Marcel Duchamp: one of his themes was the boundary between works of art and everyday objects, and with it, he set the art world in an uproar. Surely one of his most brilliant strokes of genius was the Fontaine, a urinal he put on display. There are, of course, many more works that bear his signature, and the Duchamp Collection in Schwerin has ninety-two of them. Founded in 2009, the research center has succeeded in establishing an interdisciplinary, globally connected network of researchers in Schwerin. Under the title Marcel Duchamp: Inventing the Presence, individual as well as groups of artworks from the Schwerin collection are examined from philosophical, art historical, and literary perspectives in volume five of the series Poiesis. 



MARCEL DUCHAMP: Actually Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), Duchamp is one of the pioneers of Dadaism and Surrealism. His views posed radical questions about the concept of art and introduced the readymade to the art world.

KORNELIA RÖDER: Studied art history at Humboldt University in Berlin. Curator of the Staatliche Schlösser, Gärten und Kunstsammlungen (state palaces, gardens, and art collections) in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She and Gerhard Graulich have headed the Duchamp Research Center since 2009.

GERHARD GRAULICH: Studied art history, German, and philosophy at the Ruhr University in Bochum. He has been at the Staatliches Museum in Schwerin since 1994 in a variety of capacities, such as curator, head of the painting department, and assistant director; he is now co-chief of the Duchamp Research Center with Kornelia Röder.