Chris Dercon remembers his disaster at the Berlin Volksbühne
The New York Times met Chris Dercon in Paris, where he is managing the relocation of the Cartier Foundation. His ill-fated serve in Berlin is receiving a lot of attention.
Chris Dercon is currently managing the Fondation Cartier's move to a building diagonally across from the Louvre in Paris . The 67-year-old Belgian Dercon has been its general director since 2022. The New York Times met with him on the occasion of the move to the contemporary art museum's new building with its movable floors.
The text recalls in detail Dercon's brief time as artistic director of the Berliner Volksbühne , even though this was a position he held for only a few months, from August 2017 to April 13, 2018, shorter than any of the other positions he held in the course of his career, such as that of director of the Tate Gallery in London.
The New York Times recalls that Dercon's suitability for the position at the Volksbühne was already being questioned before he even took up the position. His desire to downsize the ensemble and bring international guest performances to Berlin was seen as a betrayal of the Volksbühne. In Berlin, 40,000 signatures were collected against him, protesters occupied the Volksbühne, and feces were left in front of his office. Renowned artists such as Ai Weiwei and the architect Rem Koolhaas defended him at the time. Likewise, his boss at the Tate Modern, Nicholas Serota, said the Volksbühne ensemble was unwilling to change. Dercon was supposed to bring something new to Berlin, but the Volksbühne wasn't ready for it. "He ran into a wall there."
After Berlin, Dercon went to the Grand Palais in Paris, which he hastily left in 2022 to join the Fondation Cartier. Dercon denied to the New York Times that he has a tendency toward abrupt departures. "I usually stay for seven years, except at the Volksbühne. And there, well…"
In the New York Times, art curator Chris Dercon also reveals his life motto: "I'm only interested in what I don't yet know." What he's said to dislike are the adversities of everyday life. The NYT quotes his successor at the Boijmans Museum, Sjarel Ex, as saying that Dercon lost interest when things got uncomfortable, such as when there was a staffing issue or a building's maintenance problem.
Berliner-zeitung
