FRANKFURT.- The Städelschule and Portikus announced that Juliane Bischoff will assume the position of curator on November 5, 2026. Bischoff will succeed Liberty Adrien, who left Portikus earlier this year for the position of Head Curator at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, and Carina Bukuts, who will remain in her role until the end of 2025.
The Frankfurt-based Städelschule is the only art school in Germany with a Kunsthalle. Founded in 1987, Portikus is widely known as an important center for exhibiting contemporary art. It is a platform for both the presentation of emerging artists, showing in Germany for the first time, as well as renowned artists working on site-specific commissions. As one of the few art spaces free of admission, Portikus has a unique role and responsibility in creating a communal space in the city of Frankfurt.
Barbara Clausen, the director of Portikus and rector of Städelschule, thanks Liberty Adrien and Carina Bukuts for their innovative programming and excellent collaboration over the last four years. On behalf of the team, she welcomes Juliane Bischoff as the next curator, highlighting her experience and enthusiasm to closely collaborate with artists and various local and international communities.
“It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Juliane Bischoff to shape the next chapter of Portikus’ future. Her unique curatorial vision as well as her site- and time-specific practice reflects Städelschule’s and Portikus’ deep commitment to present and produce exhibitions that question the world as much as the institution itself. Her context-sensitive approach is testimony to her engagement to interrogate the present, rethink the past, and reimagine the institution as a permeable and continually evolving space that challenges, reflects and shapes our thinking of today’s complex world.” says Clausen.
Juliane Bischoff states, “Building on Portikus’ rich tradition situated between renowned artistic practices, critical discourse, and the urban public sphere, I am committed to further developing the institution in close dialogue with its surroundings and in collaboration with its dedicated team. Through the interweaving of exhibitions, discourse, and performance, I aim to further shape Portikus as a space of possibility—one that not only reflects but also extends existing realities, sustaining a meaningful exchange with its diverse publics.”
From 2023 to 2025, Juliane Bischoff was artistic director of Klosterruine Berlin, curating a wide-ranging exhibition and performance program with artists such as James Gregory Atkinson, Dora Budor, Bryana Fritz, Richard Frater, Erika Landström, Mira Mann, Kate Newby, Augustas Serapinas, Mikołaj Sobczak, Miriam Stoney, and Leyla Yenirce.
Since 2019, Bischoff has served as curator at the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, where she co-curated the group exhibitions TO BE SEEN. queer lives 1900–1950 (2022) and Tell me about yesterday tomorrow (2019). Her final exhibition … to leave a space in which the din of war might die down featuring works by Hiwa K, Tarik Kiswanson, Selma Selman, Hito Steyerl, Sung Tieu, Miloš Trakilović, Ian Waelder, among others, will be on view from October 30, 2025 to July 12, 2026. From 2016 to 2019, she was assistant curator at Kunsthalle Wien. In addition to her curatorial work, Bischoff is active as a writer and guest lecturer, and has edited several publications.
