Documenta 16: Naomi Beckwith introduces team

Art, dialog, diversity – documenta 16 promises new perspectives, exciting encounters and a contemporary examination of social issues.

In December 2024, Naomi Beckwith was appointed Artistic Director of documenta 16 by the international selection committee. Beckwith is now presenting her core team, which will support her in designing the exhibition, publications and accompanying program. The all-female ensemble consists of Carla Acevedo-Yates, Romi Crawford, Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro and Xiaoyu Weng – all renowned experts in their respective fields.
Naomi Beckwith expressed her enthusiasm: “I am grateful to be shaping documenta 16 together with this team. I admire their independence of spirit and thinking, which is characterized by a high regard for artists and audiences alike. We look forward to exploring together the diverse fields of current artistic practices and entering into a dialog with the pressing questions that shape the social and cultural landscapes of our planet and its futures.”
documenta 16 will take place in Kassel from June 12 to September 19, 2027.

Each member of the core team brings unique perspectives and experiences that will enrich documenta 16.

Carla Acevedo-Yates is a curator and scholar. With a transcultural perspective, she researches contemporary art from across the Americas, with a focus on the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States. Previous positions include the Michigan State University Broad Art Museum in East Lansing and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Her work focuses on diaspora as a site of cultural production that reshapes social and political life.

Romi Crawford is an educator, author and professor of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She investigates the emergence of knowledge in the process of making art and emphasizes collaborative, regenerative, and living art historiography. Crawford researches historical examples of collective art-making and develops this practice further in experimental formats. With the founding of the Black Arts Movement School Modality and the New Art School Modality, she has created freely accessible platforms for art education based on a newly formulated understanding of values.

Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro is a writer and editor of numerous publications. Her works, including anthologies of Audre Lorde and Joy James, are dedicated to hidden inscriptions in archives, verses, songs and landscapes. With each of her publications, she honors the legacy of poets, wordsmiths and philosophers who often work in obscurity.

Xiaoyu Weng is a curator and writer whose work unfolds in close collaboration with female artists and cultural actors. She develops hybrid and syncretic frameworks that connect different disciplines and cultural contexts. Weng has worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and the Kadist Art Foundation in San Francisco and Paris, among others.

With this experienced and international team, documenta 16 promises an exciting, multi-layered program that focuses on current artistic practices. The curators want to reflect on contemporary issues and invite visitors to engage in an active dialog on social and cultural questions. The combination of academic expertise, artistic practice and innovative mediation work makes the core team a strong foundation for the upcoming exhibition.

A look back at the previous documenta shows that documenta 16 is also under a certain pressure of expectation. The last exhibition was marked by a major scandal that shook the art world. Anti-Semitic depictions in some of the works led to an intense public debate and a critical examination of the responsibility of curators. The experiences of this past edition have clearly taught the organizers how important care, transparency and intercultural sensitivity are – values that Naomi Beckwith and her team are now particularly emphasizing.With an eye to the future and a top-class curatorial ensemble, documenta 16 is therefore not only a highlight in the contemporary art calendar, but also an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and break new ground.