INNSBRUCK.- Starting on January 4, 2027, Marijana Schneider, who was born in Germany in 1983, will hold the position of artistic director of the TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol in Innsbruck. She will succeed Nina Tabassomi, who has served as managing and artistic director of the TAXISPALAIS since 2017 and whose tenure runs through the end of 2026.
As an art historian and curator, Marijana Schneider brings along many years of practical experience in the international art and exhibition scene as well as institutional knowledge. She stands for a program that connects international contemporary art with the local art scene. “With Marijana Schneider, Tyrol gains an experienced curator and a fascinating voice in the field of contemporary art. The TAXISPALAIS, as a state gallery, is a central location of contemporary art with a decades-long tradition and international renown. Over the past ten years, the managing and artistic director Nina Tabassomi has substantially contributed to this, and I would like to sincerely thank her for her unwavering commitment and great identification with the TAXISPALAIS as an internationally outstanding art center. I wish her successor, Marijana Schneider, all the best and am looking forward to strong new impulses for our diverse art scene,” says Governor and Culture Minister Anton Mattle.
Marijana Schneider develops her exhibitions based on movement: as a choreography of artworks, audience, and space, in which works, bodies, and perception interact. “Contemporary art becomes accessible when it is encountered with the body, in space and with all of one’s senses—not only through prior knowledge. In this way, I would like to open the TAXISPALAIS as a vibrant venue for artistic production, where international contemporary art and the local community come together,” says Marijana Schneider.
An institution shaped by strong female curators
The TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol is the State of Tyrol’s exhibition venue for international contemporary art. Within the Austrian art scene, it takes on a special position. Since its foundation by Paul Flora, Wilfried Kirschl, Oswald Oberhuber, and Magdalena Hrmann in 1964, it has featured significant international positions early on in Tyrol. In 1973, for example, the first Gerhard Richter exhibition in Austria was on view here, and in 2020 Iman Issa’s first Austrian solo show. Over the decades, the institution has been shaped by a succession of consistently strong female curators promoting a decidedly experimental and feminist program, among them, Silvia Eiblmayr and Nina Tabassomi. The venue’s location and architecture also shape its identity: The Kunsthalle, reconstructed by the Tyrolean architect Hanno Schlgl in 1999, is housed in the historical Palais Fugger-Taxis and combines the history of this site with exhibitions always oriented toward the present. The institution thus assumes a key function as a bridge between its regional roots and the international art scene.
The TAXISPALAIS as a public space for discourse, encounter, and critical reflection
For decades, the TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol has been presenting artists whose works negotiate key issues of their time. It understands itself not only as an exhibition venue, but also as a public space for discourse, encounter, and critical reflection. Exhibitions, publications, talks, performances, and other mediation formats make the Kunsthalle a place where diverse perspectives on the present enter into a dialog with each other.
On January 4, 2027, a new chapter in the history of the TAXISPALAIS, which will be administratively incorporated into the Tyrolean State Museums, will begin with Marijana Schneider. Andreas Rudigier, the director of the Tyrolean State Museums, is happy about the unanimous recommendation by the jury of experts consisting of Sandro Droschl, Hemma Schmutz, and Jrgen Tabor: “With Marijana Schneider, we gain a well-connected curator who knows how to convey contemporary art to a broad audience in order to establish long-term ties to different target groups. At the same time, she will further develop the position of the Kunsthalle as a relevant site for contemporary art, establish new international connections, and strengthen it as an open and accessible place for the Tyrolean public.”
