The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has appointed Olafur Eliasson as UN Goodwill Ambassador for climate action. Noting that the Danish/Icelandic artist is known as much for his activism as well as his large-scale artistic projects, the UNDP announced that he would be tasked with advocating sustainable development with a focus on renewable energy and climate action.
In other prospective appointments, Städelschule has opened applications for a new rector. The search for a ‘confident, open-minded art world professional’ with a ‘compelling and long-term vision’ for both Frankfurt’s prestigious art school and its affiliated contemporary arts institution, Portikus, comes after the resignation last week of Philippe Pirotte, who will focus on his role as a professor and his own curatorial and research projects. The new appointment starts on 1 April 2020, and the position is advertised on the Städelschule website.
The Kathmandu Triennale has announced the Nepalese artists Hit Man Gurung and Sheelasha Rajbhandari will cocurate the forthcoming edition, which opens in December 2020. Since its inauguration in 2009 the festival, now under the stewardship of director Sharareh Bajracharya and artistic director Cosmin Costinas, has had an explicit focus on climate change and feminism as addressing by the art scenes in Nepal and across Asia.
Maurizio Cattelan’s solid gold toilet (America, 2017) remains at large following its theft last week from the Italian artist’s retrospective at Blenheim Palace, the English country house in which Winston Churchill was born. Police say they are on the scent.
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