ANN DEMEESTER APPOINTED AS DIRECTOR OF DE APPEL
DE APPEL
Ann Demeester (born 1975), currently director of the Amsterdam artist initiative W139, is to become the new director of De Appel Foundation in spring 2006. She will succeed Saskia Bos, who left on 17 October for The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. Demeester will assume the post of General Director and she will be responsible for both the exhibition programme and the Curatorial Training Programme (CTP).
Ann Demeester was chosen from a strong international field of candidates. According to Rick van der Ploeg, Chairman of the Executive Committee, the committee believes that she was the candidate most capable of pursuing De Appel’s mission to provide a national and international forum for the latest developments in the visual arts. She also possesses proven managerial and organisational talents. Demeester will give new impetus to De Appel’s role as a platform for the identification and presentation of trends and as an institute for the training of promising young curators. De Appel expects her to bring a new and vital flair to the organisation’s work. Her appointment is for a five-year term.
About her new position, Ann Demeester herself says, “Artist Erwin Wurm said a while back that an artistic institution in the 21st century resembles a spaceship heading into unexplored regions. For me it is a wonderful challenge to be piloting the spaceship De Appel towards a new, as yet unknown, destination.”
Demeester has been the successful director of W139 since 2002. She guided the institution through the transitional phase of its move to a temporary location at Post CS and has organised a wide range of events: group exhibitions, lectures, performances and solo presentations by such artists as Ian Kiaer (UK), Sislej Xhafa (Kosovo), Katie Holten (Ireland), Maze de Boer (the Netherlands), Rothstauffenberg (Germany), Paolo Chiasera (Italy) and Orla Barry (Ireland/Belgium). Between 1999 and her appointment at W139, she worked as a curator and assistant to director Jan Hoet, first at SMAK (Belgium) and then MARTa Herford (Germany).
Following the departure of Saskia Bos, Theo Tegelaers was appointed as temporary artistic director of De Appel and Annie Fletcher assumed responsibility for the Curatorial Training Programme (CTP). Tegelaers is organising the following exhibitions in 2006.
2 December 2005 – 22 January 2006 The Gravity in Art: A brief impression of the history of gravity in art. Featuring works from several generations of artists: Yves Klein, Chris Burden, Bruce Nauman, Bas Jan Ader, Roman Signer, Sam Taylor-Wood, Aernout Mik, Pipilotti Rist and Johanna Billing.
10 February – 26 March 2006
Katharina Grosse: For De Appel, Grosse is producing a total painting using her gravity-like way of working, adding unusual objects and materials to the spaces.
