Axel Wieder
IASPIS expert visit in Gothenburg, Skövde and Stockholm 25 November–1 December 2025
In collaboration with Embassy of Sweden in Berlin, Germany.
Axel Wieder has been the Director of the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art since August 2024. From 2018 to 2024, he has been director of Bergen Kunsthall where he produced a widely acclaimed, interdisciplinary program with an international focus and local roots together with his team, which encompassed exhibitions, live projects, and a broad event and outreach program.
Photo: Victoria Tomachko
Axel Wieder
Previously, Wieder was the director of Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm (2014–2018) as well as Head of Programmes at Arnolfini in Bristol (2012–2014). He was responsible for the program of Ludlow 38 – Goethe Institute in New York from 2010 to 2011 after being responsible as artistic director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart from 2007 to 2010. In 1999, he founded Pro qm, a bookshop and discourse platform, together with Katja Reichard and Jesko Fezer in Berlin. Axel Wieder studied art history and cultural studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the University of Cologne. He has held teaching appointments at various universities and art academies, and publishes in magazines and anthologies.
In his work, Wieder focuses on the history and theory of exhibitions, architecture, and the social space as well as on questions of political representation. His activities successfully expanded the scope of work of art institutions towards becoming open spaces, in which art can be shown in its connection to adjacent areas of society and with attention to different practices and discourses. Under his leadership, programmes succeeded in attracting new audiences through collaborations and ambitious projects. Joar Nango’s exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall was named the best exhibition of the year in Norway in 2020.