JOHAN HOLTEN NAMED DIRECTOR OF GERMANY’S KUNSTHALLE MANNHEIM

Johan Holten, the director of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, will step down to become the next director of the Kunsthalle Mannheim, reports Monopol. Holten will succeed Ulrike Lorenz, who spearheaded a $75 million expansion project that was completed last year. Lorenz will depart the institution this summer to lead the Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

“With Johan Holten, we are gaining an experienced and dedicated exhibition organizer with a cosmopolitan, visionary orientation that is very well connected to both the cultural scene and our region,” said Mannheim’s mayor, Peter Kurz. Mannheim’s culture committee recommended the hire on March 27, and the municipal council is expected to approve the appointment at a meeting scheduled for April 9. Holten will take up the post in October.

Born in Copenhagen, Holten first studied dance at the Royal Ballet Academy Dance, and from 1994 to 1998, he was a member of the Hamburg Ballet under the direction of John Neumeier. Holten also worked as a set designer and artist, before enrolling at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he studied art history and cultural studies. After graduating in 2006, he became director of the Heidelberger Kunstverein, where he organized exhibitions on Jorinde Voigt, Walid Raad, and Simon Starling.

During his tenure at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, which he joined in 2011, Holten presented innovative exhibitions such as “Room Service: On the Hotel in Art and Artists in the Hotel” (2014) and “Money, Good and Evil: A Visual History of the Economy” (2016). Commenting on his new role, he said: “I am very much looking forward to leading the excellently positioned Kunsthalle Mannheim into the future.”