30. OCTOBER 2008

Jochen Volz is the artistic director of Inhotim Centro de Arte
Contemporânea, a large museum complex which was founded in 2005, situated in Brumadinho, 60 km from the capital of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The museum is unique for its combination of a botanical garden with the collection of important Brazilian and international art.

In addition to a collection that includes important Brazilian and international art from the 1960s and on, Inhotim numbers a sequence of pavilions in the midst of a botanical garden. The botanical garden has been partly developed along guidelines formulated by famed landscape artist, Roberto Burle Marx. The enormous variety of plants at Inhotim makes it one of the largest botanical collections in the world, with rare tropical species and a forest reserve which is part of the Atlantic Forest biome.

The pavilions and botanical garden form the core of the museum complex and, together with the art collection, support the institution’s ongoing development of research, scientific innovation and education.

The collection includes some 350 works of art by over 80 artists, carefully garnered over the past twenty years, mainly focused on international art from the sixties to today. Works by Dan Graham and Olafur Eliasson count to the international stock, and a series of projects specifically commissioned by Inhotim are currently being developed, involving artists such as Doug Aitken, Matthew Barney, Victor Grippo, Chris Burden and Pipilotti Rist.

This unique institution has undergone radical development over the last few years, and since joining Inhotim five years ago, Jochen Volz has been central in formulating the strategies for the future.

In 2006 Jochen Volz guest curated the 27th São Paulo Biennial: How to Live Together, with a special exhibition project in homage to Marcel Broodthaers with Juan Araujo, Mabe Bethônico, Marcel Broodthaers, Marilá Dardot, Tacita Dean, Meschac Gaba, Goshka Macuga, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Haegue Yang. Between 2001 and 2004, he was curator of Portikus Frankfurt am Main, where he organized individual exhibitions with Cildo Meireles, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Gilbert & George, Janet Cardiff, Jason Rhoades, Philippe Parreno, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Rivane Neuenschwander and Simon Starling, amongst others. As a critic he is writing for magazines and catalogues. Together with Daniel Birnbaum, he will be organizing the international section of the 53rd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennial 2009.