Munich’s beleaguered Haus der Kunst, forced to cancel exhibitions because of financial woes and lacking an artistic director since Okwui Enwezor left in June last year, has appointed an expert commission to oversee programming and strategy for the next two years.
The commission is led by Bice Curiger, the artistic director of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, according to a statement from the Bavarian Ministry of Science and Art. She is supported by Achim Hochdörfer, the director of the Brandhorst Museum in Munich, and the collector and the curator Ingvild Goetz.
The team has proposed setting up a search committee comprised of up to five high-profile international figures to appoint a new artistic director, who should have an extensive network in the museum world, management experience and knowledge of the Haus der Kunst’s history and Munich.
Until the new artistic director is appointed, the expert commission will “support the curatorial team and play an advisory and monitoring role concerning both content and feasibility of planned projects,” the commission said in a statement.
After Enwezor’s departure for health reasons, Bernhard Spies, the business director, announced that he was cancelling exhibitions to help clean up the institution’s finances and balance budget shortfalls caused by an overly ambitious exhibition programme.
A challenge for Enwezor’s successor will be to oversee a planned renovation of the Haus der Kunst by the British architect David Chipperfield, due to begin in 2020. The building work may require a complete closure of the exhibition space, in which case a new artistic director would be required to “develop an alternative scenario to keep the Haus der Kunst present in the public and in other exhibition locations in Bavaria,” the expert commission said.