MINI/Goethe-Institute awards 2017 residency at Ludlow 38 to curator Saim Demircan. MINI partner since 2011.

New York. The BMW Group is pleased to announce that Saim Demircan has been awarded the 2017 curatorial residency within its MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 program. Demircan has been living and working as a curator and writer in Germany since 2012.

The curatorial residency, which includes a grant and the mandate to program the residency’s Lower East Side art space for a year, was awarded by an international jury composed by Larissa Harris (Queens Museum of Art), Christian Rattemeyer (Museum of Modern Art), and Nicolaus Schafhausen (Kunsthalle Wien). Demircan’s enthusiasm for the annals of 20th century art in combination with an exquisite sensibility for emerging artistic positions across media and disciplines encouraged the jury to a decidedly European choice. Demircan will begin his program in February with the first US exhibition of collaborative duo New Noveta, which will extend their performative practice into the art space through photographic images, sound, and costumes, and also feature the debut of a new performance. Together with German artist Veit Laurent Kurz, Demircan will co-curate a group exhibition of New York-based and European artists within a new installational setting devised by Kurz especially for Ludlow 38, opening in the spring. London-based artist Sidsel Meineche Hansen will use the art space during the summer to prepare her first US solo exhibition there in the fall, including a new production and series of related events.

Saim Demircan (born 1980, Derby, UK) is a curator and writer based in Berlin. Between 2012 and 2015 he was a curator at Kunstverein München. Previously, he curated a two-year program of offsite projects, as well as an exhibition of works by German artist Kai Althoff, at Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea. Most recently, he was curator-in-residence at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

Ludlow 38 is the Goethe‑Institut New York’s space for contemporary art. Located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, it has been a site for curatorial experiments in the tradition of the German “Kunstverein” since 2008. With the launch of MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 in 2011, exhibitions are now presented in collaboration with annually rotating curatorial residents from Germany. This project is supported by MINI and as such part of BMW Group Cultural Commitment. With hundreds of projects worldwide, BMW Cultural Commitment has been an integral part of corporate communications for almost 50 years. In its cultural commitment, BMW Group focuses on modern and contemporary art, classical music and jazz as well as architecture and design. In all projects supported by BMW Group, absolute artistic freedom is paramount as it is key for unlocking creative potential – in pioneering works of art as much as in major innovations of a successful corporation. MINI is partner for numerous cultural institutions, art and design fairs and festivals worldwide. As such, MINI cooperates with Salone del Mobile in Milan and the London Design Festival.

For further details regarding the programme, please visit: http://www.ludlow38.org/