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Skulptur Projekte Münster Names 2027 Artistic Directors
By Antonia Ebner
Portrait of the WHAT, HOW AND FOR WHOM collective. Courtesy Skulptur Projekte Munster.
The Zagreb- and Berlin-based curatorial collective What, How & for Whom (WHW), comprising curators Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić, and Sabina Sabolović, has been announced as the artistic directors for the fifth Skulptur Projekte Münster, a major sculpture exhibition in northwestern Germany that occurs once every ten years. The fifth edition, which is set to return in mid-2027, will be the first helmed by women.
Skulptur Projekte Münster has been held in the city of Münster since its establishment in 1977. It was founded by Klaus Bussmann and the recently deceased Kasper König, who served as the artistic director for five of its previous iterations before he stepped down in 2017. Renowned as a major event on the global art circuit, this decennial exhibition of contemporary sculpture in public spaces provides a long-term study of the fluid relationship between art and public space, the development of the bustling city while encouraging active public participation.
WHW was established in 1999; its debut exhibition was titled “What, How and for Whom, on the 152nd anniversary of Communist Manifesto” (2000), centering around the political text’s republication. A resounding success, the WHW quickly established itself as critically engaged against the rampant nationalism and xenophobia of ’90s-era Croatia. For 25 years the trio has lived in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, where since 2003 they have run Gallery Nova’s exhibition program. Other major accomplishments include its launch of WHW Akademija in 2018, an independent international study program for emerging artists, as well as serving as the artistic directors of Vienna’s Kunsthalle Wien, an international contemporary art institution, between 2019 and 2024. The collective was forced out of the position after Vienna’s city government held an open call for director applicants.
With a strong affinity for an educational approach that seeks to build connections between the neglected past and present challenges, WHW holds a unique vision of the exhibition space. The collective told Spike Art magazine in 2019 that since it was established, WHW has remained committed to “the idea that an exhibition means constructing a public space rather than just being a public space.”
In a statement, WHW expressed that it will continue its radical approach to exhibition-making for Skulptur Projekte Münster: “We are looking to bring new artistic proposals and ways of thinking that have not yet been seen. We want to address the social and political tensions of the present through our work with the artists, and we will seek to build on the practices of feminism and collectivism, as well as the many previous experiments with public art. How can art in public space today meaningfully address the fragility of democracy, ecology, and common life? Can it strengthen mutual respect and liberation? How can we reformulate the pedagogical claim that the Skulptur Projekte has had since its beginnings?”
Antonia Ebner is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.
