Dr. Stephanie Rosenthal, Director of the Gropius Bau, begins at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project on 1 September 2022. As its new director, she will play a key role in shaping the museum's development. At her own request, her contract at the Gropius Bau, which was scheduled to end in January 2023, will not be renewed.
Stephanie Rosenthal, 2022 © Robert Rieger
On behalf of the supervisory board, Claudia Roth, Minister of State for Culture and the Media, thanks Stephanie Rosenthal for her services and commitment to the Gropius Bau:
“With Stephanie Rosenthal’s departure, the Martin-Gropius-Bau and Berlin’s art scene will lose one of its figureheads. In the past years, she and her team have modernised the Gropius Bau at a rapid pace and made it into a hotspot for contemporary discourse on art and society — despite the pandemic! Her move to one of the world’s leading collections underscores her great professional competence and international reputation. I thank Stephanie Rosenthal for her tireless efforts and personally wish her all the best on her future path.”
Stephanie Rosenthal has been at the helm of the Gropius Bau, the Berliner Festspiele’s exhibition venue, since 2018. She established the Gropius Bau as an open space for contemporary art and discourse while expanding existing institutional formats. Together with the team, she successfully worked to rethink the institution for the 21st century. Drawing on the building’s history as an arts and crafts museum with numerous studios and workshops, she once again developed the Gropius Bau into a site of artistic creation and production. She anchored curatorial practice in the institution, founded the In House: Artist in Residence programme, and brought international artists such as Lee Bul, Lee Mingwei, Yayoi Kusama and Dayanita Singh to the Gropius Bau. During this time, the Gropius Bau with its specific character became one of the most renowned exhibition venues also internationally.
Stephanie Rosenthal, Director of the Gropius Bau:
“After five inspiring and exciting years, the decision to leave the Gropius Bau was a difficult one. Together with an exceptionally dedicated team, we have opened up new perspectives and opportunities for this institution with its eventful history, and I am very grateful for this. I now look forward to the challenge and responsibility of building up and shaping a museum with an outstanding collection in a dynamic and exciting part of the world. My special thanks goes to the Minister of State for Culture and the Media, for the continuous support, as well as to the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (KBB) and the Berliner Festspiele for the trusting and successful collaboration. I will miss the Gropius Bau and its wonderful team, our partners, supporters and friends, but especially our great audience here in Berlin.”
Stephanie Rosenthal will continue to supervise the exhibition On Caring, Repairing and Healing (opening 16 September 2022). All exhibitions scheduled for 2023 will take place as planned.
The Martin-Gropius-Bau (Gropius Bau) is part of the Berliner Festspiele, a division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (KBB) GmbH.
Dr. Stephanie Rosenthal has been director of the Gropius Bau in Berlin since 2018. She previously worked as chief curator of the Hayward Gallery, London (2007–2017), was a curator at the Haus der Kunst in Munich and was responsible for the 20th edition of the Sydney Biennale (2016), among other projects. A selection of exhibitions she curated at the Gropius Bau include: Lee Bul: Crash, Garden of Earthly Delights (2019), Wu Tsang: There is no nonviolent way to look at somebody (2019), Lee Mingwei: 禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals (2020), Otobong Nkanga: There’s No Such Thing as Solid Ground (2020), and most recently Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective — A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe (2021), Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos (2021), Zheng Bo: Wanwu Council 萬物社 (2021), Dayanita Singh: Dancing with my Camera (2022). She is currently preparing the exhibition On Caring, Repairing and Healing (opening 16 September 2022).
