The new director Bart van der Heide has begun working at Museion
On Monday the first of June, Bart van der Heide began work as the new Museion Director
“In recent years, museums have undergone an extraordinary transformation. To adapt to an ever-changing world, they have become innovative public platforms where communities can experience and interact with culture in general. Museums have become a dialectic platform in which questions regarding all aspects of our present can be asked and elaborated. In the current emergency we are living through, with all its complexity and uncertainty but also potential, good use of this platform has become more imperative than ever. I am very excited to help carry this vision of Museion forward, as it is a museum that is growing, with an ambitious and highly motivated team. In recent years, Museion has succeeded in constructing an international profile, which I intend to consolidate whilst also enhancing new aspects and dimensions of its role. I see the museum as the leader of a complex cultural ecosystem, an active partner that can improve the tenor of local life and promote the creativity, well-being and international prospects of its community.” Bart van der Heide, the new Museion Director.
“Following the “lockdown” phase, Museion has recently gone through a two-fold restart, one of great potential and expectations. Under the superb direction of Letizia Ragaglia, to whom I offer my personal thanks and that of the whole governing board of the Museion Foundation, Museion has grown in recent years and has achieved an excellent positioning on the contemporary art scene with a dense network of connections and collaborations. With Bart van der Heide a new and exciting chapter in the history of this institution has begun. At the centre of van der Heide’s vision is the museum’s social relevance and the role a museum of contemporary art can play in the future development of a society – an issue that the current crisis has shone a bright light on. Thanks to this vision, we can therefore expect to see a museum that is a, if not “the” meeting place in both this region and this country, for discussing the most topical and burning issues of our time, in the most effective and cooperative manner possible, including the leverage of an extensive base,” commented Marion Piffer Damiani, President of the Museion Foundation. “Bart van der Heide has taken up his post, as often happens with changes in museum management, at a time when the annual programme has already been established. In this sense, 2020 is a year of transition. Nevertheless, in the upcoming months we can already expect to see some initial signs and actions linked to Museion’s new vision,” continued the President.
On May 29th, Museion reopened to the public after the Covid emergency lockdown with two new exhibitions: the artist Karin Sander’s solo show “Skulptur/Scultpure/Scultura” and the Butch-ennials project at the Studio House. The next exhibition in the programme is the “unlearning categories” collective show of the artworks recently acquired by the Province of Bolzano, curated by BAU (opens on 26th June).
