Dr. Claudia Banz
Dr. Claudia Banz is a German curator, exhibition organizer, and expert in both design and art history and material culture. She has been Director of the Weltmuseum Wien since February 2025.
Previously, as a freelance curator, she realized numerous international and multidisciplinary exhibitions at the intersection of art, design, fashion, and craft. From 2011 to 2017, she headed the Modern Art and Design department at the Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe in Hamburg and was Curator of Design and Outreach at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin from 2017 to 2025. Her highly acclaimed exhibitions include »Fast Fashion. The dark side of fashion«, »Food Revolution 5.0. Design for the society of tomorrow«, »Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion x Hair x Design», »Retrotopia. Design for Socialist Spaces« or the project series »more-than-human. Design after the Anthropocene.«
In her curatorial work and research, Banz devotes herself to current design issues and speculative futures, global material cultures, and the networking of collections from different contexts. The focus is always on questioning the institution of the museum and its role as an open, multi-perspective cultural institution.
Edited Volumes & Exhibition Catalogues
Banz, C. ed. 2023. Retrotopia. Design For Socialist Spaces. Dortmund: Kettler.
Banz, C., Lersch, B., Ninnis, K. eds. 2021. Design Lab #8: Material Loops – Wege in eine Kreislauffähige Zukunft. Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstgewerbemuseum.
https://smart.smb.museum/media/exhibition/73498/Reader_Design-Lab-8_HiRes.pdf
Banz, C., Lersch, B., Ninnis, K. eds. 2021. Material Loops. Wege in eine kreislauffähige Zukunft. Exhibition Catalog, Kunstgewerbemuseum. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Hans Sauer Stiftung München.
https://smart.smb.museum/media/exhibition/73498/Reader_Design-Lab-8_Web.pdf
Banz, C. ed. 2017. Food Revolution. Gestaltung für die Gesellschaft von morgen. Exhibition Catalog, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg. Dortmund: Kettler.
Banz, C. eds. 2016. Social Design. Gestalten für die Transformation der Gesellschaft. Bielefeld: transcript.
Banz, C., Schulze, S. eds. 2015. Fast Fashion. The Dark Side of Fashion. Hamburg: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe.
Articles in Edited Volumes
Banz, C. 2023. »Design for Spaceship Earth.« In Retrotopia. Design for Socialist Spaces, edited by Banz, C. Dortmund: Kettler, 12-16.
Banz, C. 2016. »Zwischen Widerstand und Affirmation. Zur wachsenden Verzahnung von Design und Politik.« In Social Design. Gestalten für die Transformation von Gesellschaft, edited by Banz, C. Bielefeld: transcript, 11-25.
Articles
Banz, C. 2022. »Le dilemme du design.« Multitudes, 89 (4): 171-175.
https://doi.org/0.3917/mult.089.0171
Banz, C. 2022. »Sprich mit mir! Das Design Lab im Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseum.« Neue Designer*in - Design als Beruf, 2
https://atlas.bauhaus-dessau.de/de/journal/neue-designer-design-als-beruf/sprich-mit-mir-das-design-lab-im-berliner-kunstgewerbemuseum
Exhibitions
Heidi Jalkh, Gisela Pozzetti, Valentina Aliaga, Claudia Banz. Matter of South. Biomaterial Cultures from Latin America. Exhibition. More Than Human: Design after the Anthropocene. Kunstgewerbemuseum. 12 July 2024 - 26 August 2024.
Büsse, M. (curator), de Visscher, E. (curator), Banz, C., Dean, M., Dierichs, K., Eder, M., Eigen, L., Guiducci, L., Hehemeyer-Cürten, J., Jalkh, H., Kycia, A., Mareis, C., Nyakatura, J. A., Rasehorn, F., Rešetar, I., Ribault, P., Sauer, C., Sauer, I., Schneider, M., Stock, R., Shone, J., Wenig, C. Design Lab #13. Material Legacies. Exhibition. Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Museum of Decorative Arts. Kunstgewerbemuseum. 3 November 2022 - 26 February 2023.
https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/kunstgewerbemuseum/exhibitions/detail/design-lab-13/
Highlighted by TAZ, 15.11.2022.
Talks & Presentations
Banz, Claudia, Lersch, Barbara, Ninnis, Kaja Re-working Cycles & Collections. Design Lab #8: Material Loops – Paths to a Circular Future. Panel Presentation at the Times of Waste – Handling Matter, Methods & practices to re/present transnational material research. Virtual. 17 June 2021.