Author Marcel Beyer gets us to witness an evening at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg attended by a host of celebrities—a reception in honour of Andreas Gursky. moreIn his waspish descriptions of the images, the writer, who relies on widely disseminated and easily accessible photographic material, takes umbrage at the way executives, football managers, and actresses confidently push themselves in front of the art. In the process he produces an ironic commentary on Gursky’s series of large-format, decorative pictures. Beyer’s essay is based on a lecture that the writer gave in spring 2017 at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum at the launch of the DFG Research Training Group (GRK 2132) “Das Dokumentarische: Exzess und Entzug”. The audience who attended the event now respond to the talk in writing: with comments, remarks, and ripostes.