urgently engage his thinking today.

Esteban Velázquez von Wilhelm is the publisher and founder of DOKUNST. With DOKUNST, he continues the publishing work he has pursued over many years, building on the experience he previously gained as founder and publisher of Wilhelm International Magazine in Latin America.

Through DOKUNST, he brings together publishing with his longstanding engagement with art history, contemporary art, and visual culture. At the heart of the publication is the conviction that art should not merely be presented, but that its conditions, its history, and its meanings in the present should be critically examined.

DOKUNST therefore addresses current questions in art and their social, philosophical, and psychological dimensions, while also engaging with art-historical positions, established artists, and works whose significance can be reconsidered from a contemporary perspective. Essays, critical contributions, and analytical texts form the intellectual foundation of the publication.

DOKUNST understands contemporary art not as a self-contained discourse, but as a field in which history, theory, perception, and current artistic practice are continually brought into relation with one another.

The publisher provides the institutional and publishing framework for this work. The ongoing editorial and intellectual direction lies with the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial team. They develop themes, select contributions and artistic positions, and are responsible for their editorial development.

With DOKUNST Dialog, the publication extends this approach by creating a dedicated space for exchange with artists, as well as for positions that have yet to receive the attention they merit within contemporary art discourse.