Talks
Emma Enderby
Curatorial Frameworks
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Curatorial frameworks, Talk by Emma Enderby at the OnCurating Academy Berlin and part of the CAS in Curating 2025/2026
“For the lecture, I am to give a walkthrough of my practice, starting with some early exhibitions to now, and I will also give a presentation on my vision and projects for KW:
I see my role as a curator to be a bridge, a bridge between artists and audiences. I understand the role of arts as essential in dissolving boundaries—whether between disciplines, geographies, or audiences—and creating spaces for exploration and dialogue. My approach is rooted in push for the arts to bridge fields such as performance, sound, film, nightlife, prose, and technology, fostering programs that move fluidly between short-term interventions, live events, and sustained research-based initiatives. I have always aspired to be agile and responsive, engaging with the most pressing cultural and societal issues of our time, from sustainability to innovation to the shifting dynamics of digital realities. These challenges compel us to rethink the relationship between the local and the global, reflecting transformations that affect not only the art world but society at large.
My research topics include the intersection of art and ecology, technology, reconsidering historical (and canonical) narratives, interdisciplinary approaches, art in the public realm, and approaches to civic engagement. My method of exhibition making is to always consider the body, focusing on how an experiences and the transform of knowledge can be perceived bodily.”
Emma Enderby is director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin since 15 May 2024 and a curator, writer, and lecturer of modern and contemporary art. In February 2025, she opened her first exhibition season with presentations on Matt Copson, Sung Tieu, Miloš Trakilović and Jessica Ekomane. Previously, she was the Head of Programs and Research/Chief Curator at Haus der Kunst, Munich, in 2021–2024. Since starting at Haus der Kunst, she curated Liliane Lijn. Arise Alive, Tony Cokes: Fragments, or just Moments, and a decentralized exhibition with Rirkrit Tiravanija. Previously, as Chief Curator at The Shed, New York, the British curator worked on founding the new institution, the overall multidisciplinary program, and curated the retrospective exhibition Agnes Denes: Abso-
lutes and Intermediates, as well as Tomás Saraceno: Particular Matters, Ian Cheng: Life after BOB and exhibitions and commissions with Trisha Donnelly, Tony Cokes, Oscar Murillo, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Carrie Mae Weems. Emma Enderby held positions in various institutions like Public Art Fund, where she curated the group exhibitions Commercial Break and The Language of Things, as well as Tauba Auerbach: Flow Separation, among others. As exhibitions curator at the Serpentine Galleries, London, she organized numerous projects and exhibitions including with Hilma af Klint, Rachel Rose, Trisha Donnelly, and Adrián Villa Rojas. The curator further works as a visiting lecturer, critic, and speaker at a number of universities and institutions, as well as an editor and writer for multiple publications and catalogues. She holds degrees from University College London and University of Oxford.