Artist Haegue Yang was named chair of the board that oversees the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. She succeeds German artist Katharina Grosse, who served in the role for four years.
“I am very pleased that after four very intensive and extremely instructive years, I can hand over the chairmanship of the board of KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. to Haegue Yang and that we can thus continue the association’s tradition of placing the chairmanship in the hands of an artist,” Grosse said in a statement. “It is of utmost importance to us on the board that Haegue Yang is a clear and business-wise voice from the perspective of artistic reality that accompanies the institution and knows how to represent it to the outside world.”
She will chair the board of the Kunst-Werke Berlin, which oversees the KW Institute for Contemporary Art and the Berlin Biennale.
Based between Seoul and Berlin, Yang takes her new position at a tense moment. Berlin cut its culture budget by €130 million ($154 million), resulting in an outcry. The city has also recently been roiled by continued pushback over how its institutions have dealt with pro-Palestine artists and artworks.
Since 2017, Yang has taught at Berlin’s Städelschule, from which she received an MA degree. Beyond the city, she has been widely recognized in Germany. She was the 2018 recipient of the Museum Ludwig’s Wolfgang Hahn Prize, which comes with a €100,000 (roughly $118,600) purse, along with a show at the institution and the addition of works by the artist to the museum’s collection.
She is known for videos and sculptures that bring together interrelated concerns about climate and consumption.
“KW accompanies artists in crucial phases of their development—they are not just a place, but a driving force in the artistic ecosystem. This role is indispensable and deserves our constant commitment,” Yang said in a statement. “I am very pleased to be able to support Emma Enderby and Axel Wieder as well as KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. in this responsibility.”
