Yesterday Le Monde revealed that Catherine David will be appointed deputy director of research and globalization (Directrice adjointe chargée de la recherche et de la mondialisation) at Musée national d’art moderne/MNAM (National Museum of Modern Art), which is a part of Centre Pompidou in Paris. David was a curator at MNAM in the 1980s and 1990s, and has since developed an impressive international resume as an independent curator. In 1997, making Documenta X, she became the first woman and non German speaker to curate the great quintennial in Kassel, and she was the director of Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam 2002-2004. Since 1998 she is the curator of the Contemporary Arab Representations, a diverse long-term project which has been exhibited at the Venice Biennial, Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, Bildmuseet in Umeå, and a large number of venues around the world.
Le Monde writes that ”The position as director of globalization will fit her like a glove, something she already confirmed to us years ago: ‛I have never thought of the Arab world as some virgin land: God knows how sophisticated the Arab culture is. I have also worked with Latin American culture, and I never believed that the world ends in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.’”
Catherine David will succeed Catherine Grenier, who applied for the superior position as director of Musée national d’art moderne. The directorship, which had been performed by Alfred Pacquement since 2000, was given to Bernard Blistène in November 2013.
