»Moritz Pankok’s art offers elegantly executed alternatives to a life in social apathy.«
Dr Angela Dimitrakaki, art historian
Jobst Moritz Pankok is a German scenographer, director, curator and fine artist.
He is interested in socially engaged art projects, very often linked to the culture of Sinti and Roma. He is artistic director and founder of the first permanent gallery for contemporary art of Sinti and Roma, called Galerie Kai Dikhas (in English: Place to See) representing amongst others the British artist couple Damian and Delaine Le Bas. Since its opening he curated more than 50 exhibitions at the gallery.
He is member of the management collective of the theatre association TAK – Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg that presents, amongst others, various art projects from the MENA region under the title Spring Lessons. Pankok is co-founder of the group Artvists 4 Change and co-chair of the Otto-Pankok-Art Foundation running the Otto-Pankok-Museum, -archive and estate.
In 1974 Jobst Moritz Pankok was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. He studied Performance Design (BA) at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and Scenography (MA) at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and Sevilla.
Awarded with the Ruhrpreis für Kunst und Wissenschaften der Stadt Mülheim an der Ruhr 2004 (in English: Prize for Arts and Sciences of the City Mühlheim an der Ruhr 2004) and for his gallery project Galerie Kai Dikhas with the Premio de la Cultura Gitana 2016 of the Instituto de la Cultura Gitana, Madrid. Pankok lives in Berlin, his hometown Mülheim an der Ruhr and Greece.
Since more than 20 years Jobst Moritz Pankok is engaged with projects related to the culture of the minority of Sinti and Roma, firstly directing his own youth theatre company Cingarol o Basno in a refugee camp in his home town Mülheim, curating the art festival Baro Ziro – Big Time Festival for the culture of Sinti and Roma in the UK, which contributed to the GRT (Gypsy, Roma, Traveller) History Month UK, bringing bands such as Fanfare Ciocarlia, Gypsy CZ or Kal on UK tour.
He has been the set designer of the re-known Roma Theater Pralipe (Mülheim, Cologne, Skopje) and worked as a designer and dramaturge for the production The Devouring, a production by TAK Theater im Aufbau Haus about the Holocaust against Sinti and Roma.
In 2013 and 2015 he contributed to the memorial events of the 2nd of August at the Memorial of the Sinti and Roma murdered during the Nationalsocialism in Europe.
Pankok directed several theatre productions: Rituale, Zeichen, Veränderungen (Rituals, Signs, Transformations) by Sadallah Wannus touring Irak in March 2014 (TAK Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg), Schließfächer (Lockers), Asylfair – Was ist eigentlich aus Akif geworden? (Asylfair – What actually has happened to Akif?), a SciFi-documentary theatre piece about Roma and Non Roma refugees, and Bunker (all at Theater Luft, Oberhausen). Additionally he designed the set for several theatre companies and productions across Germany.
Moritz Pankok is grandnephew of the German artist Otto Pankok (*1893 – 1966). He is chair of the Otto-Pankok-Foundation running the Otto-Pankok-Museum located in an ancient baroque country house in Hünxe-Drevenack. He curated many exhibitions of Otto Pankok‘s work, amongst others in Prague, London, Budapest and various locations in Germany.
He is editor of the catalogue series Ort des Sehens. Kai Dikhas. Place to See, a catalogue about the contemporary art of Sinti and Roma and the artists of Gallery Kai Dikhas and is co-editor of the book O KALO PHANI – THE BLACK WATER – the Memorial of the Sinti and Roma murdered during the Nationalsocialism in Europe.