Stefanie Hessler

Last updated
Stefanie Hessler
Born1987 (age 36–37)
Germany
NationalityGerman
Occupation Curator

Stefanie Hessler is a German-born contemporary art curator, [1] an art writer, and the current director of Swiss Institute in New York. [2] From 2019 to 2022 she was the director of Kunsthall Trondheim in Trondheim, Norway. [3]

Contents

Biography

Hessler studied art theory in Germany and at Stockholm University where she received her MA in art curation in 2011. [4]

She co-founded the experimental performance space "Andquestionmark" along with artist Carsten Höller in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2013. [5] [6] Hessler was a curator for the TBA21–Academy in London, UK, [7] between 2016 and 2019, and was the director of Kunsthall Trondheim from 2019 to 2022.

Exhibitions

Hessler has curated art exhibitions with a focus on interdisciplinary research, ecology, intersectional and queer feminism, sensory experience, and focused among others on the topic of ocean ecology. In 2021 she was project co-leader for the transdisciplinary research project and exhibition "Sex Ecologies" exploring the intersections of gender, sexuality, and nature as well as pleasure, affect, and the powers of the erotic in human and more-than-human worlds. [8] She edited the eponymous compendium published by The MIT Press, Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box with new essays by Mel Y. Chen, Jack Halberstam, Astrida Neimanis, and others. [9] The exhibition included artists Jes Fan, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Okwui Okpokwasili, Margrethe Pettersen, Alberta Whittle, and others.

In 2021 she was chief curator of the 17th MOMENTA biennale  [ fr ] in Montreal, Canada. The biennale was titled "Sensing Nature." It centred indigenous and non humanist notions of nature and attended "to how contemporary and emerging non-white, Indigenous, queer and crip artists, collectives and communities feel nature and/or are felt by it in return." [10]

In 2020 she co-curated the exhibition “Down to Earth” at the Gropius Bau in Berlin.

In 2019 Hessler curated the exhibition and performance "Moving Off The Land II" by Joan Jonas at Ocean Space in Venice, [11] and the exhibition "More-than-humans" by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tomás Saraceno at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain. [12]

In 2018 she curated an exhibition on the artist Juan Downey at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, [13] the exhibition "Prospecting Ocean" with artist Armin Linke at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Venice, Italy, which was commissioned by TBA21–Academy and in partnership with Istituto di Scienze Marine (CNR-ISMAR), [14] as well as a performance by Joan Jonas at the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall entitled "Moving Off The Land". [15] The same year she was one of three curators for the 6th edition of the Athens Biennale, [16] [17] and she curated the symposium "Practices of Attention" for the São Paulo Biennale on the politics of attention. [18]

In 2017 Hessler curated the exhibition "Sugar and Speed" at the Museum of Modern Art in Recife, Brazil [6] [19] and the project "Fishing for Islands" with Chus Martínez at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, Germany. [20]

In 2015 she co-curated the 8th MOMENTUM biennale  [ no ] in Moss, Norway. [6] [21]

Hessler has worked with artists such as Christine Sun Kim, Florian Hecker, [22] Jenna Sutela, Joan Jonas, Tomás Saraceno, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Frida Orupabo, Isabel Lewis, Adrian Piper, Sissel Tolaas, Tabita Rezaire.

Teaching

Hessler was a guest professor in art theory at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm between 2017 and 2019. [23] She is currently visiting research scholar at the University of Westminster in London.

Writing

Hessler is the author of Prospecting Ocean published by MIT Press that explores ocean extraction through artistic research. Bruno Latour wrote a foreword to the book. Hessler is also the editor of the book Tidalectics: Imagining An Oceanic Worldview through Art and Science, also published by MIT Press, which is a collection of essays, research, and art projects. [24]

Hessler is a writer of arts criticism and contributes to publications such as Art Review [25] Art Agenda [26] and Mousse Magazine. [27]

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References

  1. ↑ Ekstrand, Anna Mikaela (2015-05-22). "An interview with curator Stefanie Hessler". Arterritory.com. Retrieved 2020-08-08.
  2. ↑ "Stefanie Hessler to Lead Swiss Institute". www.artforum.com. 14 March 2022. Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  3. ↑ "New Director Announced for Kunsthall Trondheim". Art Review.
  4. ↑ "Department of Culture and Aesthetics". Stockholm University. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  5. ↑ "About Andquestionmark". Andquestionmark.
  6. 1 2 3 Nessen, Antonia. "Creating new systems. Interview with Stefanie Hessler". Contributor. Retrieved 2020-08-08.
  7. ↑ "Fishing for Islands". TBA21. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  8. ↑ ""Sex Ecologies" - Criticism - art-agenda". www.art-agenda.com. Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  9. ↑ Hessler, Stefanie, ed. (2021-11-23). Sex Ecologies. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-54359-0.
  10. ↑ Morelli, Didier (2021-09-30). "MOMENTA 2021 Centres Indigenous and Nonhumanist Notions of Nature". Frieze. No. 223. ISSN   0962-0672 . Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  11. ↑ "Joan Jonas: Moving Off The Land II". Art Papers. 24 September 2019.
  12. ↑ "More-than-humans". Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  13. ↑ "Juan Downey: With Energy Beyond These Walls - Announcements - e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  14. ↑ "TBA21–Academy". e-flux. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  15. ↑ "Joan Jonas Moving Off The Land". Tate.
  16. ↑ "Upping the Anti". Artforum. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  17. ↑ Batty, David (2018-11-16). "DIY call centres and puppet shows help Athens Biennale fight the power". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  18. ↑ Paulo, Bienal São. "Symposium • Practices of Attention - Bienal de São Paulo". www.bienal.org.br (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  19. ↑ "Stefanie Hessler". Institut Kunst.
  20. ↑ Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu. "Fishing for Islands from 27–29 October 2017". www.smb.museum. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  21. ↑ "The 8th Momentum Nordic Biennial Of Contemporary Art Explores "Tunnel Vision" As A Cultural And Artistic Condition". Biennial Foundation. 23 February 2015.
  22. ↑ "Andquestionmark". www.andquestionmark.com. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  23. ↑ Sjödin, Veronica (2017-09-25). "Now we're opening a new meeting place at the Art Institute". kkh.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  24. ↑ "Stefanie Hessler". MIT Press.
  25. ↑ "Art Review Stefanie Hessler Articles".
  26. ↑ "Lynn Hershman Leeson's "First Person Plural" - Features - art-agenda". www.art-agenda.com. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  27. ↑ "A Quest Toward Thinking in Oceanic Ways". Mousse Magazine (in Italian). 2017-02-08. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
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