arts & life
art
-
Jens Hoffmann
Curator and author
Jens Hoffmann puts a
light on many cultures
— including his own.
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
details
"Woman in E" will be on view
Jan. 15-April 10, at the Museum
of Contemporary Art Detroit
(MOCAD). $5 suggested donation.
(313) 832-6622; mocadetroit.org .
38 December 17 2015
J
Ragnar Kjartansson's Woman in E sketch for a performance at MOCAD, co-curated by Hoffman
'ReActfi-Aukcei
T
he deputy director of the Jewish
Museum in New York City spends
four or five days each month in
Detroit.
Jens Hoffmann, who has held his New
York post since 2013, also has served as
senior curator-at-large for the Museum of
Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) over just
about the same time period.
A variety of exhibits have reached viewers
as a result of his choices at and beyond these
two institutions. He has curated more than
50 exhibitions internationally since the late
1990s.
Two, "Unorthodox" (through March 27)
and "The Power of Pictures" (through Feb. 7),
are up in New York City; another, "Woman in
E," co-curated with Elysia Borowy-Reeder, will
be up in Detroit Jan. 15-April 10.
"I'm enjoying a nice balance between the
two museums:' Hoffmann says in a phone
conversation from California, where he trav-
eled to further artistic interests. "The Jewish
Museum is more set and can mount very
ambitious exhibitions, while MOCAD is much
more fluid with a smaller team that works
very collaboratively"
"Unorthodox:' which includes about 300
works by some 55 maverick artists from
around the world, takes inspiration from the
Jewish traditions of dialogue and debate for
a nonconformist engagement with art. "The
Power of Pictures:' presenting an overview of
Russian photography and films completed in
the 1920s and 1930s, relates to Hoffmann's
responsibilities with the selection committee
of the annual New York Jewish Film Festival at
Lincoln Center.
"Woman in E" will be the second part of
installation-focused presentations developed
by Ragnar Kjartansson, who spotlights music
throughout his projects. Because of Detroit's
history with music, Hoffmann thought of
MOCAD when he saw a Kjartansson exhibit at
the New Museum in New York.
"'Woman in E' revolves around a single,
central figure: a woman dressed in a gold
gown, standing on a rotating pedestal:'
Hoffmann says. "She plays the guitar without
accompaniment, and the atmosphere around
her glitters. With its ethereal feel and symbolic
references, the work conjures Detroit's history
as a hotbed of sonic innovation that gave birth
to Motown and electronica alike:'
Hoffmann, 43, keeps his New York projects
separate from the ones in Detroit. He con-
nected with the Motor City museum while
curating an exhibit in California that traveled
to Michigan.
"I identify as Jewish, and working at the
Jewish Museum gets me closer to thinking
about what it means to be Jewish in the 21st
century, how many distinctive variations there
are [in the religion] and how people deter-
mine their own Jewishness," he says.
"I was fascinated with Detroit after read-
ing Making the Modern by Terry Smith. That
was like an introduction to the city about
five years ago, before I ever went there, and I
found the city very welcoming:"
Hoffmann, who was born in Costa Rica (his
mother's homeland) and moved to Germany
(his father's birthplace), studied theater arts
and earned a bachelor's degree from Ernst
Busch University of Performing Arts in Berlin
and a master's degree from DasArts at the
School of the Arts in Amsterdam. Although
he had intended to become a theater director,
that idea changed after a visit to New York.
"I was 23 and had met a couple of people
who asked if I wanted to organize an exhibi-
tion at a gallery," Hoffmann recalls. "I realized
that curating exhibitions is similar to being
a director because of the creative vision and
intellectual objectives that have to be put
together. For me, that has evolved and devel-
oped:'
Hoffmann built his experience in different
countries because of job opportunities and
an interest in exploring different cultures.
His resume reaches from director of exhibi-
tions and chief curator at the Institute of
Contemporary Arts in London to curator