Artistic Director M.1 2025/26
Ronald Kolb
Ronald Kolb will take over the artistic direction of M.1 in Hohenlockstedt for a period of 18 months, starting in February 2025. In his programme he will address the question of how artistic practices and their exhibition formats can contribute to a sustainable way of life. His curatorial approach thereby 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.
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).