Enwezor to Lead Documenta 11

Okwui Enwezor, a Nigerian-born, novel York-based poet, critic and curator, has been named artistic director of the nearest Documenta, the prestigious contemporary exhibition staged each five years in Kassel, Germany. The first non-European to clutch the post, Enwezor won favorable notice last year as director of the "Africus" biennial in Johannesburg [see A.i.A., June '98] He will officially take up his duties in July 1999 and begin preparing for Documenta 11 scheduled to make open in June 2002.

Enwezor, 35 has lived in novel York since 1982, writing extensively for like publications as Frieze, Flash Art and Third true copy In 1994 he co-founded Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art ("nka" is Ibo for "creativity"), which is issued three times a year by the agency of Cornell University. Enwezor has serv as co-curator of several large exhibitions, including the 1996 Guggenheim present to view "African Photographers from 1940 to the Present" and the forthcoming "Global Conceptualism/Local Contexts" at the Queen Museum. He is generally adjunct curator for contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Enwezor has characterized the controversial 1997 Documenta, organized through French curator Catherine David, as "a tough exhibit to love." He has signaled his admiration, however, for David's policy of making no concessions to audience expectations or the mechanisms of the art market. Previous Documenta directors have parole of expanding the exhibition's aim beyond the art of Europe and North America; Enwezor's appointment appears likely to bring that idea to fruition.

--"Artworld" is compiled by the agency of Stephanie Cash and David Ebony

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