Charles Esche

Description

Charles Esche is a curator and writer. Since 2004 he is Director of the Van Abbemuseum , Eindhoven (recently stepping down)and editorial director of Afterall Journal and Books based at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London. He is an advisor at Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht and professor of contemporary art and curating at Central Saint Martins, UAL, London. Charles Esche was part of the Selection Committee for the artistic direction of documenta 15. He received the 2012 Princess Margriet Award and the 2014 CCS Bard College Prize for Curatorial Excellence.
His main work has involved working on the constitution of art institutions, most recently the museum in the Play Van Abbe project (2009-2011). He was instrumental in projects and exhibitions like Picasso in Palestine (2011), Heartland (2008-2009), Be(com)ing Dutch (2008) and Forms of Resistance (2007). Under his directorship, the Van Abbemuseum has created a European network called L’Internationale, a co-operation with six European institutions and artist archives. In the last years, he curated major exhibitions including the Slovenian Triennale in Ljubljana in 2010, the 2nd and 3rd Riwaq Biennial, Palestine with Khalil Rabah in 2007 and 2009; the 9th Istanbul Biennial 2005 with Vasif Kortun, Esra Sarigedik Öktem and November Paynter and the Gwangju Biennale 2002 in Korea with Hou Hanru and Song Wang Kyung, in 2014, together with Galit Eilat, Nuria Enguita Mayo, Pablo Lafuente and Oren Sagiv the 31st São Paulo Biennial, the Jakarta Biennale 2015 and most recently To those who have no time to play (2022-2023) at Framer Framed, Amsterdam.