Dr. Claudia Banz

Dr. Claudia Banz is an exhibition curator as well as an expert for design and art history. Since 2017 she has been a curator for design at the Kunstgewerbemuseum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
She studied art history, archeology and romanistics at Heidelberg and Berlin. After working as an assistant curator at Gemäldegalerie and Hamburger Bahnhof at the Staatliche Museen Berlin, her following engagements as a free lance curator took her to India (New Dehli and Mumbay), the Netherlands (Maastricht and Utrecht) and different museums in Germany such as the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen and the Hygiene Museum in Dresden, the museum kunst palast in Düsseldorf or the Folkwang Museum in Essen, amongst others. From 2011 to 2017 she headed the departement of modern and contemporary art and design at the Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe at Hamburg.
She has curated numerous international exhibitions at the intersection of design, fashion, craft and arts. At the Kunstgewerbemuseum she has established the design lab series as a plattform for discussion and presentation of currents design topics with a strong focus on material culture and research as well as a place of active engagement with the collections of the museum.
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Tiergartenstr. 6
10785 Berlin
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.