MALMO.- After an extensive search involving a number of highly qualified Swedish and international candidates, the Board of the Department of Culture in Malmö is delighted to announce the appointment of Diana Baldon as Malmö Konsthall’s new Director, effective June 2, 2014.

“We are pleased to welcome Diana Baldon to Malmö and the Department of Culture,” says Elisabeth Lundgren, Director of the Department of culture in Malmö

Diana Baldon will develop Malmö Konsthall´s role locally and internationally, and will develop a programme that will encompass a series of strands rooted in long-term critical inquiries, cross-modelling practices that have emerged from recent shifts in, and diversification of, concepts and forms in art and contemporary visual culture. Diana Baldon’s activities will take multiple formats and will be devised in collaboration with a network of Swedish and international organisations.

“Malmö Konsthall is renowned both locally and internationally and Diana Baldon will continue to strengthen its profile further,” says Elisabeth Lundgren.

Diana Baldon (Padova, 1974) is an Italian art historian, critic and curator of many exhibitions internationally. Since 2011 she has lead Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm, where she has given emergent and renowned artists their first solo exhibitions in Scandinavia and has presented a breadth of contemporary art production locally and regionally. Prior to her appointment in Sweden she worked at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna as Curator-in-Residence and member of the scientific and artistic teaching staff (2007-2011). After receiving a Master’s degree in Creative Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2002, she has realised numerous exhibitions for institutions and Biennials such as for the Generali Foundation (2012), the 2nd Athens Biennale (2009) and The Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2007). Her critical writing has appeared in numerous artists’ catalogues and international magazines such as Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, and Afterall. Since 2005 she has conducted lectures, public talks and panels on curating and contemporary art: at the Venice Biennale; Witte de With, Rotterdam; the Postgraduate Programme in Curating at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste; and CuratorLab at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, amongst other venues.

“Diana’s academic knowledge, her attention to quality and experimentation, her extensive professional network, and all of the distinctive, confident exhibitions and educational activities she accomplished prior to this new position are impressive,” concludes Elisabeth Lundgren.

Baldon succeeds Jacob Fabricius who was Director of Malmö Konsthall between 2008 and 2013.