Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath appointed as Chairmen

The Montblanc Cultural Foundation has announced Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath as its new Chairmen. Building on the Foundation’s 25 years of significant contributions to the arts, the curator-duo have been called upon to shape and expand the direction of its various cultural programs. As part of their engagement with the Foundation, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath will oversee the continued development of the Montblanc Arts Patronage Award. For more than two decades, the international award has been honoring the contributions of patrons of art whose pioneering efforts have allowed the arts to flourish. The Chairmen will be actively involved in the creation of the shortlist of both, the prize’s nominees and the international jury, working to expand the active community of artists, cultural influencers, and art enthusiasts who have been associated with the award over the years. Additionally their role comprises the development of new acquisition and commissioning strategies to broaden the scope of the Montblanc Art Collection. Alongside their role as chairmen of the Montblanc Cultural Foundation, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath will continue their independent curatorial practice, bringing a wide spectrum of perspectives into the Foundation's various programs.

On the occasion, Jérôme Lambert, Montblanc CEO said: “Both curators have worked with major arts institutions in recent years bringing a deep understanding of the ever-changing global cultural scene to their new appointment. It is their innovative perspective of the arts and how culture can be experienced in a more enriching way that make Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath the perfect choice to guide the Foundation.” When asked about their new role, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath said: “Over the past 25 years, the Montblanc Cultural Foundation has been supporting arts projects and artists across different art forms. It has given significant recognition to the outstanding work of today’s most committed patrons of art worldwide. We look forward to building on the successful programs already in place and shaping the Foundation’s future through the development of new and exciting initiatives.”

The Montblanc Cultural Foundation, based in Hamburg, was founded in 1992 with a mission to promote innovative thinking through supporting the arts worldwide. It's core initiatives include the globally recognized Montblanc Arts Patronage Award, which until now has honored more than 280 patrons in over 20 countries. The winners received over 4 million Euros in prize awards given towards the programming of the organizations that they represent, ranging from educational initiatives, community art centers, and cultural heritage projects. Since 2002, the Montblanc Art Collection has supported over 170 artists with over 210 artworks by commissioning them to create new works. The collection includes many internationally renowned figures such as John Armleder, Monica Bonvincini, José León Cerillo, Thomas Demand, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Sylvie Fleury, Liam Gillick, Gary Hume, Fang Lijun, Thomas Ruff, Chiharu Shiota, Thomas Schütte, Cerith Wyn Evans, and Heimo Zobernig, to name a few. 

Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath are independent curators and academics, and the co-founders of Art Reoriented, a multidisciplinary curatorial platform based in Munich and New York. Over the past decade they have jointly curated numerous critically acclaimed exhibitions in museums and institutions worldwide. Their curatorial projects have been praised for their rigorous inter-temporal, trans-cultural, and cross-disciplinary approach. Their work is equally rooted in the field of modernist studies, as well as global contemporary artistic practices. Some of their recent museum exhibitions include Staging film: The relation of image and space in video art at the Busan Museum of Art (2016), When process becomes form: Dansaekwha and Korean abstraction at the Villa Empain in Brussels (2016), I Spy With My Little Eye: A new generation of Beirut artists at the Mosaic Rooms in London and Casa Arabe in Madrid and Cordoba (2015), Mona Hatoum: Turbulence at Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha (2014), Songs of Loss and Songs of Love at the Gwangju Museum of Art (2014), Paul Guiragossian: The Human Condition at the Beirut Exhibition Center in Beirut (2013), and Mathaf’s inaugural contemporary art exhibition Told Untold Retold (2010). Their critically acclaimed international traveling exhibition Tea with Nefertiti: The Making of the Artwork by the Artist, the Museum, and the Public was presented at Mathaf in Doha, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, IVAM in Valencia, and the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich (2012–14). For the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, Bardaouil and Fellrath were the curators of the Lebanese Pavilion, with the presentation of Akram Zaatari: Letter to a refusing pilot. In 2015/2016 they were part of the team of curatorial attachés for the 20th Sydney Biennale. They are currently preparing the first major exhibition on Surrealism in Egypt under the title Baby elephants die alone—Rupture, War, and Surrealism in Egypt (1930s–1940s), which will open at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in October 2016, followed by the Reina Sofia in Madrid in February 2017, the Kunstsammlung K21 in Duesseldorf in June 2017, and the Tate Liverpool in November 2017.

For more information:
Montblanc Cultural Foundation
Hellgrundweg 100
22525 Hamburg
Germany