Today Bernd Leifeld, CEO of documenta und Museum Fridericianum Veranstaltungs-GmbH announced artistic director for documenta 14.
Adam Szymczyk – Artistic Director Documenta 14 Photo © Nils Klinger / Kassel 2013
In an unanimous decision the supervisory board of documenta followed the proposal of the international finding committee, exisiting of eight members, and appointed Adam Szymczyk as the Artistic Director of documenta 14, which is scheduled to take place from June 10th, to September 17th, 2017, in Kassel.
´I am convinced that Szymczyk, a ground-breaking and idiosyncratic curator of art, will add new highlights to documenta.´ said Minister of State Eva Kühne-Hörmann who expects exiting perspectives on contemporary art by the appointment of Adam Szymczyk.
´The national and international significance of the documenta exhibitions cannot be overestimated,´she added.
It was the Lord Mayor of Kassel, Bertram Hilgen, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the organisation and Koyo Kouoh, speaker of the finding committee, who presented the new Artistic Director in a press conference held at the documenta-Halle.
´After documenta is before documenta´he stated adding that one year after the exceptionally successful dOCUMENTA (13) the next international exhibition of contemporary art is shifting into its realisation phase, with this appointment.
´Adam Szymczyk stands for a close cooperation with artists. His projects are motivated by an insatiable curiosity, interlaced by integrity and research. I am convinced, that his documenta will add another chapter to our appreciation and our experience of contemporary art.´ Koyo Kouoh, Artistic Director of RAW MATERIAL COMPANY, Dakar, Senegal and speaker of the finding committee added.
Adam Szymczyk (born 1970 in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland) is Director and Chief Curator at Kunsthalle Basel. He was a co-founder of the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw, at which he worked as Curator from 1997 till 2003, when he assumed his new post in Basel. At Kunsthalle Basel, he organized exhibitions including Piotr Uklanski: Earth, Wind and Fire (2004); Tomma Abts (2005); Gustav Metzger: In Memoriam and Lee Lozano: Win First Don’t Last Win Last Don’t Care (both 2006); Micol Assaël: Chizhevsky Lessons (2007); Danh Vo: Where the Lions Are (2009); Moyra Davey: Speaker Receiver (2010); Sung Hwan Kim: Line Wall (2011); Paul Sietsema and Adriana Lara: S.S.O.R. (both 2012), as well as group shows including Strange Comfort (Afforded by the Profession) (with Salvatore Lacagnina, 2010), How to Work/How to Work (More for) Less (both in 2011). In 2008 he co-curated with Elena Filipovic the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art under the title When Things Cast No Shadow and in 2012 he curated Olinka, or Where Movement Is Created at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City. He is a Member of the Board of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. In 2011, he was recipient of the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement at the Menil Foundation in Houston.