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Nikolaus Hirsch appointed as the General Director of the 2012 Gwangju Folly Project
We are happy to announce that Nikolaus Hirsch, curator and director of St?delschule and Portikus, has been selected as the General Director of the 2012 Gwangju Folly Project. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, Hirsch is an acclaimed architect, theorist, and curator, as well as the author and editor of On Boundaries (2007), Track 17 (2009), Institution Building: Artists, Curators, Architects and the Struggle for Institutional Space (co-edited with Markus Miessen, Phillip Misselwitz, Matthias G?rlich, 2009), and Cybermohalla Hub (co-edited with Shveta Sarda, 2012).
His built work includes the award-winning Dresden Synagogue (2001), Bockenheimer Depot Theater (with William Forsythe, 2003), unitednationsplaza (with Anton Vidokle, 2006), and the European Kunsthalle (2005-2007), while his work has been shown in the Venice Biennale, AA London, the Storefront Gallery New York, and Manifesta 7. Hirsch has curated ?ErsatzStadt: Representations of the Urban“ at Volksb?hne Berlin (2005), “Cultural Agencies” in Istanbul (in cooperation with Platform Garanti), and “Globe” (with Daniel Birnbaum, Judith Hopf and Willem de Rooij, Frankfurt, 2011) in addition to numerous exhibitions at Portikus such as Julieta Aranda´s and Anton Vidokle´s “Time/Bank”. He was also a member of the Curating Architecture program at Goldsmiths College (2007) and the research project Cultural Politics of Preservation in Globalization (with Gayatri Spivak and Jorge Otero-Pailos, 2009-2011).
Hirsch’s appointment makes him the second Director of the Gwangju Folly Project?the city-wide public architecture program?which was inaugurated last year by Korean architect Seung H-Sang, the Artistic Director of the 4th Gwangju Design Biennale. As Hirsch arrived in Gwangju, on May 4th to assume his new role, he stated: “It is an honor for me to be directing the Gwangju Folly Project which have been receiving wide attention even outside the city of Gwangju.”
When asked about his curatorial direction for this year’s Gwangju Folly, Hirsch declared that he “will focus on creating a discussion that is architectural, aesthetic, and artistic while at the same time communicating with the Gwangju citizens and reflecting the unique characteristics of Gwangju.” “From now on,” continued Hirsch, “I will work thoroughly in examining the history, culture, and the environment of Gwangju to find the appropriate sites and architects to be involved with the project and to hammer out a new masterplan.”
Director Hirsch will remain in Gwangju until the 6th to conduct preliminary research in preparation for his selection of sites and architects for the project. Following the selection, design and construction process, the 2012 Gwangju Follies are slated to be completed by this coming November.
Established in 2011 for the urban rejuvenation of Gwangju, the Gwangju Folly project has been recognized as a new type of public design that can communicate with pedestrians as well as with the surrounding environment. As the original eleven works have been met with both popular and critical acclaim, they have created a platform for Gwangju as a new city of Design. Attracting more than 630 visitors last year alone, the Folly Project has since become become a target for benchmarking by other Korean cities, including Daegu.
