Ernst Seidl (Jg. 1961) ist Kunsthistoriker und wurde 1994 mit einer Arbeit über die Grands Projets François Mitterrands promoviert. Nach Forschungsaufenthalten in Hamburg, Rom und Paris war er von 1999 bis 2003 Assistent am Kunsthistorischen Institut der Universität Tübingen, wo er sich 2004 zum Thema der großen städtebaulichen Achse habilitierte. Derzeit lehrt er Kunstgeschichte in Tübingen und ist Leiter des dortigen Museums der Universität, MUT.Ernst Seidl (Jg. 1961) is an art historian and received his doctorate in 1994 with a study on the Grands Projets of François Mitterrand. From 1999 to 2003, after research visits in Hamburg, Rome and Paris, he became research assistant at the Institute of Art History, University of Tübingen. Here he received his postdoctoral teaching qualification with his study of major urban development axes. He now teaches art history at Tübingen and is director of MUT, the University museum.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Schneider war bis zu seiner Emeritierung Leiter des Instituts für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Karlsruhe (jetzt: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, KIT).

Prof. Dr. Martin Papenbrock lehrt Kunstgeschichte am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, KIT (ehemals: Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Karlsruhe).

For some years now, "space" has been a topical theme in the social and art sciences. There is one problem, however, on which single case studies have as yet seldom focussed. It is assumed that specific social and political contexts have an influence on the shaping and political efficaciousness of individual spatial creations, but can the basic forms of space also be signifiers by their structure alone? Can they generate political significance? Has this inter-relation between historical and spatial structures become inscribed in the collective memory? Can basic forms of constructed space perhaps direct the eye, control or prevent movement, put it into the spotlight or relegate it to the periphery; can they generate political significance? And how is this conveyed? These questions seem to have relevance because space bears significance as an essential condition for and as a consequence of action. In this volume these questions are discussed critically in a collection of contributions to a symposium held by the Guernica Society in July 2008.