Jenny Schlenzka

Berlin-born curator Jenny Schlenzka, who specialises in contemporary art, has been Director of the Gropius Bau since September 2023. Prior to that, she spent more than 20 years in New York City, where she ran Performance Space New York from 2017. During her time there, she worked with Donna Haraway, Juliana Huxtable, Mette Ingvartsen, Ligia Lewis, Renata Lucas, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Sarah Michelson, Precious Okoyomon, Sondra Perry and Underground Resistance, among others, integrating artists into all facets of the institution. 

Before heading Performance Space, she developed new exhibition formats for performance at MoMA PS1 in Queens, including the acclaimed Sunday Sessions, a weekly, free-of-charge live programme that brought together artists such as Cyprien Gaillard, Kim Gordon, Cao Fei, Anne Imhof, Joan Jonas, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jutta Koether, Mårten Spångberg, M.I.A., Pope.L, Pussy Riot and Wu-Tang Clan. Prior to that, she served as the first ever curator for performance at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where she helped building the Department of Media and Performance Art. 

Schlenzka’s curatorial and institutional practice centres artists, making them and their work the point of origin and reference of all programming and thematic considerations. She sees contemporary art as a discursive space where current social challenges are being negotiated. Schlenzka’s passions lie in creating impactful exhibitions of contemporary and modern art with high audience appeal and developing performative and transdisciplinary formats, which she will further expand at the Gropius Bau. Dialogue with and openness to a diverse public is a major priority for her: all Berliners should feel excited about visiting the exhibition space – with or without their kids, with or without a degree in art history.Schlenzka’s approach is defined by a curiosity and openness that continually places contemporary art in dialogue with current cultural and social challenges. She lives in Berlin with her two children.