29.08.2025 KUNSTHAUS ZÜRICH APPOINTS HENDRIK FOLKERTS AS CHIEF CURATOR OF PROGRAMME

Together with Director Ann Demeester and the team, Hendrik Folkerts and the Head of Collection and Research Maja Wismer will advance the museum’s curatorial vision and future initiatives. This new leadership configuration affirms Kunsthaus Zürich’s commitment to presenting groundbreaking exhibitions, critically engaged programme and research-driven projects.

‘It gives me great pride and joy to welcome new colleagues to the Kunsthaus,

joining our energetic team of curators who with remarkable dedication, have

realized exhibitions at record pace in recent years,’ Ann Demeester notes. ‘Our

new curatorial collaborators bring not only experience from different parts of the

world, but also fresh vision, original ideas, and a keen curatorial sensibility.

Together, the strengthened team shares my commitment to realize the

Kunsthaus vision: a panoramic museum, transhistorical in scope, that bridges the

classical and the innovative and shares art in all its forms—from aesthetic to

conceptual—with curious audiences near and far.’

‘Kunsthaus Zürich is one of Switzerland’s cultural gems, never failing to attract

both attention and critique’ Hendrik Folkerts and Maja Wismer observe. Folkerts

and Wismer both have a background in contemporary art and share a

commitment to art of all periods and places, championing a transhistorical

approach. ‘The Kunsthaus’ exhibition history has long been a source of inspiration

and reflection for us both, while its collection provides an elaborate stage to test

the questions of our time and, in turn, to understand how those questions shape

the histories the museum holds. This is art history, always in the making, turning

the museum into practice. Together with the team at Kunsthaus Zürich, we take

responsibility for caring for the programme as well as the museum’s collections—

both materially and conceptually—while ensuring their vivid presentation and

mediation for diverse audiences, and their expansion in dialogue with the international art world. We regard this not only as a responsibility, but as an

extraordinary challenge and opportunity.’