TALK : Was hat uns bloß so ruinart?

German publisher, curator and exhibition-maker Max Dax in conversation with artist Philip Topolovac and author Ons zerschloen Dierfer and Director of the MNHM Diekirch Benoît Niederkorn about destruction, ruins and reconstruction. Particular attention will be paid to ruins, whose existence represents a state of in-betweenness: neither intact nor disappeared, they remain suspended in an often romantically idealised hybrid of perpetual decay.

Max Dax, born in 1969 in West Germany, explores the intersection of art and pop culture. As editor-in-chief, he has, among others, led the magazines Alert, Spex, and Electronic Beats and is since this year leading the influential NBiZ magazine in berlin. he curated the exhibitions HYPER! A JOURNEY INTO ART AND MUSIC at Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2019), BLACK ALBUM / WHITE CUBE at Kunsthal Rotterdam (2020) and You Want it Darker at Friedhof Forum Museum Zurich (2023). He is one of germany‘s most acclaimed journalists, specialized in in-depth interviews (among them David Bowie, Jenny Holzer and Claude Lanzmann), but has also published numerous books as a graphic designer and photographer. As an author, he has released his first novel Dissonance in 2021, published by Merve, one of Germany’s leading publishing houses for philosophy. As a music producer, he has released various albums, including the international best-selling album “Il Canto di Malavita – La Musica della Mafia” (2001). In Berlin, he runs the Santa Lucia Gallery of Conversations since 2014 together with Lucia Margarita Bauer. In 2026 he released the book Post-Millennium Tension, the first career-spanning monography of the Bosnian painter Radenko Milak, and the exhibition catalogue to état bruit in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg. He has won numerous awards for his writings and his art direction. He is married, a father to five children and lives in Berlin.

Philip Topolovac, born in 1979, lives and works in Berlin. From 2001 to 2008, he studied at the Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin), where he graduated in 2008 with the title of Meisterschüler (master student). Since then, he has participated in numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad. Topolovac’s sculptures and objects explore the nature of the world while simultaneously questioning the investigative gaze. Whether he uses polyester to shape landscapes in urban spaces, discovers artefacts on construction sites, or places technical structures in the corners of rooms, his work consistently engages with constructions of reality and our relationship to them.

Benoît Niederkorn studied modern and contemporary history in Freiburg im Breisgau and Regensburg. His master’s thesis focused on the logistical challenges faced by Austrian troops stationed in Luxembourg during the 18th century. Since 2017, he has been the director of the National Museum of Military History. His current research focuses on the documentation, cataloguing, and analysis of World War II monuments in Luxembourg. Most recently, he curated the exhibitions Koreans from Luxembourg. Luxembourg in the Korean War and Ons zerschloen Dierfer (Our Destroyed Villages.) The Reconstruction of Luxembourg after the Second World War.

Participants: Max Dax, Philip Topolovac, Benoît Niederkorn et Christian Mosar$

Free of charge | According to availability | No booking required.

The talk will be preceded by a guided tour of the exhibition Ruin Echoes at 6 pm, led by its curator and Artistic Director of Konschthal, Christian Mosar, accompanied by Benoît Niederkorn, author of the book Ons zerschloen Dierfer and director of the MNHM (National Museum of Military History). The tour will be conducted in German and Luxembourgish.