Christina Végh

Christina Végh, born in 1970 in Zurich, has been director of the Bonner Kunstverein since 2005.

After studying art history in Zurich and Santa Cruz (California), with ethnology and philosophy as subsidiary subjects, Christina Végh began working at the Kunsthalle Basel in 2000 as a research assistant, moving on to become a curator there in 2002. For the changeover period between directors (from Peter Pakesch to Adam Szymczyk) she was appointed interim director of the Kunsthalle.

During her studies Végh focused her attention on twentieth-century art history, contemporary art, architectural history, “Kunst am Bau” (public art), cultural anthropology and art theory. Guided by these key interests, Végh sought to tie her projects into a broader cultural context (architecture, urban development, literature, philosophy). In Basel she also invested particular energy in supporting the local art scene and cooperative links with other institutions located in the region. She played a prominent role in shaping the exhibition format of the so-called “Regionale”, in which over 20 institutions now participate from the border region of the three neighbouring countries Switzerland, France and Germany.

Having herself enjoyed a multilingual upbringing, Végh pursues an internationally oriented programme which features young and emerging positions such as Martin Hoener, Gert and Uwe Tobias, Corey McCorkle, as well as, intermittently – supplementing these with a historical perspective – older artists such as John Baldessari, Meuser, Corinne Wasmuht or Christopher Williams. She has also repeatedly explored experimental exhibition formats, as for instance in the exhibition “Totalschaden” (2006), which she evolved in collaboration with Gregor Schneider; or in the exhibition “The first minute of the rest of a movie” (2005) involving Jan Mancuska and Jonas Dahlberg.

Christina Végh is regularly invited to participate in juries. She has also been invited as guest critic to the ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel and at the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design in Tel Aviv. Besides numerous catalogue texts she has also published art-historical essays in art journals such as Parkett and Kunstbulletin.