DIRECTOR
Chris Dercon
20 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (20)
- #001
Dercon studied Art History at Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, followed by Theatre Studies and Film Theory at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
- #002
Dercon served on the jury that selected Kapwani Kiwanga as the winner of the 2020 Marcel Duchamp Prize.
- #003
In 1980 he worked as an assistant curator at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague on a project concerning world exhibitions and the history of textiles.
- #004
Dercon has carried out extensive studies and published works on the future of museums together with renowned architects Rem Koolhaas, Robbrecht en Daem, Herzog and De Meuron, Gunther Vogt and Francis Kéré.
- #005
In 2011 Dercon was appointed director of Tate Modern in London and held the post until 2016. In the role of Tate Modern director he came second, after Sir Nicholas Serota, in line to succeed Vicente Todoli. During his tenure he oversaw the opening of the museum's first space devoted to live art and installations as part of plans to explore new areas of visual culture such as video, photography and performance art.
- #006
In 1988 he was appointed programme director at PS1 in New York and worked there until 1990.
- #007
From 1981 to 1983 he was a collaborator at Galerie Baronian-Lambert in Ghent.
- #008
In 2022 Dercon was appointed director of the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain (known as the Fondation Cartier, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, the capital of France).
- #009
While at Tate Modern, Dercon sat on the committee that in 2015 selected Ferran Barenblit as the new Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA).
- #010
He began his career as a teaching assistant in the Theatre Studies Department of Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, where he launched the Theatre Cassette Festival.
- #011
Dercon served on film festival juries in Brussels, Rotterdam, Locarno and Sarajevo (2014).
- #012
Dercon was appointed to his first directorship at Witte de With in Rotterdam and worked there until 1995.
- #013
Dercon is a Belgian art historian, curator and museum director.
- #014
Nominated in 2015 by Berlin's culture minister Tim Renner, Dercon was appointed general director of the Volksbühne Berlin for 2017-2018, succeeding Frank Castorf. His first season opened with a wide range of productions, including a 10-hour dance event in which audiences were invited to take part and an installation by filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. However, the first major world premiere of Dercon's tenure, a new play by Albert Serra, who had not previously worked in theatre, was criticised by reviewers. He faced fierce opposition from a part of the Berlin scene that considered his appointment a betrayal of the theatre's roots. He left his post only six months after arriving. In a statement, Berlin's senator for culture Klaus Lederer said Dercon had failed in his vision for the Volksbühne.
- #015
In 2021 he was part of the selection committee that chose Elvira Dyangani Ose as the first woman and first Black person to lead MACBA, and he was also part of the acquisitions committee.
- #016
From 2003 to 2011 Dercon was director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich. In his first year he invited Ydessa Hendeles to co-curate Partners, combining works by Diane Arbus, Maurizio Cattelan, James Coleman, Hanne Darboven, Walker Evans, Luciano Fabro, On Kawara, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Giulio Paolini, Jeff Wall and Lawrence Weiner with Hendeles's own artwork Partners (The Teddy Bear Project) (2002); the large-scale installation is built around an archive of family album photographs, each containing a picture of a teddy bear.
- #017
Dercon has served as a board member of Wiels in Brussels, the Fondation d'Entreprise Galeries Lafayette in Paris, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany and the Visual Arts and Museums Commissions of the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- #018
From 1982 he worked as a freelance art critic for the newspaper De Standaard and also contributed to the Belgian Radio and Television (RTBF) in Brussels.
- #019
From 2019 Dercon served as President of the French National Museums-Grand Palais Association during its first five-year term, working with François Chatillon to oversee the renovation of the Grand Palais.
- #020
From 1983 he began teaching video and cinema at KU Leuven and at St Lukas, the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten in Brussels.
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