Daniel Birnbaum

The combination of the two institutions Städelschule and Portikus represents a collaboration unique in Germany – between an art academy with an experimental approach and a small, but internationally renowned Kunsthalle. For me, as director of the art academy, it is important not only that the projects in Portikus are fascinating exhibitions but also that the exhibiting artists are involved in the teaching programme. Sometimes this takes place in the classical form with lectures and studio visits, as was the case in recent years with renowned positions such as Yoko Ono, Gilbert and George, Louise Lawler or John Baldessari. However, the artists also frequently take up a post as guest professor for one or two semesters. This means that the exhibitions are often collective productions, in which a whole class of students is involved – as was the case with Jason Rhoades, who transformed the Portikus into a kind of factory, or Rirkrit Tiravanija, who involved large sections of the Frankfurt art world in his culinary events. Tiravanija also initiated the “Gasthof” (guesthouse) in the Städelschule, a project during which the school was transformed for a week into a kind of hostel for artists from all over the world. As a curator, I am very interested in such opportunities for creating a shift within the structure of the art academy itself.

The professors at the Städelschule have all curated exhibitions in Portikus themselves. In the most part, they have presented their own works, however in recent years Wolfgang Tillmans and Michael Krebber, for example, have also curated group exhibitions there. In this way, the dialogue between the art academy and the Kunsthalle constantly takes on new shapes. The Portikus has also on occasion realized projects outside of the exhibition space. The most ambitious of these was the presentation of two enormous works by Thomas Bayrle and Michel Majerus on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in Autumn 2002.

As a curator I have become more and more interested in new productions that enable me to work closely with the artists. One example is the cooperation with the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, who has installed a kind of light-laboratory in the attic of the Portikus for two or three years. As a result, new works are constantly on show in the new glass roof.

Over the years, I have also been able to take on several other large projects, e.g. as co-curator of the Italian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2003 and the first Moscow Biennale 2005 or currently the attempt to make a young generation of US artists visible – “Uncertain States of America” in collaboration with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, co-director of the Serpentine Gallery in London.