Mechtild Widrich is Professor in the Art History, Theory and Criticism Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She researches art in public space, in particular monuments and monument activism, performative and participatory practices, and the theory of the public sphere. Widrich is the author of Performative Monuments (2014) and Monumental Cares (January 2023), both with Manchester University Press, (co)editor of Future Anterior, special issue Ex Situ: On Moving Monuments (2020), Participation in Art and Architecture (2015, paperback 2022), and Krzysztof Wodiczko’s City of Refuge: A 9/11 Memorial (2009).
Widrich received her MA degree from the University of Vienna and her PhD from the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She previously held positions at ETH Zurich and the Universities of Vienna, Zurich and Basel and is currently a member of the expert committee developing the recontextualization of the statue of antisemitic mayor Karl Lueger in Vienna.
Widrich received her MA degree from the University of Vienna and her PhD from the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She previously held positions at ETH Zurich and the Universities of Vienna, Zurich and Basel and is currently a member of the expert committee developing the recontextualization of the statue of antisemitic mayor Karl Lueger in Vienna.