Florence Ostende has been appointed director of artistic programs and content at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
The art historian and curator arrives from Mudam Luxembourg where she has been head of artistic department for two years. Previously she was a curator at Barbican Art Gallery, London, from 2016 to 2024, organising exhibitions for Francis Alÿs, Carrie Mae Weems, Noguchi and Michael Clark, as well as the group surveys Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art and The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945. Prior to joining the Barbican, Ostende was adjunct curator at Dallas Contemporary and tutor of theory and art history at HEAD Genève and had curated the exhibitions Ugo Rondinone: I Love John Giorno and Dioramas at Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Last year the Guggenheim scrapped plans for a second site for Bilbao, located on a nature reserve in the Spanish city, after intense criticism from conservation charities.
