Mara-Johanna Kölmel Appointed Curator of Contemporary Art at Kunstmuseum Bonn

Mara-Johanna Kölmel has been appointed curator of contemporary art at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, starting September 1. The museum announced her arrival, highlighting her extensive experience at the intersection of art, technology, and society. Kölmel studied art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and earned a doctorate from Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Over more than 15 years, she has developed exhibitions, research projects, and educational formats internationally, with positions at the Biennale of Sydney, Somerset House in London, Arko Art Center in Seoul, Kunsthalle Hamburg, and Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Most recently, she led the art department at the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, where co-curated shows "Choose Your Player" and "Bild und Macht" each attracted over 100,000 visitors. Museum director Claudia Emmert praised Kölmel as an "outstanding addition" to the team, noting her international network and expertise in post-digital art. Kölmel expressed her intention to develop the museum as a "progressive institution" and create new exhibition formats with the team. Her publications include the monograph "Sculpture in the Augmented Sphere" (De Gruyter, 2025) and the edited volumes "The Sculptural in the Post-Digital Age" (De Gruyter, 2023, with Ursula Ströbele) and "Dada Data. Art and Post-Truth Politics" (Bloomsbury, 2023, with Sarah Hegenbart).