Daniel Birnbaum

Daniel Birnbaum (born in Stockholm, 1963) is the director of the Moderna Museet, the museum of modern art in Stockholm.

Life and career

Birnbaum studied at the Stockholm University, the Freie Universität Berlin and Columbia University in New York. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Stockholm University in 1998. In 1998, he completed his doctorate in philosophy at the Stockholm University. Subsequently he became director of the Swedish “International Artists Studio Program” (IASPIS), a position he held well into the year 2000. Between 2001 and 2010, Birnbaum held the position of Rector at the Städelschule fine arts academy in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. During that time, he also served as director of Portikus, an exhibition space at the Staedelschule since 1987. In 2008, he was a member of the Turner Prize jury.

Publications

In 2007 Birnbaum published ‘Teaching Art: Staedelschule Frankfurt am Main’ and has subsequently written on Olafur Eliasson, Pierre Huyghe, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cerith Wyn Evans and Paul Chan. His latest book is ‘Under Pressure’ (Frankfurt 2008). In addition to articles published in international art magazines such as Artforum and Frieze, he also produced a series of academic texts and translations on Novalis, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacques Derrida and Thomas Bernhard.

Curator career

Birnbaum was co-curator of the 50th Venice Biennale (2003) as well as the director of the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). He has been he curator of institutions and exhibitions in many countries, for which he has produced catalogue entries:

• 2008, he was co-curator of the Triennial of Yokohama and curator of the 2nd Triennial of Turin.
• 2006 and 2007, he was co-curator of Airs de Paris at the Centre Pompidou, of Uncertain States of America (with Hans Ulrich Obrist) at Bard College of London’s Serpentine Gallery, and of the 2nd Biennial of Moscow.
• 2005, co-curator of the 1st Biennial of Moscow
• 2003, co-curator of the international section of the 50th Biennale di Venezia International Art Exhibition.
• 2004-present, associate curator of the Magasin 3 exhibition space in Stockholm.
• 2001-present, member of the board of Manifesta in Amsterdam.

Bibliography

• La Biennale di Venezia - Daniel Birnbaum
• Texts and curated projects by Daniel Birnbaum at museum in progress

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Name	Birnbaum, Daniel
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Date of birth	1963
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