Adam Szymczyk


Adam Szymczyk is a Polish art critic, curator, writer and editor. He lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland. Between 2003 and 2014, he was the director and chief curator at Kunsthalle Basel. Between 2013 and 2017, he was the artistic director at documenta 14. He is curator at large at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2016, he was ranked second on the list of the most influential people in the contemporary art world compiled by the ArtReview magazine.

Personal life

He was born in 1970 in Piotrków Trybunalski in central Poland and moved to Łódź at the age of four. He frequently visited the Museum of Art in Łódź and became interested in art.

Career

Szymczyk obtained his master's degree in art history at the University of Warsaw. He subsequently completed the curatorial training program at De Appel contemporary art center in Amsterdam in 1996.
After moving back to Poland, in 1997 he co-founded the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw together with Joanna Mytkowska and Andrzej Przywara and worked there as curator until 2003.
Subsequently, he was director and chief curator at Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland from 2003 to 2014, during which he co-curated with Elena Filipovic the 5th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, When Things Cast No Shadow in 2008.
In 2013, he was appointed artistic director of documenta 14, which took place in Athens and Kassel in 2017.

Curator

Selected exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel

2014: Naeem Mohaiemen, Prisoners of Shotik Itihash; Vivian Suter, intrépida, featuring Elisabeth Wild Fantasias 2; Ross Birrell and David Harding, Winter Line
2013: Mandla Reuter, Allyson Vieira, "The Plural Present," Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Songs for a Mad King; Adrian Melis, The Value of Absence; Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat, Journal
2012: Hannah Weinberger, When You Leave, Walk Out Backwards, So I’ll Think That You’re Walking In; Craigie Horsefield, Slow Time and the Present; Paul Sietsema; Adriana Lara, S.S.O.R.; Pamela Rosenkranz, Feeding, Fleeing, Fighting, Reproduction
2011: Sung Hwan Kim, Line Wall; How to Work and How to Work ; R.H. Quaytman, Spine, Chapter 20; Danai Anesiadou, Damnesia Vu; Yael Davids, Ending with Glass
2010: Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter, Projekt 13; After Architects ; Cyprien Gaillard, Obstacles to Renewal; Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Interpretation; Moyra Davey, Speaker Receiver
2009: Goshka Macuga, I Am Become Death; Thea Djordjadze, endless enclosure; Lucy Skaer, A Boat Used as a Vessel; Danh Vo, When the Lions Are; Report on Probability ; Daniel Knorr, Led R. Nanirok
2008: Peter Friedl, Working; Aleana Egan, We sat down where we had sat before; Ahmet Öğüt, Mutual Issues, Inventive Acts; Armando Andrade Tudela, Gamblers Die Broke; Guido van der Werve, On parity of days; Alexandra Bachzetsis, Show
2007: Paola Pivi, It Just Keeps Getting Better; Micol Assaël, Chizhevsky Lessons; Minerva Cuevas, Phenomena; Ibon Arranberi, Integration
2006: Gustav Metzger, In Memoriam: New Works; Ahlam Shibli, Trackers; Diango Hernandez, Revolution; Nairy Baghramian, Es ist ausser haus; Kate Davis, STOP!STOP!STOP!; Lee Lozano, WIN FIRST DONT LAST WIN LAST DON'T CARE ; Peter Peri Country 10; QUAUHNAUHUAC: The Straight Line Is a Utopia
2005: SUPERFLEX, Supershow; Artur Zmijewski; Tomma Abts; Carl Andre Black Wholes, 44 Carbon Copper Triads; Christoph Büchel, Hole; Jeremy Deller & Alan Kane, Folk Archive
2004: Piotr Uklański, Earth, Wind and Fire; Rosalind Nashashibi, Over In; Damian Ortega
2003: Nicoletta Stalder, Hallimasch: Was tun in 30 Tagen?/What To Do in 30 days?

Other curated and co-curated exhibitions (selection)

2021: Wilhelm Sasnal: Such a Landscape, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw
Yannis Tsarouchis: Dancing in Real Life, co-curated with Androniki Gripari, Wrightwood 659, Chicago
2020: Elisabeth Wild: ''Fantasías, Karma International, Zurich, featuring Raúl Itamar Lima and Sophie Thun
2019: 1937-2017: Von Entarteter Kunst zu Enstellter Kunst, HGB-Galerie, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Buchkunst, Leipzig
Tirana Patience, National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, co-curated with Nataša Ilić
Wild Spoerri Rosenstein, Hotel am Brillantengrund, Vienna
2017: documenta 14, Athens and Kassel, various venues. Artistic director: Adam Szymczyk, curators: Pierre Bal-Blanc, Hendrik Folkerts, Candice Hopkins, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Hila Peleg, Paul B. Preciado, Dieter Roelstraete, Monika Szewczyk, and curatorial advisors: Natasha Ginwala, Marina Fokidis, Andrea Linennkohl, Erzen Shkololli, Elena Sorokina, Paolo Thorsen-Nagel, Katerina Tselou. Full documenta 14 team list:
2012: Olinka, or Where Movement Is Created, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City
2010: Strange Comfort , co-curated with Salvatore Lacagnina, Istituto Svizzero and Keats-Shelley House, Rome
2010: masqué, Magazin 4, Kunstverein Bregenz
2008: When Things Cast No Shadow: the 5th berlin biennial of contemporary art, co-curated with Elena Filipovic, Neue Nationalgalerie, KW-Institute of Contemporary Art, Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum, Schinkel Pavilion; including the program of over sixty nightly events Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours, various venues
2003: Hidden in a Daylight, co-curated with Joanna Mytkowska and Andrzej Przywara, Era Nowe Horyzonty, Cieszyn, Poland
2002: Tadeusz Rolke, Kunstverein in Hamburg
2001: Painters Competition, City Gallery Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
2000: Amateur 1900–2000. Variable Research Initiatives, commissioned by Konstmuseum Göteborg, co-curated with Charles Esche and Mark Kremer
2000: Piotr Uklanski: The Nazis, Zacheta National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw
1998: Guy Debord: ad vocem, Centre of Contemporary Art, Warsaw
1998: Roundabout, Centre of Contemporary Art, Warsaw
1996: Hans Bellmer: Kattowitz 1905–Paris 1975, co-curated with Andrzej Przywara, Silesian Museum, Katowice
1996: Crapshoot'', De Appel, Amsterdam, graduate show co-curated with the participants of the Curatorial Training Program

Teaching

Seminar "1937-2017: Von Entarteter Kunst zu Entstellter Kunst" at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Buchkunst, Leipzig, 2019/2020
Seminars "Principle of Equality" and "Undoing Landscape" at Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021
Seminar "What Is an Exhibition?" at the department of Art History, University of Basel, 2012/2013

Other activities

Member of the Board of the in Warsaw
Member of the Art Advisory Committee of in Vienna
Member of the Scientific Committee, in Luxembourg

Prizes