5 Questions – Christian Ganzenberg

CH Christian, as the current director of Various Others, how would you describe the core vision driving this year’s edition - and how has that vision developed since the festival was first established?

CG Various Others (VO) was founded on a set of core principles and beliefs. While most of these principles remain as important as they were in our first edition in 2018, some have evolved over time. Since its inception, VO has been a community-driven initiative that advocates for an international, diverse, and discursive approach. We are proud of our nonprofit approach—VO is organized by a nonprofit association—and our strong presence in the Munich scene, which distinguishes us from other international formats. As we grew from 12 to nearly 40 venues today, we had to professionalize our organization, streamline our decision-making processes, and expand our brand and reach to become more sustainable and attractive to our partners. Considering Munich and the international art market, we firmly believe that VO's format and principles are the right response to today's challenges. After 8 years, I am convinced that what VO stands for — independence, genuine exchange and collaboration, and a deep mutual believe in a local scene — is exactly what the contemporary art world needs right now.

CH Building on that evolution, Various Others has always operated through a collaborative network of galleries, institutions, and artist-run spaces rather than a single curatorial authority. How does this decentralized structure shape the coherence of the program and influence the kinds of artistic positions you are able to present?

CG VO stands for collaboration between all the participants in Munich, including city- or state-run museums, commercial galleries, private foundations, artist-run spaces, and our private patrons. In this respect, our core curatorial task is to create a framework in which these exchanges and our participating venues can flourish and shine. From the beginning, we have believed in international exchanges, and we continue to strengthen our international outreach from Munich every year. Our participating galleries and artist-run spaces collaborate with over 100 international partners, including galleries, curators, collections, and initiatives, to create remarkable VO exhibitions each year. This year, we are pleased to welcome galleries such as Dirimart (Istanbul), Hauser & Wirth, Kamel Mennour (Paris), T293 (Rome), and Travesía Cuatro (Madrid), as well as curators like Beral Madra and Matthew James Holman. These are autonomous decisions made by our Munich venues—the galleries, artist-run spaces, and institutions—and they make the VO program so fresh and surprising every year.

CH Following this idea of collaboration and exchange, the festival positions Munich as a meeting point within the international contemporary art landscape. In what ways does the upcoming edition respond to the current cultural and political climate, and how does it aim to create meaningful dialogue beyond the local context?

CG Every year, we challenge ourselves and our Munich context with a special project called the VO Special. After showcasing works by Munich-based artists and pieces from Munich collections, last year's "Unconference" at the Bayerischer Hof paved the way for larger, more international projects. This year, we took a fresh look at Munich, focusing our VO’26 Special on the city's transformation into a technological hub with many international corporations. Many of these companies have not yet engaged with the art world, despite the fact that artists have been at the forefront of adopting new technologies and discussing the effects of recent developments. Therefore, we are proud to have initiated projects between artists, curators at these “tech sites”, creating unusual contexts for some works and reaching new audiences. Our “supergroup” of invited curators have created site-specific interventions at larger corporations, international institutions and local hubs, which will provide a very new perspective on today’s Munich.

CH Considering this dialogue between local specificity and global perspectives, how do you curate a program that remains rooted in Munich’s art scene while simultaneously opening it up to new international impulses and unexpected encounters?

CG We encourage our Munich participants to think big and invite partners from around the world to Munich. Since 2018, VO has presented more than 100 international galleries, curators, and other institutions in Munich, not to mention the many hundreds of artists who would not otherwise come to Munich. This is an important, inspiring, and fruitful aspect for the local scene that we would like to nourish. For this reason, we have been thinking about an incentive to recognize the extra effort that makes these exceptional exhibitions possible, to foster Munich’s role as a hub for global contemporary art dialogue. To acknowledge Various Others' ambition, a jury of four international curators will – for the first time this year - award the most interesting collaborative exhibition project among the artist-run spaces and our galleries. We hope this will inspire all participants and lead to even more surprising encounters in the years to come.

CH And looking at the program as a whole - from exhibitions to performances and discursive formats - what ultimately distinguishes Various Others from other art festivals, and what kind of lasting impact or experience do you hope visitors will carry with them after this edition?

CG Having visited many festivals and fairs around the world, I would love a VO visitor to leave Munich with a smiling face— excited about the people they met, the things they discovered, and the unexpected encounters they didn't see coming. Various Others is not a fair, and it is not a traditional gallery weekend. It is a whole city coming alive. If you think you know Munich, come and visit during VO in May. This is the moment when the entire art scene stands on its toes, ready to show just how open, creative, and generous this city can truly be.