Bettina Steinbrügge

Bettina Steinbrügge, born in 1970 in Ostercappeln (Lower Saxony), is a curator of contemporary art at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna.

Following periods spent in the United States and France (1990–1992), Steinbrügge studied art history, English philology and comparative literature in Kassel. During this time she also worked for the “Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest” (Kassel documentary and video film festival) and the Filmladen e.V. Kassel, among others. From 1998 to 2001 Steinbrügge worked at the Kunstverein in Kassel and in 2000 for the 4th Werkleitz Biennale (“real[work]”, Werkleitz, 2000). From 2001 to 2007 she was the artistic director of the Halle für Kunst art space in Lüneburg. As a research assistant and curator in the management team of the Kunstraum at the University of Lüneburg during the same period she organized a number of exhibitions in the context of the EU projects “transform” and “translate”. Bettina Steinbrügge has also served as an advisor to the artists’ residency programme Künstlerstätte Schloss Bleckede and as spokesperson for the “Arbeitskreis der niedersächsischen Stipendiatenstätten” (working group of artists’ residency programmes in Lower Saxony) in Hanover.

Having previously taught as a research assistant in the faculty of cultural sciences at the University of Lüneburg, Steinbrügge has been teaching in the postgraduate master programme CCC at the Haute École d’Art et de Design in Geneva since 2009. Until autumn 2011 she was a curator at La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, where she organized the exhibitions “The End of the World as We Know it”, “L’Idée de Nature” and a solo show with Seb Patane. Since 2007 Steinbrügge has been a member of the programme team of the Forum Expanded section at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). In winter 2010 she was appointed curator of contemporary art at the Belvedere in Vienna, where she is part of a team responsible for defining the profile of the new 21er Haus.

As an editor and writer Steinbrügge publishes regularly on topics related to contemporary art. Her numerous publications and lectures include monographic texts on the work of Jeanne Faust, Seb Patane, Sofie Thorsen, Mark Wallinger and Liz Craft. Currently her academic work is focussed on the areas of knowledge/education, museum concepts in the 21st century, forms of artist criticism and above all on the intersection of art and film.

Exhibitions (selected)

• “400 Sonnets in reverse, together / Seb Patane”, La Kunsthalle, Mulhouse, 2011
• “L’Idée de Nature”, La Kunsthalle, Mulhouse, 2011
• “The End of the World as We Know it”, La Kunsthalle, Mulhouse, 2010
• Forum Expanded 5-6, Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin, 2010/2011 (in collaboration with Anselm Franke, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Nanna Heidenreich)
• “Novella (not yet another story)”, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg, 2007 (co-curated by Krist Gruijthuisen)
• “All our Tomorrows”, Kunstraum der Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Lüneburg, 2006/2007 (co-curated by Shaheen Merali)
• “Reformpause”, Kunstraum der Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Lüneburg, 2006 (co-curated by Marion von Osten)
• “Cooling out – On the Paradox of Feminism”, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg, 2006
• “The Need to Document”, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg, 2005