Verena Formanek
Verena Formanek (* 1954 in Innsbruck ) is an Austrian designer, exhibition and collection curator. Until 2009 she was head of the collections at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich . From 2010, she worked as Senior Manager of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi planned by Frank Gehry , the local opening of which was planned for 2017, but the construction of which had not yet started in early 2016.
Life
Verena Formanek studied product design / metal at the University of Applied Arts Vienna . In 1979 she graduated with honors. In 1977 she received the City of Vienna Prize for the design of the Johann Nestroy Ring (the design was changed). After completing her studies, she founded the atelier community Knöllgasse 55 in Vienna-Favoriten with Erwin Wurm , Anna Heindl and Manfred Wakolbinger . She started u. a. the collaboration with Helmut Lang . As a result, numerous joint projects (including with Jenny Holzer ). In 1980 she founded the producer gallery Galerie V&V together with Veronika Schwarzinger in Vienna.
Exhibitions and activities in Vienna
The first guest curatorium took place in 1988 for the Design Vienna exhibition at the MAK - Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna) / Contemporary Art, Applied Arts. Then in 1989 she was accepted as a curator for communication, design and exhibitions at the MAK. During her many years of work at the MAK (1989–1996) she initiated the research assignment for Austrian designers and founded an analog design archive. This formed the basis for the MAK Design Infopool, the first digital design image database. The MAK-Dip is headed today by Heidi Caltik and is continuously updated.
In her function as exhibition curator, Formanek has helped develop and oversee numerous MAK exhibitions at home and abroad. Among others the following projects:
- Carlo Scarpa : The Other City (1989)
- Max Peintner , Moscow (1991)
- Josef Hoffmann : between ornament and crime, New York (1992)
- Reorganization of the MAK show collection with Jenny Holzer , Donald Judd , Franz Graf, Heimo Zobernig , Gangart and Barbara Bloom (1993)
- Rosemarie Trockel: Anima (1994)
- Hans Kupelwieser : Trans-Formation (1994)
- Sergei Bugaev Africa: Krimania (1995)
- Japan Today. Art, Photography, Design (1995)
- Kiki Kogelnig: Hangings (1995)
- Philipp Johnson: Turning Point (1996)
- Cycle media, apparatus, art and projection spaces together with Birgit Flos
- Granular Synthesis NoiseGate-M6.
From 1993 to 1996 she acted as deputy director.
Exhibitions and activities in Basel
In 1996 the company moved to Basel to the Fondation Beyeler , Riehen. Participation in building the museum, which opened in October 1997. Formanek was a member of the executive board and deputy artistic director. In this role, exhibition projects were developed such as:
- Jasper Johns: Works owned by the artist
- Colors-Sounds, Wassily Kandinsky
- Roy Lichtenstein
- Magic of trees
- Face to face
- Cézanne and the modern age; Color> light
- Andy Warhol Series and singles
- Mark Rothko; Ornament and abstraction
- Your spiral view "Olafur Eliasson, 2002
- Anselm Kiefer The Seven Heavenly Palaces 1973–2001
- Claude Monet ... to digital impressionism
- Ellsworth Kelly Works 1956–2002
- Expressive!
In 2004 he left the museum.
Projects and Realizations
Formanek then worked internationally as a freelance curator and was involved in setting up the "bof" in 2004 as an associate assistant. As a freelance curator, she presented:
- Mono by Yvo Hartmann in the Kunstraum Basel
- Luxury art in the Museum Bellerive , Zurich
- 2005 Views of Carmen in the Universalmuseum Joanneum .
Head of the collection at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
The main task of the collection management in Zurich in 2006 was the establishment of a competence center in which all four collections that have existed since 1875:
- The applied arts collection
- The poster collection
- The graphic collection
- The design collection
would be united.
On the occasion of the exhibition "Every Thing Design The Collections of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich" , the first joint catalog of works was published in 2009, designed by Irma Boom. The move of all collections to the newly planned competence center was stopped in the same year and the management of the collections was canceled due to a savings plan.
Web links
- Literature by and about Verena Formanek in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Formanek, Verena. (No longer available online.) MAK Design Info Pool, formerly the original ; Retrieved September 18, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ "Seeing Through Light: Selections from Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection" . (English). In: austrianbc.ae , March 12, 2015, accessed December 31, 2016.
- ^ Construction of Gehry's Guggenheim Abu Dhabi yet to start . (English). In: dezeen.com , February 12, 2016, accessed December 31, 2016.
- ↑ Gallery ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Formanek, Verena |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian designer, exhibition and collection curator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1954 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | innsbruck |