KW Institute for Contemporary Art announces the appointment of Liberty Adrien as curator from July 2025.
Liberty Adrien is a French curator and writer. She has been working as co-curator at Portikus in Frankfurt since 2022. The institution is part of the Hochschule für Bildende Künste-Städelschule and is considered one of the leading centers for contemporary art dedicated to exhibiting, publishing and discussing young, emerging and established artists and their work.
Image above: Liberty Adrien in den KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2025. Foto: Frank Sperling.
“I am delighted to accompany this new chapter of KW together with Director Emma Enderby and the entire team. As a beacon in Berlin’s cultural landscape, KW has long been an inspiration for what an artist-centered institution can achieve. I look forward to exploring new forms of artistic experimentation and curatorial collaboration, supporting artists and ideas, and strengthening relationships both locally and internationally, especially in the complex times and contexts we live in today,” says Liberty Adrien.
At Portikus, Liberty Adrien has worked on solo exhibitions of Adrian Piper (2024), Philippe Thomas (2024), Simone Fattal (2023) and Lap-See Lam (2023), as well as group exhibitions with Thomas Bayrle, Ayşe Erkmen, Slavs and Tatars, Derek Jarman, Sarah Maldoror, Trinh T. Minh-ha and Cecilia Vicuña, among others. She previously curated a series of exhibitions of video works from the collection of the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), Paris, across Europe, which awarded her a grant for curatorial research in 2016. She is also an author and editor of publications, a member of the editorial board of TextWork in Paris and a regular lecturer at the Städelschule in Frankfurt.
“I consider myself very fortunate to have Liberty Adrien take on the role of curator at KW. Her work, grounded in a deep expertise in the production of commissioned works, site-specific practices, and the promotion of meaningful dialog, makes her an inspiring force. I am confident that with her curatorial diligence and unwavering commitment to empowering underrepresented voices in art history, she will bring vision, leadership and dedication to KW’s curatorial team,” said Director Emma Enderby.
Liberty Adrien succeeds Léon Kruijswijk as curator and head of the curatorial department, who is leaving the museum after more than six years. We would like to thank him for his great commitment, his passion for discovery and his openness and wish him all the best for the next chapter in his career as a curator.
