– For eight years I have had the privilege of directing one of the world’s leading museums of modern and contemporary art. I am grateful for having been given this opportunity and proud of what we have accomplished. Moderna Museet has an outstanding team. After this autumn I will be ready for new adventures that will involve experimental collaborations with some of the world’s most exciting artists, says Daniel Birnbaum.
First Daniel Birnbaum will bring a few projects at Moderna Museet to completion, among them the retrospective with the artists Gilbert & George of which he is a co-curator. He will also work on Are ‘Friends’ Electric?, a collaboration with the digital platform e-flux Architecture. The project accompanies Lars Bang Larsen’s exhibition Mud Muses, which explores the dialog between art and technology from Robert Rauschenberg to Ian Cheng.
Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries in London and co-curator of the Gilbert & George exhibition, comments on the new appointment:
– The appointment of Daniel Birnbaum at Acute Art is very exciting news! Daniel has been a philosopher in exile ever since I got to know him in 1993. Philosophy needs other discursive fields to develop its concepts and to make them productive. With his immense wealth of knowledge and passionate drive Daniel has pushed the boundaries of the traditional art institutions and is now moving into new experiments with Art and Technology. I can’t wait to continue our many collaborations in these new spheres. It has only just begun...
Daniel Birnbaum has been the director of Moderna Museet since November 1, 2010. He has a doctorate in philosophy and is internationally active as a critic, primarily as contributing editor of Artforum. He has been the dean of the Städelschule in Frankfurt, a critic at Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter and the director of IASPIS. He has been curator of numerous large exhibitions and biennials, among them the 2009 Venice Biennale. With Isabelle Graw he edits the Institut für Kunstkritik series that is published by Sternberg Press.
The new director of Moderna Museet will be appointed by the Swedish government through the Ministry of Culture.
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