ROTTERDAM.-As of January 1st 2006 Nicolaus Schafhausen will take up the post of director and chief-curator of Witte de With, center for contemporary art in Rotterdam. Nicolaus Schafhausen (b. 1965) is widely known as a curator, lecturer and consultant on contemporary art. He has directed various institutions in Germany and initiated projects and publications, both in and outside Europe. Since 1999 Schafhausen is director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein and since 2005 he is the founding director of the initiative for a "European Kunsthalle" in Cologne.

At Witte de With he succeeds Catherine David, who left the post of chief-curator at the end of 2004, and interim director Hans Maarten van den Brink, who will leave in the spring of 2006. Both the board and the present director of Witte de With are extremely proud to present Nicolaus Schafhausen as their new director. At Witte de With he will initiate a critical study into the nature of the relationship between international, European and current Dutch artistic practices and further strengthen the position of the institution as a platform for critical and aesthetic discourse, both locally and internationally.

His interest in the role of the artist as a ˆ perhaps unwilling ˆ representative of his own cultural identity has recently led to exhibitions such as "Populism" (2005, a.o. at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam) and "Adorno - the possibility of the impossible" (2003, Frankfurter Kunstverein), which received both critical and public acclaim.
Because of his background, experience, artistic orientation and proven talent for managing institutions Witte de With is convinced that Schafhausen possesses the outstanding combination of qualities that the center has been looking for.

On January 1st he will take over the directorship. After the opening of "Satellite of Love" (January 26) he will also be fully responsible for the exhibition program. He is planning to move to Rotterdam at the end of this year. Based in Rotterdam, Schafhausen will stay connected to the European Kunsthalle-initiative.