René Block

René Block started working as an independent curator after overseeing exhibitions at his own galleries Galerie René Block in Berlin (1964-1979) and René Block Gallery Ltd. in New York (1974-1977). During this period he worked closely with emerging artists of the time, including Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, KP Brehmer, KH Hödicke, Wolf Vostell, Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik.

In 1972 Block began work as a curator for the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, the Berliner Festwochen as well as the Academy of the Arts. From 1982 to 1992, he was in charge of the visual artists and composers at the Berlin Artist in Residence Program, where he organised a number of international projects, performance and music festivals, as well as exhibitions for the Daadgalerie. In the following years, up until 1995, he was responsible for the programming of the IFA (the Institute for Foreign Relations) Exhibition Service, representing German art in foreign countries. During this period he began a career-long venture as curator for a number of biennials, including: Hamburg 1985, Towards an Art of Peace Biennial; Sydney 1990, The Readymade Boomerang; Istanbul 1995, Orient/ation; Gwangju (Korea) 2000, Eurafrica; Cetinje (Montenegro) 2004, Love it or leave it (with Natasa Ilic); and Belgrade 2006, the October Salon’s Art, Life & Confusion (with Barbara Heinrich).

From 1997 to 2006 Block tenured as the director of the Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel where he curated a number of notable exhibitions. Among them was the "Balkan Trilogy" series with the exhibition In den Schluchten des Balkan (2003) exhibiting 88 artists from twelve countries in the wider Balkan region, and a number of other satellite projects in the Balkans including the Biennial of Cetinje in 2004. During this time, he also instituted a new programme called the Kuratorenwerkstatt (curatorial workshop) Fridericianum which permitted five young curators to gain experience by working with him to develop their first major projects.

He concluded his work on major art projects by curating the Nordic Pavilion (Welfare- Fare Well) at the 52th Biennale di Venezia (2007). In 2008 he established the artspace TANAS, which acted as a platform for Turkish artists in Berlin and ran until 2013. At the same time, he co-founded the Kunsthal 44 Møen in Denmark, where he continues to operate as its artistic director.

René Block also runs Edition Block publishing house since 1966