Christoph Doswald

Doswald has held various teaching positions and guest professorships, e.g. at the Zurich University of the Arts and at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, where he replaced Christian Jankowski while Jankowski was curating Manifesta 11 in Zurich. Since 2012, Doswald has been a member of the board at visarte.schweiz, the professional association of Switzerland's visual artists. Here, he is in charge of art-in-architecture and art in the public space. In this role, he launched the Prix Visarte awards. He has been president of the foundation Kulturweg Limmat since 2016.

Christoph Doswald (born 1961) is a Swiss publicist, curator und university lecturer. He has been the chairman of the City of Zurich's Work Group for Art in Public Spaces (AG KIÖR) since 1 October 2009.

Doswald has been the chairman of the City of Zurich's Work Group for Art in Public Spaces (AG KiöR) since 1 October 2009. He is responsible for the Art in Public Spaces programme and curated ART AND THE CITY (2012), as well as Art Altstetten Albisrieden (2015). The KiöR project zürich – transit – maritim, commonly referred to as "Hafenkran" (harbour crane), attracted a lot of attention. This temporary art intervention at Limmatquai was hotly debated on the Zurich City Council, among the general public and in the media between 2009 and 2016. He has also spoken about art in the public space in lectures, such as "Kampfzone öffentlicher Raum" (Battle Zone Public Space).

In 1998, together with Monica Glisenti, he conceived the cross-culture magazine "cashual" for the publisher Ringier. This monthly magazine combined artistic and journalistic strategies, e.g. hiring Nan Goldin as a photojournalist and Pipilotti Rist as a model, but was already discontinued after just six issues. From 2002 to 2008, Doswald headed the Society section of the Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung.

Together with Paolo Bianchi in 1985/86, Doswald managed a space for ephemeral art projects in their shared flat in Baden – an artist-run space "avant la lettre". In this informal setting, they exhibited the works of befriended artists and organised performances. From 1988 to 1992, Doswald was a member of the board (and chairman on an interim basis) at Zurich's Shedhalle, where curator Harm Lux ran an ambitious exhibition programme, e.g. with projects by Jordi Colomer, Francesca Woodman, Christian Marclay, Sylvie Fleury, Christopher Williams, Pipilotti Rist, Thomas Hirschhorn and Daniele Buetti.

Doswald spent his childhood and youth in Wettingen and his birthplace, Baden. From 1981 to 1989, he studied history, art history and political science at the University of Zurich, interrupted by relatively long stays in Spain and Latin America.

In the mid-1980s, he began to work as a publicist, writing about themes and exhibitions of contemporary art, e.g. for Kunstforum International, Parkett, neue bildende kunst, Artis, Eikon, SonntagsZeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Weltwoche und Tages-Anzeiger. Under the pseudonym Dr. Kuno, Doswald wrote a weekly lifestyle column from 1991 to 2000, first for SonntagsZeitung, then in Schweizer Illustrierte.

In parallel, from the mid-1980s onwards, Doswald curated exhibitions, e.g. at Kunsthaus Graz, Villa Arson in Nice, Kunstmuseum Bern, Centre Pasquart Biel and the Academy of Arts in Berlin. From 2001 to 2007, he was a member of the "Comité technique", the purchasing committee at Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain (FRAC PACA) in Marseille, where he realised various exhibitions, e.g. with Ugo Rondinone and Maria Marshall.