Revisitations: Roger M. Buergel - The art of the palm tree

Revisitations: Roger M. Buergel (Artistic Director of documenta 12) on the “art of the palm tree”

Followed by a panel discussion with Birgitta Coers and Moritz Wesseler

The palm tree is the plant of longing in the Global North. At the same time, it is a witness to colonial crimes; a supplier of oil that lubricates 50% of all supermarket products (from potato chips to toothpaste) and, in the form of the “palmette,” a pacemaker of early, ornament-obsessed art history. Does all this fit together somehow, or not? This brief list gives only a hint of what else lies dormant in the palm tree…

Roger M. Buergel lives in Zurich as a freelance curator and author. His theoretical and curatorial work focuses on methodological questions of exhibiting in a global and transcultural context. From 2013 to 2021, he was director of the Johann Jacobs Museum in Zurich. He was artistic director of documenta 12 (2007), the Busan Biennale (2012), and the Souzhou Biennale (2016) and regularly takes on teaching assignments. He has taught at the University of Lüneburg, the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts, the University of Zurich, and the European Graduate School (EGS).

Buergel is the recipient of the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement (2003); in 2015, he was awarded the Hessian Culture Prize for his work as artistic director of documenta 12.