Born in 1954 in Cologne, Germany, Heinz Peter Schwerfel is a documentary filmmaker, journalist and independent curator, specialised in the relation of contemporary art. He writes for publications such as “ART Magazin”, “Lettre International” or “ZEIT”, among others, and has published several interview books on contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz, Jannis Kounellis, or Markus Lüpertz, but also essay books such “Kunst-Skandale” (“Scandals in Art”), based on a documentary series he concieved for French TV, or “Cinema and Art” about the relationship between contemporary art and Hollywood.
Among the filmography of his company Artcore Films are more than 60 documentaries, often award-winning films about artists such as Georg Baselitz, Christian Boltanski, Rebecca Horn, Joan Jonas, Anish Kapoor, Alex Katz, Jannis Kounellis, Annette Messager, Bruce Nauman, Tino Sehgal, writers (Cees Nooteboom), theater directors (Christoph Marthaler), series (on “Design” and on performance, called “Live Art”, both for Arte TV). Most of the films are today part of the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou / Musée National d’Art Moderne. Retrospectives were organised at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Art Museum of Helsinki, the Filmoteca Nacional in Mexico City or the Museo Malba of Buenos Aires, among others.
As curator, Heinz Peter Schwerfel has been founder and artistic director of two international artists’ film festivals, the Cologne KunstFilmBiennale and the ongoing Kino der Kunst, Munich (since 2013). The shows he has curated focus always focus on the relation of cinema and contemporary art, with artists such as Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Shirin Neshat, Julian Rosefeldt etc.
He lives in Paris and Cologne.