KASSEL.- Cultural manager Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoffmann, currently still Managing Director at the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg, is to become the new Managing Director of documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH. He will take up his position in Kassel on May 1, 2023. Until then, Dr. Ferdinand von Saint André, hired as interim Managing Director at the close of documenta fifteen, will continue in charge as agreed.

"The decision to appoint the new Managing Director also charts the course for the future of documenta in Kassel," say Kassel's Lord Mayor Christian Geselle, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at documenta gGmbH, and his deputy on the Supervisory Board, Hesse's Minister of Art Angela Dorn. As a cultural institution of global significance, documenta must tackle questions of content and rise to structural challenges, he said. "The Supervisory Board is convinced that in Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoffmann we have found a cultural manager who is as experienced as he is committed," they added. When announcing the new appointment, they also expressed their gratitude for the work of the interim Managing Director, Dr. Ferdinand von Saint André: "His passion and professionalism in handling Kassel's and indeed our nation's precious cultural asset deserves the utmost respect," said Angela Dorn and Christian Geselle, voicing their appreciation for the interim Managing Director.




Commenting on his new role, Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoffmann said: "documenta is one of the world's most important exhibitions of contemporary art. All editions of the world art exhibition have been key seismographs on the central discourses and challenges of our society as reflected in art. Managing documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH is a particularly diverse, exciting and honorable task, which I will approach with great respect, but also with a great deal of commitment and enthusiasm. I very much look forward to the close collegial cooperation with the expert teams at documenta, the Fridericianum, documenta Halle, the documenta Archive, the documenta Institute and the International Friends of documenta."

In the words of Prof. Manuel Hartung, CEO of the foundation ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius, the sponsor of the Bucerius Kunst Forum: "documenta is an art exhibition of outstanding importance and reach – for my hometown Kassel, for Germany and for the international art world. I am delighted that Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoffmann is able to take over as documenta's Managing Director in such challenging times. Andreas Hoffmann has shaped the Bucerius Kunst Forum in 15 years of very successful work – and made it a venue of highly acclaimed exhibitions and a forum on art in society. I heartily congratulate him on his leadership role at documenta!"

documenta 16 will be held in Kassel from June 12 to September 19, 2027. Until then, agreement on standards in dealing with artistic freedom and its limits, in addressing any group-specific form of misanthropy such as anti-Semitism, racism and antiziganism, but also the adaptation of organizational and committee structures as well as the definition of the framework conditions under which the artistic direction of documenta 16 will exercise its curatorial responsibility will all play a central role. Commenting on this Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoffmann said: "In addition, further increasing documenta's international appeal and developing innovative forms of art education will be important, as will supporting documenta's individual institutions in their current projects."
 
The cultural manager Andreas Hoffmann, born in Norden in 1971, has been Managing Director at the Bucerius Kunst Forum since January 2007. Until 2019, he was also the programming manager for art and culture for the music and monument projects of the foundation ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius. Overseeing the forum's expansion in 2008 and the building of its new exhibition venue opening in 2019, he is responsible, amongst other things, for its interdisciplinary event programs. He is also curator of the antiquities exhibitions "Pompeii. Gods, Myths, Man" (2014) and "New Images in the Age of Augustus. Power and Media in Ancient Rome" (2022/3).
 
From September 2004 to December 2006, he was Managing Director of the Friends of Hamburg Kunsthalle as well as Managing Director of the German Federation of Friends of Museums of Fine Art (Bundesverband der Fördervereine deutscher Museen bildender Kunst e.V.). As a research assistant from 2001 to 2004, he was responsible for the antiquities collection of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe and curator of such exhibitions as "The Etruscans. Luxury for the Afterlife" (2004) or "The Pyramid. House for Eternity" (2002), but also "Gunter Sachs" (2004).

Hoffmann studied Classical Archaeology, Latin Philology, and Ancient History in Hamburg, Berlin, and Heidelberg and trained as a PR consultant while pursuing his career. In 2002, his doctoral thesis "Death in Taranto. Grave Ritual and Society" was published as part of a German-Italian research project on the comprehensive indexing of the necropolis in Taranto (Taranto Project). Since 2011 he has lectured at the Institute for Arts and Media Management at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg, from 2016 as an honorary professor (pursuant to §17 of the HmbHG – German Higher Education Act). Since 2016, he has also been the spokesperson for the university’s Business and Marketing Faculty.

In addition to his professional activities, Andreas Hoffmann been part of the Supervisory Board of Kunsthalle Emden since 2017 and of the Board of Trustees of the German music foundation Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben since 2019.
Andreas Hoffmann is married to the Classical Archaeologist Annette Haug.