Christoph Platz-Gallus appointed director

The Board of Kunstverein Hannover announced today that Christoph Platz-Gallus will take over as Director of Kunstverein Hannover. Platz-Gallus is an art historian, curator, and cultural producer who has conceived and realized exhibition and biennial formats of various sizes internationally, focusing on in-depth site-specific research, collaborative approaches, and cross-disciplinary concepts. 

“In selecting Christoph Platz-Gallus as the new director of the Kunstverein Hannover, the decisive factor was not only his impressive career in the international art world, but also his intensive engagement with the history of the unique institutional model of the Kunstverein in Germany. With his ideas, extraordinary professional competence, and extensive network, he convinced us unanimously. I am very pleased that we have succeeded in winning over Platz-Gallus as the new director of the Kunstverein Hannover,” says Dr. Silke Sommer, Chairwoman of the Board of Kunstverein Hannover and head of the selection committee.

The selection committee also included the members of the board of Kunstverein Hannover e.V., and selected members of the advisory board. They were joined by external expert jurors Dr. Annette Hüsch (Director of Kunsthalle Kiel), Dr. Thomas Köhler (Director of the Berlinische Galerie), and Prof. Dr. Bernhart Schwenk (Chief Curator of Contemporary Art at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich) who stated, “In Christoph Platz-Gallus, the Kunstverein is gaining a director who knows how to combine many years of diverse international experience with a fine sense of the specifics of the Hannover cultural scene.” 

On the occasion of his appointment Christoph Platz-Gallus commented: “Faced with the urgent geopolitical questions that arise against the backdrop of pandemics, war, and ecological collapse, which place the need for solidarity at the forefront, art needs spaces and people who give its makers room to act. The Kunstverein, with its more than 200-year history of collective support of artistic practice and commitment to community, is a model that has never been more apt. After all, art becomes systemically relevant precisely when we cannot imagine our daily lives without it—that is what we want to try to achieve together. I am very much looking forward to the journey.”

Christoph Platz-Gallus studied art history and comparative literature. Previously he worked for Skulptur Projekte Münster 07, Kunsthalle Münster, and Westfälischer Kunstverein and published Kunstverein im Umbruch on the development of the institution in post-war Germany. In 2010, Platz-Gallus became a member of the dOCUMENTA (13) project management department, which he later headed. Subsequently he was in charge of the exhibitions of the first Bergen Assembly (2013) in Norway. At documenta 14 (2017), Platz-Gallus headed the exhibition departments in both Athens and Kassel. Since 2018, he is Head of Curatorial Affairs at Europe’s oldest festival of interdisciplinary art, steirischer herbst, in Graz, Austria, where he also teaches at the Institute of Contemporary Art (IZK). Platz-Gallus has worked internationally as an independent advisor for cultural institutions including Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne; Stadtkuratorin-Curating the City, Hamburg; and Museo de Art Moderno Medellín, Colombia. 

Christoph Platz-Gallus succeeds Kathleen Rahn, who recently took on her new role as Artistic Director of Marta Herford Museum for Art, Architecture, Design. Platz-Gallus’s program at Kunstverein Hannover will begin in January 2023. He will remain affiliated with steirischer herbst in an advisory position. 

About Kunstverein Hannover
Kunstverein Hannover, founded in 1832, is one of Germany’s oldest and most prestigious art associations for contemporary art based in Hannover, supported by some 1,400 members, housed in the city’s historic Künstlerhaus, which includes exhibition rooms of 7500 square feet in total. Bi-annually the institution awards three emerging artists the Preis des Kunstvereins Hannover, granting stipends and residencies as well as a joint exhibition at the Kunstverein. Past exhibitions include, among many others, monographic shows by Miriam Cahn (1988), Alfredo Jaar (1996), Kara Walker (2002), Julie Mehretu (2007), Omer Fast (2008), Hiwa K (2018), and Kaari Upson (2019).

Media contact: presse [​at​] kunstverein-hannover.de