Krist Gruijthuijsen & Anna Gritz

The talk was about the history and mission of the institution, their joint work and the vision for the institution going forward in light of vastly changing artistic needs, and institutional challenges in the current climate.

Curator and art critic Krist Gruijthuijsen has been the director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art since July 1, 2016. He has curated exhibitions by Hanne Lippard, Ian Wilson, Adam Pendleton, Ronald Jones, Hiwa K, Willem de Rooij, Beatriz González, David Wojnarowicz, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Hassan Sharif, and Leonilson among others, and has edited numerous publications.

Krist Gruijthuijsen is internationally well-connected and has many years of experience as curator and director of leading international institutions for contemporary art. Gruijthuijsen was artistic director of the Grazer Kunstverein from 2012 until 2016 and held the position of course director of the MA Fine Arts Department at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam from 2011 until 2016. He is one of the co-founding directors of the Kunstverein in Amsterdam and has organized many exhibitions and projects over the past decade, including Manifesta 7 (Trentino-South Tyrol, IT), Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center (Istanbul), Artists Space (New York), Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade, RS), Swiss Institute (New York), Galeria Vermelho (São Paulo, BR), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, NL), Arnolfini (Bristol, GB), Project Arts Centre (Dublin), Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (Salt Lake City, US), and Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane, AU).

Anna Gritz is a curator at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. From June 2022 she will serve as the director of the Haus am Waldsee in Berlin. At KW she has realized solo exhibitions by amongst others Judith Hopf, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Steve Bishop, Amelie von Wulffen, and Michael Stevenson, as well as group exhibitions such as The Making of Husbands: Christina Ramberg in Dialogue and Zeros and Ones (co-curated with Kathrin Bentele and Ghislaine Leung). Previously she held curatorial positions at the South London Gallery (SLG), the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and the Hayward Gallery, all in London. Gritz writes for catalogues and regularly contributes to art publications. She served as a curatorial attaché for the 20th Biennale of Sydney in 2016, and since 2019, she has been a member of the acquisitions committee at the FRAC Lorraine in Metz.