Documenta 16 Enhances Curatorial Team With Four New Appointments

Ahead of its 16th edition opening next June, documenta has tapped artist Raven Chacon and curators from London’s Tate Modern and New York’s Guggenheim museums to join its curatorial team.

In an announcement, artistic director of documenta 16 Naomi Beckwith confirmed the appointment of composer, performer and installation artist Chacon as curator-at-large, alongside curators and historians Osei Bonsu, Timea Junghaus and Noam Segal as curatorial advisers. 

The fresh appointments further broaden a team that, according to a statement from the influential German exhibition, brings together “diverse geographic backgrounds, disciplines and intellectual traditions”. The four new members will work alongside Beckwith’s core team of Carla Acevedo-Yates, Romi Crawford, Mayra A Rodríguez Castro and Xiaoyu Weng.

Beckwith, who alongside her role at documenta 16 continues to serve as deputy director and chief curator at New York’s Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, said she “couldn’t be more thrilled to work with these brilliant makers and scholars whose convictions are as strong as their commitment to collaborative practice”.

Born at Fort Defiance on the Navajo Nation, Chacon became the first Native American to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2022. As a solo artist, his sculptures, sound works and video installations have been exhibited internationally at museums and biennales.

With previous positions at Gallery8 in Budapest, RomaMoMA, and the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, Junghaus is a prominent figure in contemporary art and critical thinking among the Sinti and Roma. In 2007, Junghaus curated Paradise Lost, the first Roma Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale.

Segal’s curatorial practice centres on digital art and emerging technologies, examining their intersections with broader sociocultural spheres. She previously served as director of curatorial research at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) before joining New York’s Guggenheim Museum as the LG Electronics associate curator in 2023.

Based across the Atlantic, British-Ghanaian curator and writer Bonsu joined Tate Modern in 2019. In his current position as Jorge M Pérez senior curator of international art, Africa and diaspora, he has curated major exhibitions including A World in Common (2023) and Nigerian Modernism (2025).

While its curatorial roster is increasingly taking shape, documenta 16 is seemingly not being planned around a specific theme or concept. The 2027 edition aims to foster what its website describes as a “dialogic arena for transcultural thought where guests meet on equal footing, creating lines of communication where none existed before”.

This understated approach follows years of rows and accusations of anti-Semitism surrounding the quinquennial event, which takes place in the city of Kessel. In a recent interview with Die Zeit, Beckwith confirmed that some artists had declined to participate in the 16th edition, citing Germany’s position on Gaza and concerns that they “aren’t free in Germany to show what they want to show”.

Asked about her own position on the conflict, Beckwith emphasised the importance of diplomacy. “Far more important than my personal stance is the question of how we can overcome this divisive mindset,” she said.