In a talk with Okwui Enwezor, Adam Szymczyk, Artistic Director of Documenta 14, will discuss his curatorial practice and his evolution as an art critic, curator and museum director.
Adam Szymczyk (born 1970 in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland) is the Artistic Director of Documenta 14. He was a co-founder of the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw, at which he worked as a curator from 1997 till 2003, when he assumed his new post as Director at Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland. In 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) and "How to Work/How to Work (More for) Less" (both in 2011).
In 2008 Szymczyk co-curated the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art under the title "When Things Cast No Shadow" with Elena Filipovic; 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 the recipient of the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement at the Menil Foundation in Houston.
Talk in English