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At its meeting today, 10 September 2021, the SPK Foundation Board decided that Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath will jointly take over the management of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin from 1 January 2022.

Bardaouil and Fellrath are founders of the multidisciplinary curatorial platform Art Reoriented, which they established in New York and Munich in 2009. They are curators of the 16th Lyon Biennale in 2022 and have been Associate Curators at the Gropius Bau in Berlin since 2017. Their work centres on the inclusivity of artistic and institutional practices and a revisionist approach to art history. They are internationally recognised curators and award-winning authors whose collective practice is rooted in both global contemporary art and modernist studies.

Lebanese-born Sam Bardaouil holds a doctorate in art history and a degree in theatre studies. Till Fellrath, born in Germany, studied economics and political science and is currently Professor of Design-Related Sciences at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. The diversity of their cultural and academic backgrounds emphasises the inherently collaborative model of their practice. Over the past 12 years, Bardaouil and Fellrath have worked together on exhibitions and collaborations with more than 70 institutions worldwide, including Centre Pompidou in Paris, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Reina Sofia in Madrid, ARTER in Istanbul, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf, Tate Liverpool, Gwangju Museum of Art in South Korea, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. At the Venice Biennale, they curated the National Pavilions of Lebanon (2013) and the United Arab Emirates (2019), and will be the curators of the French Pavilion next year.

Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters commented on the Foundation Board's decision: "With Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, an internationally active, experienced curatorial team is taking over the management of one of the most important museums for contemporary art in Germany and Europe. As independent curators specialising in Middle Eastern art, they have worked with renowned museums around the world in recent years and bring a deep understanding of the global art scene to their new role. With their inspiring enthusiasm, they will certainly provide groundbreaking impulses for Hamburger Bahnhof."

"With Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, the Hamburger Bahnhof as a hotspot of contemporary art will have a management duo for the first time. Their international experience gives them the knowledge and sensitivity that are essential for an exciting exchange with artists and institutions from all over the world. I am sure that Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath will achieve great things for contemporary art in Berlin with their convictions and courage," said SPK President Hermann Parzinger. The President expressly thanked the previous director Gabriele Knapstein for her work.

Looking ahead to their new role, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath said: "We are looking forward to leading Hamburger Bahnhof as a central and integrative institution within the cultural landscape of Berlin, a city that is constantly reinventing itself as a leading international centre for creative work. Hamburger Bahnhof will assert itself as an open forum for the generation of new ideas and expand the scope of institutional practices and contemporary artistic creation."

Press photo: www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html