University of Kassel fills documenta professorship with Nora Sternfeld

Sternfeld (41) received her doctorate in art and cultural studies from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2012. In the same year, she took up a professorship in Curating and Mediating Art at Aalto University. Prior to that, she held various teaching positions, including one at the Kunsthochschule Kassel in 2009. Her research interests include exhibition theory and practice, critical museum studies, art education and educational theory, and curatorial and artistic research.

"I see one of the main goals of my research work as positioning Kassel as an internationally relevant location for exhibition theory and practice, also in the period between the exhibitions that take place every five years," Sternfeld announced. In addition to research and teaching, she is involved in the conception of a documenta institute, which will also include the existing documenta archive. The university and the Kunsthochschule Kassel are working closely here with the city of Kassel and documenta GmbH. The Kunsthochschule is a semi-autonomous division of the University of Kassel.

Formally, Sternfeld will take up the professorship at the Kunsthochschule Kassel on Jan. 1, 2018, as she is initially still finishing projects in Finland. However, she is already taking on a teaching position at the Kunsthochschule this summer semester and is thus already present in Kassel during documenta 14 and beyond. Prof. Sternfeld will introduce herself in a public lecture on Thursday, May 18: at 5 p.m. in the lecture hall of the Kunsthochschule Kassel, Menzelstraße 13. Title: "PARA-MUSEUM DER 100 TAGE. The documenta between event and institution".

"I am pleased that we were able to win Ms. Sternfeld for this professorship, which is of great importance for the national and international visibility of the University of Kassel," said the President of the University of Kassel, Prof. Dr. Reiner Finkeldey. "This is also underlined by the fact that there was a very strong field of applicants overall. I am sure that Ms. Sternfeld will contribute to the regional as well as the international networking of the University of Kassel and the Kunsthochschule. This will strengthen the visibility of the city, the university and documenta alike."

Prof. Joel Baumann, Rector of the Kunsthochschule Kassel, on the new professorship: "The Kunsthochschule Kassel is delighted about the establishment of a permanent documenta institute in Kassel. documenta has its origins in the Kunsthochschule and is connected to it in many ways. Many of our faculty members were participating artists at documenta. Since its beginnings, our students have also been actively involved in the organization, communication and mediation of documenta. Thus, as an educational institution, we are inevitably and continually intertwined with the exhibition. To further expand this connection, to include the arts, humanities and social sciences, and at the same time to address artistic research and investigation, strengthens this profile-forming and unique cooperation and particularly highlights Kassel as a cultural and educational location. It is therefore our concern to ensure the continuation of the documenta professorship at the Kunsthochschule."

The exact denomination of the professorship is "Art Studies/documenta." It will be financed for five years from funds of the Innovation and Structural Development Budget of the State of Hesse and can also draw on funds from the Hübner and Kennedy GmbH Foundation during the start-up phase. After that, the art academy and the university aim to make the contract permanent.

Image (Photo: Daniel Shaked) at http://www.uni-kassel.de/uni/fileadmin/datas/uni/presse/anhaenge/2016/Nora_Sternfeld_by_Daniel_Shaked__6506.jpg

Contact:

Sebastian Mense
University of Kassel
Communications, Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 561 804-1961
E-mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
Internet: www.uni-kassel.de