MUNICH.- The Council of Ministers of the Bavarian State has come to the decision in today's conference that Okwui Enwezor will lead Haus der Kunst as director for another five years. This decision supports the programmatic new orientation of Haus der Kunst which Okwui Enwezor has established since his appointment in October 2011. "I am thrilled with the confidence in my work conveyed by the Council of Ministers through this reappointment. I am looking forward to continuing with my colleagues in Haus der Kunst the successful programmatic orientation of the institution", annotates Okwui Enwezor the decision.

Looking back
With an increase in the number of exhibitions per year to twelve, Okwui Enwezor has consistently expanded the formal and contextual medium of the exhibition and has introduced new formats for scientific discourse and strengthened the education program.

This process has included a systematic analysis of the institution's own exhibition history. This critical approach addressed the fact that during Haus der Kunst's 79-year existence, a monographic exhibition of a female artist had never been presented in the prestigious rooms of the East Wing. This first occurred in 2015 with Louise Bourgeois and Hanne Darboven. In addition, the monographic exhibitions of Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Lorna Simpson and Ellen Gallagher have firmly anchored female artists into the program of Haus der Kunst.

Since 2012, Haus der Kunst has responded to its exhibition history by working more intently with artists such as Mohamed Bourouissa (born 1978 in Blida, Algeria), Abraham Cruzvillegas (born 1968 in Mexico City), Stan Douglas (born 1960 in Vancouver, Canada), Ivan Kozaric (born 1921 in Petrinja, Croatia), Victor Man (born 1974 in Romania), and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (born 1977 in London). In doing so, geopolitical omissions were also amended.

Okwui Enwezor has systematically expanded the critical examination of the institution's exhibition history by focusing for the first time on the post-war years ("Histories in Conflict: Haus der Kunst and the Ideological Use of Art 1937 to 1955", 2012). Opened in 2014, the Archive Gallery acts as a dynamic concept of the archive as a reservoir of documents and ideas.

Also a new exhibition format is the annual commission for the Middle Hall (DER ÖFFENTLICHKEIT - VON DEN FREUNDEN HAUS DER KUNST), as are the Capsule exhibitions, which offer uniquely intimate spaces for insight into the contemporary artistic practice.

For Okwui Enwezor, the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary art has always been an undisputable part of the Haus der Kunst program, in which an intangible component is also firmly anchored: music. The start was marked by a series of concerts organized together with ECM Records, followed by "Klang und Stille" (2012), the sound performances of Mark Leckey (2014), a production by Anri Sala treating a modified version of Arnold Schoenberg's ‘Transfigured Night' ("The Present Moment", 2014), and an exhibition on German subculture in the 1980s that included the music of seven bands ("Ingenious Dilletanten", 2015). Recently, music created from the translation of recorded dates - a kind of "mathematical music" - could be heard in "Hanne Darboven. Enlightenment".

Partners and venues
On the occasion of the Stan Douglas and Matthew Barney exhibition projects, Haus der Kunst gained new partners in the Munich Kammerspiele and the Bavarian State Opera. The institution's international profile has also increased as its own productions go on tour. September 2015 e.g. saw the opening of three of its exhibitions: David Adjaye at the Art Institute of Chicago, Matthew Barney at MoCA Los Angeles, and Louise Bourgeois at the Garage Museum in Moscow. Not least, as artistic director of the 56th Venice Biennale, Okwui Enwezor has also strengthened the cultural reputation of the entire region.

Outlook to the future
Among the projects scheduled for this year, one stands out as a highlight: "Postwar Art between the Pacific and Atlantic, 1945-1965" (October 14, 2016 - March 26, 2017), which is under the patronage of the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

A challenge to be faced in the coming years is the renovation of the building, scheduled to begin in late 2017. David Chipperfield Architects has been commissioned for the design.

The team at Haus der Kunst is pleased to be able to continue the planning and preparation of the many projects that it has begun with Okwui Enwezor.