Jens Hoffmann
Encyclopedia
Jens Hoffmann Mesèn is a writer and exhibition organizer. He has organzied exhibitions since 1997 and is currently the Director of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
at the California College of the Arts
in San Francisco where he also directs the Capp Street Project
artist-in-residence program.
rather than art history
or curatorial studies, Hoffmann has used his directorial knowledge in particular to articulate his unique approach to curating. Of key importance for all of his exhibitions is the actual staging of the experience—ranging from the design of the space and installation, the conceptualization of the catalog and related programming, to the attention paid to the performance of the work itself. The ‘stage-set’ or rather the exhibition space, site, or geographical location is itself an important factor in the development of his ideas which respond to both time and place. Hoffmann takes into account both the larger historical and socio-political context in which an exhibition takes place as well as the relevant curatorial or art historical relationships pertaining to a project.
Using the ideas and strategies of artists, in particular conceptual art
, and applying this approach to a curatorial idea of the author
is a defining characteristic of Hoffmann’s work and results in a highly unique practice and personalized exhibition history reflective of a creative development not dissimilar to that of an artist
.
From 2003 to 2007, Hoffmann was the Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
in London
. He has curated over 30 exhibitions internationally since the late 1990s. Most recently he was co-curator of the 2nd San Juan
Triennial, Puerto Rico
, 2009, and is currently the curator, with Adriano Pedrosa, of the 12th International Istanbul Biennial
in 2011. Hoffmann is also a curator for the 3rd Biennial of the Canary Islands
in 2012 for which he is developing an exhibition on Christopher Columbus
. Since 2008 he has been working as a curator for the CIAC Foundation, Mexico City
, for which he is organizing the exhibition Blockbuster: Cinema for Exhibitions that will open in 2011. In 2006 Hoffmann began working with the Kadist Art Foundation based in Paris
and San Francisco, for which he has been putting together the 101 Collection, featuring artworks from the West Coast of the United States, as well as El Sur, a collection of artworks by young and emerging Latin American artist.
With Harrell Fletcher, Hoffmann developed the People's Biennial, presented in 2010 and 2011 at five US museums, organized by Independent Curators International in New York
. Since 2011 Fletcher and Hoffmann, in collaboration with Jana Blankenship, are operating the People's Gallery, a gallery space in the Mission District of San Francisco. In 2009 he founded The Exhibitionist: A Journal for Exhibition Making. Hoffmann was nominated by the Menil Collection
in Houston for the Walter Hopps
Award for Curatorial Achievement in 2008.
He is a senior lecturer at the Curatorial Practice Program of the California College of the Arts
in San Francisco, a guest professor at the Nova Academia di Bella Arti in Milan
and an adjunct faculty member of the Curatorial Studies Program of Goldsmiths College
, University of London
.
He has written more than 150 articles on art and curatorial practice for art magazines and museum publications. His most recent books include The Next Documenta Should be Curated by An Artist (ed.) (Revolver 2004, Frankfurt), Perform, co-authored with Joan Jonas, (Thames & Hudson 2005, London). He is currently authoring SHOW TIME, a history of exhibitions from 1990 to the present, (Thames & Hudson 2012, London), editing The Artist's Studio for the series Documents of Contemporary Art (MIT Press and Whitechapel Gallery
, 2012, Cambridge and London) and working on a monograph of artist Chris Johanson (Phaidon 2012, London).
Hoffmann was trained as a theater director and studied Stage Directing, Dramaturgy and Cultural Sociology at the Ernst Busch
School for Performing Arts in Berlin
. He holds an MA in Theater from DasArts – School for Advanced Research in Theater and Dance
Studies at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten
, Amsterdam
.
Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
The Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts is a contemporary art center in San Francisco, California, United States and part of the California College of the Arts....
at the California College of the Arts
California College of the Arts
California College of the Arts , founded in 1907, is known for its broad, interdisciplinary programs in art, design, architecture, and writing. It has two campuses, one in Oakland and one in San Francisco, California, USA...
in San Francisco where he also directs the Capp Street Project
Capp Street Project
Capp Street Project was established as an experimental art space in 1983 in San Francisco, California and was the first visual arts residency in the United States dedicated solely to the creation and presentation of new art installations....
artist-in-residence program.
Career
Emerging, unusually, from a training in theatreTheatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
rather than art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
or curatorial studies, Hoffmann has used his directorial knowledge in particular to articulate his unique approach to curating. Of key importance for all of his exhibitions is the actual staging of the experience—ranging from the design of the space and installation, the conceptualization of the catalog and related programming, to the attention paid to the performance of the work itself. The ‘stage-set’ or rather the exhibition space, site, or geographical location is itself an important factor in the development of his ideas which respond to both time and place. Hoffmann takes into account both the larger historical and socio-political context in which an exhibition takes place as well as the relevant curatorial or art historical relationships pertaining to a project.
Using the ideas and strategies of artists, in particular conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
, and applying this approach to a curatorial idea of the author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
is a defining characteristic of Hoffmann’s work and results in a highly unique practice and personalized exhibition history reflective of a creative development not dissimilar to that of an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
.
From 2003 to 2007, Hoffmann was the Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He has curated over 30 exhibitions internationally since the late 1990s. Most recently he was co-curator of the 2nd San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
Triennial, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, 2009, and is currently the curator, with Adriano Pedrosa, of the 12th International Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul Biennial
The International Istanbul Biennial is a contemporary art exhibition, held every two years in Istanbul, Turkey, since 1987. The biennial is organised by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. The Biennial aims to create a meeting point in İstanbul in the field of visual arts between artists...
in 2011. Hoffmann is also a curator for the 3rd Biennial of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
in 2012 for which he is developing an exhibition on Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
. Since 2008 he has been working as a curator for the CIAC Foundation, Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, for which he is organizing the exhibition Blockbuster: Cinema for Exhibitions that will open in 2011. In 2006 Hoffmann began working with the Kadist Art Foundation based in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and San Francisco, for which he has been putting together the 101 Collection, featuring artworks from the West Coast of the United States, as well as El Sur, a collection of artworks by young and emerging Latin American artist.
With Harrell Fletcher, Hoffmann developed the People's Biennial, presented in 2010 and 2011 at five US museums, organized by Independent Curators International in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Since 2011 Fletcher and Hoffmann, in collaboration with Jana Blankenship, are operating the People's Gallery, a gallery space in the Mission District of San Francisco. In 2009 he founded The Exhibitionist: A Journal for Exhibition Making. Hoffmann was nominated by the Menil Collection
Menil Collection
The Menil Collection, located in Houston refers either to a museum that houses the private art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself...
in Houston for the Walter Hopps
Walter Hopps
Walter Hopps was an American museum director and curator of contemporary art. His obituary in the Washington Post described him as a "sort of a gonzo museum director -- elusive, unpredictable, outlandish in his range, jagged in his vision, heedless of rules."Hopps was born in Eagle Rock, Los...
Award for Curatorial Achievement in 2008.
He is a senior lecturer at the Curatorial Practice Program of the California College of the Arts
California College of the Arts
California College of the Arts , founded in 1907, is known for its broad, interdisciplinary programs in art, design, architecture, and writing. It has two campuses, one in Oakland and one in San Francisco, California, USA...
in San Francisco, a guest professor at the Nova Academia di Bella Arti in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and an adjunct faculty member of the Curatorial Studies Program of Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
, University of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
He has written more than 150 articles on art and curatorial practice for art magazines and museum publications. His most recent books include The Next Documenta Should be Curated by An Artist (ed.) (Revolver 2004, Frankfurt), Perform, co-authored with Joan Jonas, (Thames & Hudson 2005, London). He is currently authoring SHOW TIME, a history of exhibitions from 1990 to the present, (Thames & Hudson 2012, London), editing The Artist's Studio for the series Documents of Contemporary Art (MIT Press and Whitechapel Gallery
Whitechapel Gallery
The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, it was founded in 1901 as one of the first publicly-funded galleries for temporary exhibitions in London, and it has a long...
, 2012, Cambridge and London) and working on a monograph of artist Chris Johanson (Phaidon 2012, London).
Hoffmann was trained as a theater director and studied Stage Directing, Dramaturgy and Cultural Sociology at the Ernst Busch
Ernst Busch (actor)
Ernst Busch was a German singer and actor.Busch first rose to prominence as an interpreter of political songs, particularly those of Kurt Tucholsky, in the Berlin Kabarett scene of the 1920s...
School for Performing Arts in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He holds an MA in Theater from DasArts – School for Advanced Research in Theater and Dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
Studies at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten
Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten
The Amsterdam School of the Arts is a Dutch vocational university of arts located in Amsterdam.The university consists of:* Academy of Fine Art in Education* Academy of Architecture* Conservatorium van Amsterdam - a music academy...
, Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
.