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Berliner Festspiele and HKW: Change at the top of important cultural institutions

2021-06-20T15:03:45.634Z


Movement in Berlin's cultural scene: Thomas Oberender is leaving the Berlin Festival prematurely. In the meantime, the House of World Cultures has found a new director in Bonaventure Ndikung.


Enlarge image

Bonaventure Ndikung (left) and Thomas Oberender

Photo: [M] Annette Riedl / dpa;

Jörg Carstensen / picture alliance / dpa

The director of the Berliner Festspiele, Thomas Oberender, will only stay until the end of the year. The Berliner Festspiele announced on Wednesday evening that he had informed the supervisory board of the federal cultural events in Berlin (KBB) that he would not continue his work as managing director of KBB and artistic director of the festival after his current contract expired on December 31. "He has therefore asked for his contract, which was extended by five years in November 2020, to be terminated." Oberender, 55, wants to turn to new tasks and challenges, the communication says.

Oberender's spokeswoman Claudia Nola confirmed on Wednesday that he will no longer take on the new contract, which will apply from January 1, 2022, but will stop at the festival when the current contract expires. It was a personal decision. She gave no information about the reasons for this. Oberender has headed the federal institution since 2012. The responsibilities of the Berliner Festspiele include the exhibitions and events in the Gropius Bau as well as the Theatertreffen, MaerzMusik, Musikfest Berlin and Jazzfest Berlin festivals.

The chairwoman of the KBB supervisory board, Minister of State Monika Grütters, thanked Oberender and stated that he had made the festival into an innovative showcase for federal culture. With start-ups such as the Tanztreffen der Jugend or the Immersion program series and their Palast der Republik project, he has created pioneering formats.

The Berliner Festspiele are a division of the Federal Cultural Events in Berlin (KBB) GmbH and are funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Oberender's early departure is not the only change that KBB had to report on Wednesday.

There will also be a change at the top at the House of World Cultures (HKW): The KBB Supervisory Board has appointed Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung as the new director of HKW.

He will take over from Bernd M. Scherer on January 1, 2023.

"House of Complexity"

Grütters praised Bonaventure Ndikung as a “real stroke of luck”: “Well connected, with his scientific background and his passion for art, he is virtually predestined to further develop this institution, which is unique in Europe. In doing so, he can build on the strong foundation that Bernd Scherer has built together with his team. "

Ndikung, born 1977 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, holds a PhD in biotechnology and is a professor for the Spatial Strategies course at the Weißensee Art Academy, Berlin. He was curator at large of documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel, as well as guest curator of Dak'Art - Biennale de l'Art Africain Contemporain 2018 in Dakar, Senegal. Since 2009 he has been managing director and artistic director of SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin. For his work there, Ndikung received the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin in October 2020.

Commenting on his appointment, Ndikung said: »Berlin is home to citizens from 190 nations, and these people must be fundamental in the future design of a house of world cultures, as fellow travelers and co-creators of a house of complexity, dealing with various asymmetries the world and finally the reconciliation of cultures.

I am honored that I have been given the responsibility to open the way for such a future. "

hpi / dpa

Source: spiegel

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