New director: Eva Birkenstock

Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen is pleased to announce that the city council has appointed Eva Birkenstock as the museum’s new director. The 43-year-old curator, trained as an art historian and cultural anthropologist, is presently the director of the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf. She emerged as the most suitable candidate after an exhaustive selection process and will take up her new position in October 2021. “Together with Eva Birkenstock as its new director, the Ludwig Forum Aachen can get ready for a new start after the pandemic,” commented mayor Sibylle Keupen, before adding: “I’m eagerly looking forward to Eva Birkenstock injecting new impetus into the Ludwig Forum and its surroundings.”

The councillor in charge of cultural affairs, Susanne Schwier, noted: “Eva Birkenstock’s extensive international network, her rich and varied experience, and her inspiring vision for a future program are a perfect fit for the Ludwig Forum, for meeting the challenges of our time, and for readjusting the role of visual arts in society. I would like to thank Myriam Kroll and the whole team at the Forum for their creativity and the effort they put in during the interim period.”

Maria Keller, chairwoman of the cultural affairs committee, also welcomed the decision to appoint Eva Birkenstock: “The political bodies are looking forward to working with Eva Birkenstock, delighted that a person with such profound expertise and vast empathy for Aachen is taking on the position.”

The future director of the Ludwig Forum Aachen commented on her recent appointment: “Continuing the excellent work of my predecessors, I am looking forward to activating the Ludwig Forum Aachen with its outstanding collection, history, and architecture as a venue for a transdisciplinary polyphony of voices, bodies, and diverse discussions. In uncertain times like these today, the role of art and culture is more important than ever for developing alternative spaces for alliance, reflection, and agency. Peter and Irene Ludwig’s collection, conceived as a global undertaking from the outset, doubtlessly enables a vast number of fascinating and provocative starting points. I am very much looking forward to working in a museum that has succeeded in establishing such an extraordinary position, both locally and internationally, and to a productive collaboration with the committed staff, the association of friends of the museum, and of course the City of Aachen’s governing authorities.”

Eva Birkenstock studied art history and cultural anthropology in Cologne, Berlin, and Havana. Prior to becoming curator of Kunsthaus Bregenz’s KUB Arena (2010 to 2016), she was co-director at the Halle für Kunst in Lüneburg (2007–2010) and was appointed fellow curator of Mini/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 in New York in 2014. From 2015 to 2019 she curated the independent Performance Project of Liste Art Fair Basel. Eva Birkenstock has been the director of Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf since 2016 where she has become internationally known for presenting a wide ranging and challenging program of exhibitions, solo debuts, performances, and collaborative research-based projects.