Stefanie Kleefeld named new Director

On February 1, 2021, Stefanie Kleefeld will assume the newly created position of director of the Kunstverein Bremerhaven von 1886 e.V. In her new position, she will simultaneously be the director of the Kunstmuseum and the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven. Stefanie Kleefeld prevailed among 38 candidates in an international job posting.

From 2012, Stefanie Kleefeld was the director of the Halle für Kunst Lüneburg, which was last year awarded the ADKV-ART COLOGNE Prize for Art Associations for its “top-level program of solo and group exhibitions.” Kleefeld first directed the Halle für Kunst in dual leadership with Válerie Knoll, and was then solely responsible for the venue from 2015 onward. She shaped the Halle für Kunst with an experimental and very personal exhibition practice, realizing thematic exhibition series such as “Fantasie“ (2016), “Ausdruck und Gebärden” (2016/17), “Authentizität. Das authentisch Unauthentische” (2017), “Vom Handeln” (2018) and “Wagnis der Öffentlichkeit” (2020), among others, as well as solo presentations by international artists including Vittorio Brodmann, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Loretta Fahrenholz, Nina Könnemann, Jonas Lipps, Anita Leisz, Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo), Lucie Stahl, and Sergei Tcherepnin. Kleefeld had previously worked for the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich from 2011 to 2012 and from 2007 to 2010 as editor of the periodical Texte zur Kunst. Kleefeld regularly publishes texts on contemporary art.

As the director of the Kunstverein, it will be Kleefeld’s mission to connect both venues in Bremerhaven to the national and international discourse through succinct solo and group shows as well as art-historical and scientific collection activities. Not least, the aim is to make visible the long tradition of engaging with contemporary art on a high level, which is associated with Bremerhaven. Early on, path-breaking exhibitions were presented in the city on the Weser by artists such as Joseph Beuys, Michael Borremans, Isa Genzken, Katharina Grosse, Karin Kneffel, Friedrich Kunath, Richard Long, Sabine Moritz, Sigmar Polke, Blinky Palermo, Gerhard Richter, or Lawrence Weiner.

The Kunstmuseum that opened in the year 2007 is an expression of this long, high-quality history. On more than 700 square meters, groups of works are on display by artists such as Hanne Darboven, Cecilia Edefalk, Ceal Floyer, Hamish Fulton, Raimund Girke, Ilya Kabakov, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Otto Modersohn, Richard Oelze, Blinky Palermo, Manfred Pernice, Gerhard Richter, Gregor Schneider, Norbert Schwontkowski, Andreas Slominski, Luc Tuymans, Paloma Varga Weisz, Henk Visch, and Franz Erhard Walther. The activities of the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, on the other hand, are oriented toward temporary exhibitions, which on 220 square meters mainly showcase younger positions. With the new position of a director for both venues and the appointment of Stefanie Kleefeld, the Kunstverein Bremerhaven von 1886 e.V. responds to the continuous expansion of its exhibition, collection and mediation activities over the past decades.