Curators steirischer herbst ’21

This edition of steirischer herbst is created by all participating artists, partners, thinkers, and philosophers, as well as
Ekaterina Degot, Director and Chief Curator,
Henriette Gallus, Deputy Director,
Christoph Platz, Head of Curatorial Affairs,
David Riff, Senior Curator,
Dominik Müller, Curator,
Mirela Baciak, Curator,
and steirischer herbst team.


Ekaterina Degot, Director and Chief Curator
Ekaterina Degot (1958, Moscow) is an art historian, researcher, and curator focusing on aesthetic and sociopolitical issues in Russia and Eastern Europe from the 19th century to the post-Soviet era. She began her five-year tenure as Director and Chief Curator of steirischer herbst in 2018. From 2014 to 2017 Degot was Artistic Director of the Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne. Among other shows, she curated the 1st Ural Industrial Biennial in Yekaterinburg (2010, with Cosmin Costinas and David Riff) and headed the first Bergen Assembly with Riff (2013). Degot lives in Graz.

Henriette Gallus, Deputy Director
Henriette Gallus (1983, Grevesmühlen) is an editor and communications expert in the field of culture. She worked in publishing until her appointment as Press Officer of dOCUMENTA (13) in 2011. She has since been responsible for the communications of Bergen Assembly in 2013 (where she serves on the board today) and documenta 14, both in Kassel and Athens from 2014 to 2017, as well as Berlin Documentary Forum in 2014. She is also a founding member of the international publishing endeavor Fiktion. Gallus became Deputy Director at steirischer herbst in early 2018. She was a communications advisor for the German Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), and continues advising various institutions internationally, including sonsbeek contemporary in Arnhem, Rencontres de Bamako in Mali, and Castello di Rivoli in Turin. Gallus lives in Graz.

Christoph Platz, Head of Curatorial Affairs
Christoph Platz (1982, Aachen) is an art historian, curator and exhibition manager. He has worked for Skulptur Projekte Münster 07, Kunsthalle Münster, and Westfälischer Kunstverein and has published the book Kunstverein im Umbruch (2011) on the development of the institution in postwar Germany. In 2010 he joined the Project Management department of dOCUMENTA (13), which he later headed. Platz led the Exhibition Departments of Bergen Assembly (2013) and documenta 14 (2017) and served as independent strategic advisor for artists and institutions (such as Stadtkuratorin Hamburg and Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne). Since 2018 Platz resides in Graz, where he is Head of Curatorial Affairs at steirischer herbst and also teaches at the Institute for Contemporary Art (IZK, TU Graz).

David Riff, Senior Curator
David Riff (1975, London) is a writer, translator, artist, curator, and former member of the art group Chto Delat. He has been a curator at steirischer herbst since 2018. Among other shows, Riff cocurated the 1st Ural Industrial Biennial in Yekaterinburg (2010, with Cosmin Costinas and Ekaterina Degot) and headed the first Bergen Assembly together with Degot (2013). His most recent effort as an artist-curator was a large-scale exhibition on Mikhail Lifshitz in Moscow (2018, with Dmitry Gutov). Riff lives in Berlin.

Dominik Müller, Curator
​Dominik Müller (1986, Cologne) is a curator and theater dramaturg. His research focuses on experimental theater and performance with a special interest in aspects relating to social, political, and collective memory. He has been a curator at steirischer herbst since 2018 and a co-founder of the independent theater group CADAM. He worked as a dramaturg for Impulse Theater Festival, Germany, as well as for Gessnerallee Zürich. Müller lives in Graz and Cologne.

Mirela Baciak, Curator
Mirela Baciak (1987, Warsaw) is a curator, researcher, and writer. She is interested in the systems of transaction that are used for profit around the globe, and in crisis as an inherent quality of things. She joined the curatorial team of steirischer herbst in 2019. She curated the exhibition Nature \ nature at Kunstraum Niederösterreich (2019), was a curatorial assistant at Public Art Munich (2018), curator-in-residence at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw (2018), Talks Fellow at Dhaka Art Summit (2018), and Cultural Fellow at Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna (2017). In 2021 she will cocurate an exhibition at Tank Shanghai as an aftermath of Shanghai Curators Lab II. Baciak lives in Graz and Vienna.