Ronald Kolb Appointed as New Artistic Director at M.1 of the Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung
Ronald Kolb will take over the artistic direction of M.1 in Hohenlockstedt for a period of 18 months, starting in February 2025. The Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung is a non-profit foundation for art and culture based in Hohenlockstedt, Schleswig-Holstein. Central to its approach is the combination of international orientation, local cultural work, and its conscious localization in a rural area. Every two years, the foundation offers the position of artistic director of its institution as part of the M.1 kuratieren program. The position enables curators to try out ideas and concepts, to consolidate their curatorial profile or to explore new thematic approaches. The program offers freedom in terms of content and formats.
At M.1, Ronald Kolb will address the question of how artistic practices and their exhibition formats can contribute to a sustainable way of life. His program is based on an expanded notion of ecology, situated at the intersection of art, science, agro-ecology, and sustainability. Thematically, the initiative will delve into food, agriculture, cultural techniques, and sustainable economic models.
Four festival-like events are scheduled, each lasting several days and oriented to the cicle of the seasons. They will be organized in collaboration with local protagonists and guests. Artists with ecological practices will meet researchers and people from the region, such as farmers, politicians, cooks, and families, in Hohenlockstedt. Through these gatherings, an exhibition will emerge, taking shape within the spaces of M.1.
Kolb’s vision aligns perfectly with the Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung’s mission to foster dialogue between local and global cultural practices, further solidifying M.1 as a space for artistic and curatorial exploration.
About Ronald Kolb
Ronald Kolb is a curator, researcher, and lecturer based in Stuttgart and Zurich. He co-directed the Postgraduate Program in Curating at the Zurich University of the Arts and is one of the editors-in-chief of the journal OnCurating (www.on-curating.org/).
A defining feature of his practice is the orchestration of exhibitions and teaching events as an exercise in participating in contexts of situated knowledge, for example in the international symposia and workshops he has (co-)organized, such as Learning for Life for the Merz Akademie Stuttgart (2018), Situated Knowledges – Art and Curating on the Move, a digital event with Tai Kwun Contemporary, HK and the Migros Museum (2021), the summer school Commoning Curatorial and Artistic Education in the context of documenta fifteen (2022), the workshop Commoning Collective Care in collaboration with TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (2023) and the experimental study trip Post-/Exhibitionary Practices: Art and Curating in Expanded Ecological Thought with local art practitioners in Córdoba, Spain (2024).
Photo Caption: Córdoba 2024, Photo: Lourdes Cabrera
