For Mondays #1, Gail Kirkpatrick + Merle Radtke: From Städtische Ausstellungshalle am Hawerkamp to Kunsthalle Münster

For Mondays invites people from the past, present and future of the Kunsthalle: The podcast series kicks off with Gail Kirkpatrick, who is presumably more closely connected to the Kunsthalle than anyone else. In 1991 she founded the Kunsthalle Münster under the name Städtische Ausstellungshalle am Hawerkamp and directed it until 2018. In the first episode, she explores the history of the institution together with Merle Radtke, who took over as director of the Kunsthalle in 2018. In reference to the title of the frieze magazine anniversary edition, I remember when you were just a baby, Gail Kirkpatrick and Merle Radtke embark on a journey into the 30-year past of the institution that had opened its doors on the Hawerkamp site on 19 September 1991. In 2004 the Kunsthalle moved into its current space on the top floor of Speicher 2, a historic industrial building in Münster’s city harbour—a move that was accompanied by the renaming of the Städtische Ausstellungshalle am Hawerkamp to AZKM (Ausstellungshalle zeitgenössische Kunst Münster). Finally, in 2012, another renaming followed: the AZKM became the Kunsthalle Münster.

Gail B. Kirkpatrick (born in 1952) grew up in Princeton (New Jersey, USA). After studying at Wells College in New York (1970–1974), she changed over to the University of Münster (WWU) and completed her studies in 1986 with a PhD on “Dance Theatre and the Visual Arts after 1945”. In addition to working as a research assistant at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn (1987–1989), she held a lectureship at the Institute for Art History in Münster from 1986 to 1991. In 1991 Gail B. Kirkpatrick became director of the Städtische Ausstellungshalle am Hawerkamp. With the move to Speicher II in Münster’s city harbour in 2004, she continued the internationally oriented, experimental exhibition programme of contemporary art as director of the Ausstellungshalle zeitgenössische Kunst Münster (AZKM) until 2018. During her time at the institution, now called Kunsthalle Münster, she curated among others solo exhibitions by Phil Collins (2007), Olaf Nicolai (2012), Diango Hernández (2015) and Wu Tsang (2017), in addition to numerous group exhibitions.

Merle Radtke (born in 1986) is an art historian and cultural anthropologist working as a curator and author. She has been director of the Kunsthalle Münster since July 2018. Previously, she worked as a curator for the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the Jürgen Becker Galerie, among others. From 2015 to 2017, she was a member of the post graduate programme Aesthetics of the Virtual at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts (HfbK). This was followed by a research stay in Japan as a scholarship holder of the Villa Kamogawa/Goethe-Institut Kyoto. Merle Radtke regularly publishes texts on contemporary art and culture. Her work focuses on the practice and theory of the internet, (post-)digital art practices and feminist art as well as questions concerning the relationship between original, copy and simulation. At Kunsthalle Münster she realized, among others, the solo exhibitions of Mary Beth Edelson (2018), Christiane Blattmann (2019), Katia Kameli (2020), Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (2020) and Mikołaj Sobczak (2022), along with the group exhibitions Sensing Scale (2021), ton not. not ton (2021) and Nimmersatt? Imagining Society without Growth (2021).

For Mondays is a production by Kunsthalle Münster. Concept: Merle Radtke. Editing and coordination: Artefakt Kulturkonzepte, Jana Bernhardt and Merle Radtke. Production: Bela Brandes. Introduction: Arne Lenk. Graphic design: JMMP – Julian Mader and Max Prediger.

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