Three members of the curating collective What, How & for Whom (WHW)—Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović—have been selected as the artistic directors of the 50th anniversary edition of Skulptur Projekte Münster, which will take place in 2027.
Skulptur Projekte Münster happens once a decade in the northern German city and was initiated in 1977 by Klaus Bussmann and Kasper König, who died on 9 August. Based in Zagreb and Berlin, Ćurlin, Ilić and Sabolović are the first women appointed to run the prestigious outdoor sculpture exhibition. Until recently, they were the artistic directors of the Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna.
Over the past 25 years, the three curators have led the programming of Zagreb institutions including Gallery Nova and the WHW Akademija, which supports young artists. The collective also curated the 2009 Istanbul Biennial and the Croatian pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale.
Nicole Eisenman, Sketch for a Fountain (Skizze für einen Brunnen) (Skulpter Projekte 2017) Photo: Henning Rogge
WHW “is committed to a pedagogical approach, primarily exploring the connection between repressed history and the pressing issues of the present,” according to the announcement from Skulptur Projekte Münster. “We want to address the social and political tensions of the present through our work with the artists, and we will seek to build on the practices of feminism and collectivism, as well as the many previous experiments with public art,” Ćurlin, Ilić and Sabolović said in the statement. “How can art in public space today meaningfully address the fragility of democracy, ecology and common life? Can it strengthen mutual respect and liberation? How can we reformulate the pedagogical claim that the Skulptur Projekte has had since its beginnings?”
Bussmann and König founded Skulptur Projekte Münster to familiarise the city’s population with contemporary art after an outbreak of public indignation in response to George Rickey’s kinetic sculpture Three Rotating Squares. The show is supported by the city of Münster and the regional authority, Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe.
More than 220 artists have taken part in the event since 1977, including Isa Genzken, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman and Nicole Eisenman. Around 40 works of art have become permanent fixtures of Münster’s cityscape.