Announcing new curators

KW Institute for Contemporary Art is delighted to announce the addition of new curators to its artistic team. Over the past years, KW has expanded its artistic team in order to give space and time to investigate various urgent subject matters and explore different forms of temporalities in local, national, and international contexts. Since its inauguration, KW has aimed to critically examine current tendencies within society through the production, display, and discourse of contemporary art. In addition to Krist Gruijthuijsen as Director and Chief-Curator, Anna Gritz as Curator, and Mason Leaver-Yap as Associate Curator, Kathrin Bentele and Léon Kruijswijk have been appointed Assistant Curators, Dr. Clémentine Deliss Associate Curator, and Nadim Samman in the newly instated role as Curator for the digital sphere.

Kathrin Bentele was Curatorial Fellow at Artists Space, New York (US) before joining KW as Assistant Curator in 2019. Until 2017, she was Assistant Curator at Kunsthaus Glarus (CH) and part of the editorial team of art book publisher JRP|Ringier, Zurich (CH). In 2019, she curated the group exhibition Clipping the Din at Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna (together with Daniel Baumann and Matthew Hanson), and organized a series of public programs at Kunsthalle Zurich and 186f Kepler with artists including Rosa Aiello, Dara Birnbaum, Tony Cokes, Carolyn Lazard, Georgie Nettell, Richard Sides, and Erik & Harald Thys. She writes for Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, and Brand-New-Life.

Léon Krujiswijk addresses with his curatorial practice themes at the intersection of identity politics, queer and gender theory, activism, institutional critique, music, and performance. In the Netherlands, he organized exhibitions and events as a freelancer at Framer Framed, NEVERNEVERLAND, De School Amsterdam, ROZENSTRAAT—a rose is a rose is a rose, and Perdu, among others. In 2016, he co-founded the Queer Series—an ongoing series of roving events disclosing queer perspectives in contemporary art. His most recent articles were published on Mister Motley. At KW, Kruijswijk started as a Curatorial Fellow in 2018 with support from the Mondriaan Fund.

Dr. Clémentine Deliss works across the borders of contemporary art, curatorial practice, and critical anthropology. Between 2010–2015, she directed the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt (DE), instituting a new lab for post-ethnographic research. She has been a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study Berlin, taught at ENSAPC Paris and Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (DE), and is currently Guest Professor of History and Theory at Hamburg University of Fine Arts (DE). Deliss is a Mentor of the Berlin Program for Artists and Faculty at Large of SVA MA Curatorial Practice, New York. Her forthcoming book The Metabolic Museum is published by Hatje Cantz in co-production with KW. Under the title The Metabolic Museum University, Deliss will in the upcoming years investigate, together with a group of peers, the politics of collecting within the city of Berlin.  

Nadim Samman studied Philosophy at University College London before receiving his PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Concurrently co-directing Import Projects e.V. in Berlin from 2012–2019, he was Curator at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2013–2015). In 2012, he curated the 4th Marrakech Biennale (MO) with Carson Chan, as well as the 5th Moscow Biennale for Young Art in 2015. He co-founded the 1st Antarctic Biennale (AY, 2017) and the Antarctic Pavilion in Venice (IT, 2015). He is widely published and received First Prize of the International Award for Art Criticism (IAAC) in 2019. In his newly instated role as Curator for the digital sphere, Samman will critically explore the expanded political and social landscape of digital systems through subversive and creative interventions. 

Press Contact
Karoline Köber
T +49 30 243459 41
press@kw-berlin.de

KW Institute for Contemporary Art is institutionally supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin.