German Foreign Minister Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier has appointed Florian Ebner, Head of the Photographic Collection of Museum Folkwang in Essen, as Commissioner of the German contribution for the 56th Biennale di Venezia 2015. Since 1971, the German Pavilion has been coordinated by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, a German institute for foreign cultural relation), on behalf of the German Foreign Office.

Florian Ebner’s central focus is on the parallels and interplay between art and photography in theory and practice. “As Commissioner of the German Pavilion, Florian Ebner will undoubtedly make an impressive mark,” comments Elke aus dem Moore, Head of the Visual Arts Department at the Institute for Foreign Affairs (ifa). “His curatorial work to date has been characterized by an international perspective and a bold involvement with established approaches to art history. I look forward to an exciting and rewarding collaboration.”

Florian Ebner
Born in 1970 in Regensburg Florian Ebner has been Head of the Photographic Collection at Museum Folkwang since November 2012. From February 2009 to October 2012 he was Director of the Museum for Photography Braunschweig. It was here that his acclaimed exhibition Cairo. Open City was held, in which he addressed the importance of the photographic image in social change during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. The exhibition, shown at Museum Folkwang in spring 2013, was named exhibition of the year 2013 by AICA Germany (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art). He is currently establishing the major exhibition (Mis)Understanding Photography. Works and Manifestos for Museum Folkwang (opening June 14, 2014), the first comprehensive exposition on media reflective and inter-iconic positions of artistic photography from the 1970s to the present.

Image: Florian Ebner. Photo: © Museum Folkwang, 2014