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Contemporary Curating: Radical, Digital, Diverse

Online conference on contemporary curating

19 February 2022
16:00 — 21:00


Location: Online: Planet IMPAKT
Tickets:
Full conference tickets: €12,50
Single session tickets: €5,-
Tickets

Full conference tickets

Single session tickets

What are the new challenges facing contemporary art today? How do we ensure that art responds to the pressing changes brought about by developments in technology and politics? Or: how do we keep art idiosyncratic, contemporary and radical? To answer these questions, join us on Saturday 19 February for the conference Contemporary Curating: Radical, Digital, Diverse. During this online event we speak with internationally acclaimed curators, including a conversation with the director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, plus two panel discussions – one with co-founder of the Athens Biennale Poka-Yio and director of the Niet Normaal INT Foundation Ine Gevers; and the other with director of [ANTI]MATERIA  Doreen A. Ríos, digital anthropologist, strategist and curator Wade Wallerstein and curator and professor of Digital Art at Politecnico University in Milan Valentina Tanni.

Technology and the Internet have become intrinsic to how we make, experience, present, reflect on and share art. It is within this context of rapid communication and short-lived hype that we argue that art should provoke and respond to current social and political debates. Art should also respond to new developments – technology-related or not – within the art world itself, such as the rise of new forms of digital art and visual languages (including memes or NFT’s) and the new modes of audience engagement for museums.

Programme

16:00-17:30h
SESSION 1
On Radicality and Autonomy

Mass media populism and the dynamics of social media’s attention economy have changed our political and societal discourse. Online and offline, there are successful examples of people making themselves heard: speaking truth to power, fighting against injustice, and celebrating inclusivity and diversity. How does this new dynamic affect the arts? How do we balance these positive developments with key values of the arts like ambiguity, irony, and subversiveness? For this panel advocating the freedom of art to be radical and controversial, we invited two curators who are known for their inspiring and thought-provoking projects. They are visual artist, curator and co-founder of the Athens Biennale Poka-Yio and curator, writer, activist and director of the Niet Normaal INT Foundation Ine Gevers. How do they negotiate their positions to generate critical and productive conversations when working with controversial artworks and perspectives? Is there enough radicality and idiosyncrasy in contemporary art? How can art and academia contribute to these discussions in society and culture?

17:45-18:45h
SESSION 2
Conversation with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is a curator, researcher and scholar. She is the recipient of the 2019 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, and currently serves as the Director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti in Turin, Italy. Christov-Bakargiev curated the 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008), followed by the widely acclaimed dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012, as well as the 14th Istanbul Biennial in 2015. Her projects often take on ecological and socio-political themes in pursuit of different forms of knowledge. During the conversation, Christov-Bakargiev will reflect on projects at Castello di Rivoli that involve digital art and new media practices, how she approaches the curation of these projects, and the role of museums in cultivating new alliances and perspectives.

19:30-21:00h
SESSION 3
Curating the Internet

Internet culture is appealing, sexy, and speaks to a lot of people. Post Internet and digital aesthetics have put a clear mark on contemporary art shows over the past few years. How can art, with its unique or analytical perspectives, respond to the immense influence of the Internet while keeping a critical distance from the short-term hypes that Internet culture is subject to? In this panel we speak about how to present the newest digital art – beyond fleeting hypes – with director of [ANTI]MATERIA  Doreen A. Ríos, digital anthropologist, strategist and curator Wade Wallerstein and curator and professor of Digital Art at Politecnico University in Milan Valentina Tanni.
The panel is moderated by curator and researcher Annet Dekker.

 

You are welcome to follow the entire conference or separate sessions.

Full conference tickets

Single ticket session 1

Single ticket session 2

Single ticket session 3

 

Full Spectrum Curatorship Conference 2022
Contemporary Curating: Radical, Digital, Diverse is part of the Full Spectrum Curatorship Programme 2022. This is a curatorial training programme by IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] which aims to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and the practical and substantive aspects of curation in the field of media art and contemporary arts dealing with digital technologies and online environments. Read more about the programme and the selected participants 2022

 

Planet IMPAKT is our virtual building for online events.
In addition to the livestream, for each event you will find extra content, links and articles to dive deeper into the themes. You can ask live questions to the speakers via the chat and afterwards you are very much welcome to join us in the Rooftop bar to meet other visitors (and often speakers).

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev Poka-Yio Ine Gevers Doreen A. Ríos Wade Wallerstein Valentina Tanni Annet Dekker

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

― Speaker

Curator, researcher and scholar Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (born in Ridgewood, New Jersey) is the Director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti in Turin. She is the recipient of the 2019 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. She was Edith Kreeger Wolf Distinguished Visiting Professor in Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University (2013–2019). Christov-Bakargiev was born in the United States from a Bulgarian father and an Italian mother and she returned to Italy to conduct her studies in Literature and Philosophy at the universities of Genoa and Pisa. She began her career in the arts writing reviews for the magazine Reporter and for the newspaper IlSole24Ore. Friendships with artists in Italy and internationally, including William Kentridge, Alighiero Boetti, Pierre Huyghe, Francis Alÿs, Mario and Marisa Merz, and Jannis Kounellis, propelled her curatorial work. Following a period at Villa Medici where she curated summer exhibitions (1998–2000), she served as Chief Curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center affiliated to MoMA in New York. Amongst many other projects, at PS1 she organized the groundbreaking survey of Janet Cardiff’s work. In 2002 she returned to Turin to work at Castello di Rivoli upon invitation of its former director Ida Gianelli. In 2008 she curated the Sydney Biennial, followed by dOCUMENTA(13) in 2012, and the 14th Istanbul Biennial in 2015. The following year she returned to Turin where, until 2017, she directed both GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. Amongst her major publications is the monograph Arte Povera (London, Phaidon Press, 1999).

Poka-Yio

― Speaker

Poka-Yio is an artist, curator, consultant and coach. He is born and lives in Athens. Poka-Yio’s diverse artistic work comprises of painting, performances, theatre, films and curating. He is Associate Professor and Director of LAB12 of Expanded Media at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He is Founding Director of the Athens Biennale and Head of Onassis Culture - Unit of Visual Culture.  Poka-Yio has been working as a consultant for organisations and companies since 2004 and as a coach since 2013, an expanded set of practices blended in his art. His main work thematic and key narrative is the perpetual oscillation between Attraction and Aversion and the fall of the Culture of Desire. 

Ine Gevers

― Speaker

Ine Gevers is a curator, writer, activist. She is director of the Niet Normaal INT Foundation, mounting large scale art exhibitions on topical issues: NIET NORMAAL/ Difference on Display (Amsterdam, 2009/10), YES NATURALLY / How Art saves the World (The Hague, 2013), HACKING HABITAT (Utrecht, 2016), ROBOT LOVE (Eindhoven, 2018) (IM)POSSIBLE BODIES (2020), FAKE ME HARD (2021) and COME ALIVE (summer 2022). She is editor /author of numerous publications Place, Position, Presentation, Public (1992); Beyond Ethics and Aesthetics (SUN,1997); Documentary Now (2005); Difference on Display (2009); Yes Naturally (NAi010, 2013); Hacking Habitat (NNI/NAi010, 2016), Robot Love (Terra, 2018).  

Doreen A. Ríos

― Speaker

Doreen A. Ríos is an independent curator and researcher. Working with digital art and specialising in digital cultures and new media practices, Ríos’ curatorial practice focuses on hybrid materialities. She is also the founder of [ANTI]MATERIA, an online platform dedicated to the research and exhibition of Latin-American Digital Art.

Wade Wallerstein

― Speaker

Wade Wallerstein is a digital anthropologist, strategist and curator from the San Francisco Bay Area. Wallerstein is the founder and director of Silicon Valet, a virtual parking lot for expanded Internet art where he runs an exhibition platform and digital artist residency programme. He is also co-director of TRANSFER Gallery in Los Angeles, an exhibition space devoted to simulation and computational art forms.

Valentina Tanni

― Speaker

Valentina Tanni is an art historian, curator and lecturer. Her research is centred on the relationship between art and technology, with a particular focus on internet culture. She is an adjunct professor of “Digital Art” at Politecnico University in Milan and of “Digital Cultures” at NABA. New Academy of Fine Arts, in Rome and Milan. She published the books Random. Navigando contro mano, alla scoperta dell’arte in rete (Link editions, 2011) and Memestetica. Il settembre eterno dell’arte (Nero, 2020). 

Annet Dekker

― Moderator

Annet Dekker is an independent curator and researcher. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Cultural Analysis & MA coordinator of Archival and Information Studies (Media Studies) at the University of Amsterdam, and Visiting Professor and co-director of the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University.

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