MoMA PS1 디렉터 겸 MoMA 수석 큐레이터 클라우스 비젠바흐가 LA 현대미술관(MOCA) 디렉터로 간다.

MOCA BOARD OF TRUSTEES APPOINTS KLAUS BIESENBACH

AS NEXT DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 at THE NARCISSUS GARDEN BY YAYOI KUSAMA, Rockaway! 2018

LOS ANGELES, July 31, 2018—Following a wide-ranging international search, the Board of Trustees of The

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, today voted to appoint the internationally acclaimed museum

director Klaus Biesenbach as MOCA’s next director.

A visionary museum leader, Biesenbach comes to MOCA from The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he

has served as director of MoMA PS1 and chief curator at large of MoMA since 2010. During his leadership at the

institution, the former P.S. 1 Center for Contemporary Art was transformed into the thriving MoMA PS1, with

Biesenbach becoming known for championing emerging artists throughout the New York area, advocating for

programs that made PS1 a gathering place for popular, multidisciplinary, in-the-moment artmaking and

discussion, and reaching far beyond the museum’s walls to engage communities that had never before thought

they would be touched by contemporary art. During his tenure as director of MoMA PS1, the Board of Trustees

was expanded from 11 to 30 members, and the budget more than doubled to accompany successful

programmatic and institutional growth.

As director of MOCA, Biesenbach will assume executive leadership of one of the most important museums of

contemporary art in the world, holding an extraordinary collection comprising more than 7,000 objects and a

record of organizing international, diverse, ground-breaking, and scholarly exhibitions. MOCA is the only

independent, artist-founded museum in Los Angeles dedicated solely to collecting and exhibiting contemporary

art. In 2013, MOCA successfully completed an unprecedented endowment campaign to bring its endowment to

over $100 million, and it now stands at over $130 million.

Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 Speaks to the press at THE NARCISSUS GARDEN BY YAYOI KUSAMA, Rockaway! 2018

Maurice Marciano and Lilly Tartikoff Karatz, co-chairs of MOCA’s Board of Trustees, said, “On behalf of ourselves

and the entire Board, we want to thank the search and selection committee, especially the artists, for bringing

this process to such an outstanding conclusion. The Board is excited to welcome Klaus Biesenbach, one of the

world’s most knowledgeable, wide-ranging, and innovative museum executives of contemporary art. We also

extend our warmest appreciation to Philippe Vergne for his se

much, and that in so many ways represents the highest 

aspirations of contemporary art. With my gratitude to the

search committee and the entire Board of Trustees, I look forward to serving MOCA’s constituencies, its

increasingly large and diverse public, the artists’ community, and of course all residents of Los Angeles to the very

best of my abilities.”

Klaus Biesenbach began his career in Berlin as founder of Kunst-Werke (KW) Institute for Contemporary Art

(1990) and the Berlin Biennale (1996), the exhibition that confirmed Berlin’s international reputation as a leading

city where artists live and work. He came to New York in 1995 to serve as curator at P.S. 1 Center for

Contemporary Art (later MoMA PS 1). There, with Alanna Heiss, he created the Warm Up outdoor summer series

of live and electronic music, which has been widely emulated by other museums around the world, co-founded

the now-legendary Greater New York exhibition series, which showcases emerging talent from everywhere in the

metropolitan region, and with former MoMA Associate Director Kathy Halbreich, established the popular,

multidisciplinary Sunday Sessions, which are housed in the winter under a geodesic dome. In 2006, he was named

chief curatorial advisor at PS1 and founding Chief Curator of MoMA’s newly formed Department of Media, which

he broadened through performance workshops and acquisitions, and, in 2009, he became founding Chief Curator

of the Department of Media and Performance Art. His performance workshop at MoMA, which brought together

museum directors, curators, scholars, and artists, culminated in the acquisition of The Kiss by Tino Sehgal, the

first completely immaterial work in MoMA’s collection, and the exhibitions of Tehching Hsieh and Marina

Abramovic, which established performance art as one of the necessary disciplines in museums throughout the

world. Biesenbach has pioneered the ongoing Rockaway! public arts festival in response to Hurricane Sandy,

which has featured site-specific works by Janet Cardiff, Patti Smith, Katharina Grosse, and Yayoi Kusama, among

others.

THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES (MOCA)

About MOCA: Founded in 1979, MOCA’s vision is to be the defining museum of contemporary art. In a relatively

short period of time, MOCA has achieved astonishing growth with three Los Angeles locations of architectural

renown; a world-class permanent collection of more than 7,000 objects, international in scope and among the

finest in the world; hallmark education programs that are widely emulated; award-winning publications that

present original scholarship; groundbreaking monographic, touring, and thematic exhibitions of international

repute that survey the art of our time; and cutting-edge engagement with modes of new media production.

MOCA is a not-for-profit institution that relies on a variety of funding sources for its activities.

Hours: MOCA Grand Avenue (located at 250 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles) is open Monday,

Wednesday, and Friday from 11am to 6pm; Thursday from 11am to 8pm; Saturday and Sunday from 11am to

5pm; and closed on Tuesday. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (located at 152 North Central Avenue, Los

Angeles, CA 90012) has the same hours as MOCA Grand Avenue during exhibitions. Please call ahead or go to

moca.org for the exhibition schedule for The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. MOCA Pacific Design Center

(located at 8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069) is open Tuesday through Friday from 11am to

5pm; Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 6pm; and closed on Monday. The MOCA Store at MOCA Grand Avenue

(located at 250 South Grand Avenue) is open Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 10:30am to 5:30pm;

Thursday from 10:30am to 8:30pm; and Saturday and Sunday from 10:30am to 6:30pm.

*Klaus Biesenbach’s Very Empty Nest in Manhattan <NYT>