LONDON.- The Serpentine Gallery announced the appointment of Jochen Volz as Head of Programmes. He will take over from Sally Tallant, who recently was appointed Artistic Director of the Liverpool Biennial.

Jochen Volz is currently Artistic Director at the Instituto Inhotim, Minas Gerais, Brazil, where he has co-curated a series of large-scale site-specific projects on art and architecture with artists, including Adriana Varejão, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Doris Salcedo, Doug Aitken, Hélio Oiticica, Matthew Barney and Rirkrit Tiravanija, as well as numerous exhibitions from the collection. He is at present organising permanent presentations of the works by Lygia Pape and Tunga, amongst others and will continue to serve on Inhotim’s board of curators. Furthermore, he has contributed to many exhibitions throughout the world, including Olafur Eliasson as part of the 17th International Festival of Contemporary Art – SESC_Videobrasil in São Paulo (2011), “The Spiral and the Square” at Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2011), the Aichi Triennale in Nagoya (2010) and Cinthia Marcelle at the Biennale de Lyon (2007). In 2009 he organised the international section of the 53rd International Venice Biennale together with Daniel Birnbaum. In 2006 he guest curated for the 27th São Paulo Biennial a special exhibition project in homage to Marcel Broodthaers. Between 2001 and 2004 he was curator of Portikus, Frankfurt am Main.

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, said: “We are delighted that Jochen Volz is joining the Serpentine team at the most exciting time in its 42-year history. We look forward to welcoming his expertise and vision”.

Volz joins the Serpentine in September 2012 on the eve of its expansion. The Serpentine’s new space, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, located nearby in Kensington Gardens, will bring a unique, listed building into public use for the first time in its 206-year history, providing a new cultural destination and landmark for London.

Together with the Gallery’s Director and Co-Director, Volz will take a leading role in developing and complementing the Serpentine’s internationallyrenowned modern and contemporary art, architecture, education and public programmes with its expanded offer encompassing design, dance, fashion, film, literature, music, performance, science and technology.