HANOVER.- The Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover has a new director: Adam Budak will take on this role starting on 1 November 2020. Until recently, Budak (54) was artistic director of the National Gallery in Prague. The decision to select the Polish-born art historian and curator was unanimously made by an eight-member jury of specialists.

“With Adam Budak, the Kestner Gesellschaft is gaining an outstanding, internationally active expert on contemporary art. His many years of experience as a director and his visionary ideas are the ideal qualifications for this position. We are confident that Adam Budak will provide new impetuses for the future and further enhance the profile of the institution,” said Hinrich Holm, chairman of the Kestner Gesellschaft and head of the jury of specialists, which also included Dr. Yilmaz Dziewior (director of the Museum Ludwig) and Nicolas Schafhausen (curator).




Adam Budak added: “The Kestner Gesellschaft is a fantastic institution with an international reputation. It is a great honor to take over as artistic director. I am very much looking forward to this exciting task and to working with the team at the Kestner Gesellschaft and the city of Hanover.”

Adam Budak was born in Poland in 1966. He studied theater and philosophy in Kraków (Poland) and art history in Prague (Czech Republic) and Colchester (England). In addition to his work as a guest lecturer at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Ghent (Belgium) and at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Budak has worked as a curator at various international art institutions: from 1998 to 2003 at the Bunkier Sztuki exhibition venue in Kraków, from 2003 to 2011 at the Kunsthaus Graz, and from 2012 to 2013 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. (USA). Budak has also curated numerous major exhibitions, including the Polish pavilion at the 9th Venice Biennale of Architecture (2004), Manifesta 7 (2008), the Estonian pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), and currently the 7th Biennale Gherdëina (2020). He was also commissioner of the Czech pavilion at the 56th and 58th Venice Biennales (2015, 2019). Budak has previously worked with many internationally renowned artists, including Louise Bourgeois, John Baldessari, Maria Lassnig, Katharina Grosse, Sharon Lockhart, and Julian Rosefeldt. From 2014 to 2020 Budak was artistic director and curator of the National Gallery in Prague.

The Kestner Gesellschaft was founded in 1916 in Hanover. With more than 2,500 members, it is one of the largest and most renowned art associations in Germany. Adam Budak succeeds Christina Végh, who took over as director of the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in early 2020.