Ellen Blumenstein 1976 born in Witzenhausen, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Ellen Blumenstein has been chief curator of KW Institute for contemporary art, Berlin since January 2013. In her first year, she realized the exhibitions “Relaunch”, “Kader Attia: Repair. 5 Acts” and “Real Emotions: Thinking in Film”, as well as launching comprehensive public programs and professional partnerships. Before beginning this position, she was an independent curator, member of the curatorial collective THE OFFICE and founder of the project space Salon Populaire. Between 1998-2005 she worked as a curator for KW Institute for Contemporary Art, where she realized the exhibition project "Regarding Terror: The RAF-Exhibition" (with Klaus Biesenbach, Felix Ensslin, 2005). Since, she curated the exhibition "Between Two Deaths" at ZKM in Karlsruhe (with Felix Ensslin, 2007) and the summer academy "Agulhas Negras — On the necessity to Discuss Social Functions of Contemporary Art" in São Paulo/Campos do Jordão, Brazil (2008). In 2009, she worked with the collection of conceptual art at CGAC in Santiago de Compostela (Spain) to put together the exhibition "The Human Stain". Most recently, she was the curator for the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennial (Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson) and curated the Graduate Show at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (2011).