The Finding Committee

The Finding Committee of documenta 16 consists of six renowned international experts in contemporary art: Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Gong Yan, Ranjit Hoskoté, Simon Njami, Kathrin Rhomberg, and María Inés Rodríguez.

The Finding Committee has the task of inviting pioneering figures in contemporary art to apply to take on the role of Artistic Direction of documenta 16, and to select the most promising format from the concepts presented. Appointment of the Artistic Direction is targeted for late 2023 / early 2024.

Members of the Finding Committee:

Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger is painter, visual artist, philosopher, psychoanalyst and a groundbreaking theorist whose Matrixial theory has impacted the contemporary fields of ethics and aesthetics, critical studies, art theory and art history, film and literary studies, and feminism for more then three decades now. Based in Tel Aviv and Paris, her artworks have been presented at major museums of contemporary art worldwide, including Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2018), Istanbul Biennial (2015), “Face à l'Histoire” (1996) and “ELLES” (2011) both at Centre Pompidou, Paris. Currently she participates in "Artists in a Time of War" at Castello di Rivoli, Torino, where she also presents a solo show in parallel. Her books include: "Matrix: Halala Lapsus" (1993), "The Matrixial Gaze" (1995), “Régard et éspace-de-bord matrixiels” (1999), “The Matrixial Borderspace” (2006), “Proto-ética matricial” (2019), “Matrixial Subjectivity, Aesthetics, Ethics: 1990-2000” (2020). Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger holds the chair "Marcel Duchamp" and is professor of psychoanalysis and art at the EGS (Saas-Fee) and is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the GCAS University, Dublin.

Gong Yan graduated from Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux-Art, Paris, and is a professor at Shanghai Institute of Visual Art and former Chief-Editor of Art World magazine. Since 2013 she has been the director of Power Station of Art. Gong Yan lebt in Shanghai. While still an artist at the 6. Shanghai Biennale in 2006, she moved into the curatorial field and had curated exhibitions such as “Ordinary Architecture” – The Chinese Pavilion in the 11. International Architecture Venice Biennale (2012, together with Yong-ho Chang and A Cheng), “Shinohara Kazuo” (2014), “Mobile Architecture: Yona Friedman” (2015), “Snacks” (2016), “PSA Collection Series Yu Youhan” (2017), “PSA Collection Series Li Shan” (2017), “Body Media” (2007 and 2017), “HON: Niki de Saint Phalle & Shen Yuan” (2018), “Hussein Chalayan: Archipelago” (2021/2022).

Ranjit Hoskoté is a writer, cultural theorist, art critic and curator, he lives in Mumbai. Hoskoté is the author of more than 30 books, including volumes of poetry, art criticism, cultural history, translation, and edited anthologies. His curatorial projects include the 7. Gwangju Biennale (2008), which he co-curated with Okwui Enwezor and Hyunjin Kim, and the first-ever national pavilion of India at the 54. Venice Biennale. In 2023 Hoskoté will be part of the Architecture Biennale in Venice.

Simon Njami is a Paris-based independent curator, lecturer, art critic, and novelist. Njami was co-founder and editor-in-chief of Revue Noire. He was artistic director of the first Johannesburg Art Fair (2008), the Bamako Photography Biennial, the Dak'Art Biennial (2016/2018), and the São Paulo Biennial. He was co-curator of the first African Pavilion at the 52. Venice Biennale (2007). Njami has curated numerous exhibitions including "Africa Remix" (2004/2007), "The Divine Comedy" at MMK - Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, "SCAD" in Savannah (both 2014) and "The Smithsonian" in Washington DC (2015), "Xenopolis" in Berlin (2015), "After Eden, The Artur Walther Collection" in Paris (2015), "Metropolis" and "I is another" (both in Rome 2018), "The Studio" as part of the Kampala Biennale 2019, "This space between us" in Las Palmas (2020) and “Materia Prima” in San Giminiano (2021).

Kathrin Rhomberg is a curator and headed the exhibition office of Secession in Vienna from 1990 to 2001 and the Kölnischer Kunstverein from 2002 to 2007. Since 2014 she has been chairwoman of the board of the Trägerverein der Kontakt Sammlung and its artistic director. She curated, among others, Roman Ondak for the Czech and Slovak Pavilion at the 53. Venice Biennale (2009), the 6. Berlin Biennale (2010), Petrit Halilaj for the Pavilion of the Republic of Kosovo at the 55. Venice Biennale (2013) and co-curated, among others, Manifesta 3, Ljubljana (2000) and "Projekt Migration", Cologne, (2002-2006). Kathrin Rhomberg lives in Vienna and teaches also there at the University of Applied Arts.

María Inés Rodríguez (based in Brussels and São Paulo) has a curatorial and institutional practice relating to consolidate the museum as a platform for knowledge trough the exhibition, cultural and educational programs. She is currently director of the Walter Leblanc Foundation and curator at large at MASP, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. In parallel, Rodríguez is part of Tropical Papers, an inclusive cultural forum, which she founded in 2005, dedicated to developing a reflection on art, architecture, design and scientific research and to making visible the work and projects of cultural practitioners from and in the tropics. She was previously the Director of CAPC Muséed’art Contemporain of Bordeaux in France, chief curator of the MUAC in Mexico City, chief curator at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y Léon (MUSAC) in Spain and Guest Curator at Jeu de Paume in Paris. Since 2017 she is Member of the Martell Foundation’s Board in France, and Member of the jury of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme2019-2024 at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway. From 2017 until 2019 she was President of Comité Art Citoyen France, Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso.