Curating.info

das weisse haus is a new exhibition space for young contemporary art that will open its doors mid-December 2007 in Vienna, Austria. Their aim is the presentation and support of young Austrian and international artists of exceptional quality. das weisse haus serves as a platform where artists can interact with different spaces, present their work, attract essential publicity, and become integrated into various networks.

Currently das weisse haus is offering a residency to an international curator. The curator shall become part of the local network, creating and nurturing contacts from the local art scene. The duration of the residency will be 2 to 3 months and culminates in an exhibition in which the curator should reflect his/her experiences, presenting works by artists they became acquainted with during the time of their stay. Furthermore, depending on the opportunities available, the the curator should organise an exhibition project back home. Applicants must be curators from abroad, with a special emphasis on North America (USA, Canada) up to 39 years of age. A jury will review all applicants in order to identify a guest curator.

Send the following documents by November 27, 2007:
- photos and description of recent work
- CV, including all personal contact information
- time guidelines, preferred dates of residency

Via post or email to:
Kunstverein das weisse haus
Westbahnstrasse 11 13/1/3
1070 Vienna, Austria
[email protected]

(via)

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum has just announced the exhibition curated by their inaugural Hall Curatorial Fellow, and it sounds well worth a visit. The vernissage is on 16 September, and the exhibition is on view from then until February 24, 2008. Announcement from the Aldrich follows:

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is pleased to present Voice & Void – curated by Thomas Trummer, the first recipient of the Hall Curatorial Fellowship.

The human voice has become a major subject in recent scholarly debates, so it is no coincidence that an Aldrich exhibition will explore the topic from an artistic vantage. In Voice & Void, Trummer will utilize the state-of-the-art sound facilities in the Museum's building to illustrate how voice–and the absence of voice–can be expressed by the visual arts.

With Voice & Void, Austrian native Thomas Trummer, will consider the effects of what happens when one sense is replaced by another, with particular focus on hearing and seeing. Trummer’s exhibition will feature both commissioned and loaned contemporary works of all media by a diverse group of international artists–including a sculptural aviary that will house two living parrots that speak the long-lost language of May-po-re!

Works by Rachel Berwick, Joseph Beuys/Ute Klophaus, John Cage, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, VALIE EXPORT, Anna Gaskell, Asta Gröting, Christian Marclay, Melik Ohanian, Hans Schabus, Nedko Solakov, Julianne Swartz, and Cerith Wyn Evans will be on view.

Continue reading "Voice & Void: 2006 Hall Curatorial Fellowship Exhibition"

The Korean art world is reeling from the news that of one of its up and coming curatorial stars has been exposed as having false credentials.

From the Independent:

Imagine an attractive and talented young woman who said she had an art history doctorate from Oxford. Vivacious and persuasive, she becomes the director of the Tate Gallery. Then, just after being hired to curate the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, she is exposed as a fake who failed to get a single A-level.

This scenario, reminiscent of a Patrica Highsmith novel with its hint of The Talented Mr Ripley, is precisely the scandal now rocking the Korean art world after one of its rising stars, Shin Jeong-ah, was unveiled as a fraud.

Until this week, Shin, 35, was at the top of her profession. Claiming to have a doctorate from Yale and a master's degree from Kansas University, she was the youngest professor at Seoul's prestigious Dongguk University and the head curator of the Sungkok Art Museum, home to some of Korea's most prestigious exhibitions and the recipient of millions of pounds in corporate sponsorship from the country's biggest conglomerates.

Fabricating details on one's curriculum vitae seems to be nothing new, as a quick browse of the web led me to another recent article detailing dozens of such scandals in the business world. One particularly audacious and amusing story:

Jeffrey Papows, the former president of IBM's Lotus unit, resigned in 2000 after The Wall Street Journal found that he had embellished details of his military and academic achievements in his CV and in speeches and statements. He also claimed to be an orphan although his parents were still alive. According to the paper, he claimed to have a PhD from Pepperdine University but had in fact only completed a correspondence course at an unaccredited college. In addition, military records showed he had never been a Marine Corp aviator and captain, as he claimed, but a military air-traffic controller who rose no higher than lieutenant.

Mr Papows, who was also the subject of a sexual harassment complaint, later admitted: "I, in some senses, am guilty of exaggerating and embellishing for a purpose from a business standpoint."

Back to Ms Shin, our curator in question who never attended Yale and didn't complete her degree at Kansas University. What makes this story particularly interesting are not the fabrications, which, as evinced in the Times Online article about lying businessmen, seem to crop up quite a bit. The point of interest is that most seems to agree that Ms Shin was a good curator. Despite her complete lack of training, she seems to have performed well enough to smoke by for a long time. "She was very talented at planning exhibitions," a leading Korean art critic told the Kyunghyang Daily News. "She was not much of an art historian or a theoretician but she put on some excellent shows which were very popular. That's why the museums loved her." There are so many classic tensions in this story that the mind boggles - populist vs. academic, raw talent vs. hard-won credentials, appearances vs. reality. One tends to feel pity for everyone involved in the debacle: the museum and biennale officials who were duped, and Ms Shin herself, who - though talented - because of her misrepresentations will never eat lunch in Seoul again.

Internationally renowned Turkish curator Fulya Erdemci joins New Zealand's Danae Mossman to form the curatorial partnership for Art & Industry's 5th SCAPE 2008 Biennial of Art in Public Space.

The Art & Industry Biennial Trust with Director Deborah McCormick are delighted to announce the pairing of Fulya Erdemci and Danae Mossman. Fulya Erdemci brings a wealth of international experience to this position and as Director of the International Istanbul Biennial for 7 years, (she directed the 4th, 5th, 6th and partly 7th Biennials) as well as curator of "Istanbul Pedestrian Exhibitions"� (Istanbul Yaya Sergileri) - "the first exhibition designed for pedestrians in public space in Turkey" - she has an impressive background in art in public space.

Local curator, Danae Mossman whose presence at Christchurch project space The Physics Room has been hugely influential, comes to SCAPE as one of New Zealand's most promising curators. As well as two international curatorial residencies (Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne and DAAD, Berlin) Danae recently co-curated TRANS VERSA, (Museo de Arte Contemporaneo / Matucana 100 / Galeria Metropolitana) in Santiago, Chile.

Like the last biennial in 2006, SCAPE 2008 will be developed in conjunction with Christchurch's major cultural stakeholders and will be located within the Cultural Precinct. The SCAPE 2008 Hub and Indoor Exhibition will once again feature at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, as major partner of SCAPE it will become an important venue for symposia, discussion and lectures. With site-specific interventions by participating artists from around the world, SCAPE 2008 will propose "a new culture of space" to reinvent the democracy, equality and "publicness"� through the unique space, place and locality of Christchurch City. As well as visiting artists, SCAPE will attract speakers, arts professionals and new audiences to Christchurch, stimulating and questioning the way we experience and enjoy the pubic space.

This unique curatorial pairing is supported through funding from Creative New Zealand, the Arts Council of New Zealand. SCAPE 2008 will be the 5th biennial organised by the Art & Industry Biennial Trust, New Zealand's only international biennial dedicated to contemporary art in public space.

The first of its kind in Canada, The Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Visual Art will recognize the work of a mid-career curator who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of the contemporary visual arts.

"Curators are an absolutely vital link between the artist and the public," said Gerda Hnatyshyn, C.C, President and Chair of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Board. "Their work is very demanding and it often gets overlooked because the attention is, quite rightfully, on the artists. We want to recognize the important role curators play in fostering and promoting Canadian art and in introducing Canadians to the best contemporary art from abroad."

Candidates for the award will be nominated by a jury of prominent arts professionals chosen by the Foundation for their knowledge of the visual arts across Canada. Independent curators, as well as those working within an institutional context, will be eligible for the award.

The new prize follows on the heels of the $25,000 Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award, created last year to honour the work of an outstanding mid-career visual artist. The inaugural prize was presented to Vancouver artist Stan Douglas earlier this year. The recipients of both visual arts awards for 2007 will be announced in November.

“In theory now you could curate a whole Venice Biennale using only the Internet,” said Francesco Bonami, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

This quote comes from a larger article that recently appeared in the New York Times. The article takes a solid look at how pressures to find the "next big thing" leads curators to rack up the frequent flier miles scouring the globe for a fresh face to slot into their next show.

Francesco Bonami is also the focus of the latest Bad at Sports podcast. In the podcast, Bonami covers a lot of ground:

Francesco gives his frank and funny perspective on everything from why Australian art is bad, compares Kentuckians to Europeans, and talks about the role of the curator as artist.

I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but already it sounds as though I would like his style. And judging by his own reflections on the Venice Biennale show he curated in 2003 (“I really got slaughtered [...] When you show the real chaos, people cannot take it"), he fits the profile of a risk-taker that holds no regrets - exactly the sort of person that I believe the contemporary art world needs much, much more of.

While the Pompidou tries to entice a younger generation by offering wireless internet, the hip and flashy (and, based on the rumblings of folk I know in Paris - sometimes hated) Palais de Tokyo has turned to old media to further its reach to audiences.

"France has changed, the world has changed, and we have to adapt,'' says Bruno Racine, the Pomipdou Center's 54-year-old president, in his red-walled office near the museum. "The Pompidou Center needs to renew itself, live up to the dual challenge of expanding its domestic audience and becoming a global institution.''

There is an excellent article here, that chronicles the recent troubles and triumphs of the Pompidou. The tale inevitably ends on the note of the fiscal viability of the Pompidou, with Racine saying:

"Subsidies are going to plateau,'' he says. "Clearly, we have to diversify our resources by building up visitor numbers, but also forming closer links with companies and collectors.''

Zipping on over to palaisdetokyo.com (or 13 Avenue de Président Wilson, whichever is more convenient), we see that the latest hot news item is their new magazine - yes, printed on dead trees, not on a blog or wiki! - that costs 5-7 Euros (depending on where you live) or 4.50 GBP.

Every quarter, PALAIS / outlines the expanded artistic universe of the new program and invites many contributions from diverse fields: it features images of the exhibitions presented at the Palais de Tokyo, portfolios as well as texts by art critics or philosophers, writers, footballers, artists, etc. and a "carte blanche" given to another magazine.

Throughout PALAIS / is the notion of elasticity: it pulls art toward reality and reality toward art. Are there any potential points of rupture? Where are the intersections, those unlikely places where yodeling and quantum physics meet?

It is simply an interesting study in contrasts. I would actually like to see a mash-up of these approaches - presenting the intersections where quantum physics and yodeling meet, but through a podcast, Wi-Fi portal page, or file I download from Bit Torrent. I'll be happy to see what the Pomipdou makes of dabbling in giving away Wi-Fi and other possible digital efforts, as well as what Palais de Tokyo does with the "old media" - for now.

“Act first, think later — that way you have something to think about.”
Marcia Tucker, curator and founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

Marcia Tucker, a forceful curator who responded to being fired from the Whitney Museum of American Art by founding the New Museum of Contemporary Art, died on October 17 at her home in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was 66.

Read the full obituary here, and a report from the memorial service
here.

There is an article on the "DiY curating" scene in Seattle by Regina Hackett in a recent issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The article is fairly long and profiles a number of opportunistic young curators, who have harnessed unique venues to host their shows - ranging from the back of a truck, a local café, and a virtual island in the virtual world Second Life.

Seattle currently boasts a wealth of excellent young curators. While a few have found jobs at major arts institutions, there aren't nearly enough of these jobs to go around in a field that's booming in major urban centers everywhere.

That means curators of Van Nostrand's generation, even with solid academic records (she has a master's degree in contemporary art history from Richmond American University in London), have to make their own opportunities.

I would say this is probably a given for just about any urban center. The demand for professional positions in the creative industries will always outstrip the number of posts available. By highlighting the unusual and innovative practices of these young curators working on the fringes, the author of this article accentuates the fact that though these curators may not have top posts in museums or galleries, the exhibitions they are developing are professional grade.

"What it means to be a curator is more agile and open than it used to be," he [Fionn Meade] said. "Curatorial thinking crosses disciplines. The field benefits from what people from a range of backgrounds can contribute."

The very definition of "curator" is certainly more open than it used to be. At any rate, it will be interesting to follow the careers of these young curators and the artists they are selecting for their exhibitions. These qualities of openness and agility that they are demonstrating now will certainly be assets to them throughout their careers.

Opening tomorrow at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas is a show that has been curated by the public.

"Gems of the Collection: Community as Curator" was "curated" by local residents by answering a survey that the museum had produced.

...it presents 80 exceptional artifacts — paintings, gems, minerals, textiles, furniture, gowns and one-of-a-kind objects — that have stayed in the memory banks of loyal Witte supporters.

The Witte opened in October 1926. That's a lot of memories for visitors, and some of them are plain weird — from shrunken heads to a stolen diamond. [...] It's all about nostalgia, revelation, enlightenment and wonder, according to organizers.

It's a stretch to call curating by survey curation at all. In this case I think it is more accurate to call the "community curators" selectors or respondents. Naming issues aside, since it is a celebration of the museum's 80th year of operation, it is a PR-friendly move to have a community oriented exhibition.

Read the full article, including quotes from the "community curators", here.

In this interview, Bill Arning, the curator of exhibitions at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, and Patricia Fuller, curator of public art, discuss MIT's public art collection. The collection was recently named one of the ten best campus art collections in the United States by Public Art Review.

The interview is brief, which makes the comments on conservation of public art stand out in their frequency. I suppose it is a classic problem, that new acquisitions are sexy and are relatively easier to find funding for, while the maintenance and preservation of acquired works is a harder line item to sell to a donor or funder. Of course the ways in which art is funded varies widely from country to country, so we need to analyze this situation in an American context. What is made clear in the interview is that the List Center could use more money for conservation, and what is made clear by looking at the map of MIT's public art (link to the map below), is that they have many pieces, which must have required a great deal of money to acquire. We can make some assumptions based on that, I suppose.

Read the article here: List Curators Discuss Evolving Face of Public Art.

You can download a map of MIT's public art pieces by clicking here.

Two articles came out over the weekend featuring two curators: Fumio Nanjo and Douglas Fogle. Nanjo is the curator of the Singapore Biennale that opened today. Fogle is the curator of the 2008 Carnegie International. Both articles had the curators speaking about the influence of the city on the shows they curated (or in Fogle's case, the show he is still developing).

Fumio Nanjo says, in the interview portion of the article:

"In the beginning, we were talking about the location of Singapore, so we thought maybe (we should) refer to content. Then we visited many places in the city, 60 different locations, to look at the space for art. Then we visited many temples, shrines, churches. We thought this is quite interesting, the first time (in Singapore) art is being placed in religious sites."

Towards the end of the article on Douglas Fogle, he has this to say:

"We're not just transporting this show in from Mars. I'm hoping it will connect with Pittsburgh. It's such a wonderful city, with such a great history, and such a great history of the International." [...] "it's about doing a really interesting show."

It's excellent to hear curators of high-profile exhibitions like these discussing the impact that host cities will have on their shows. Biennales don't happen in bubbles, and it will be interesting to see how their awareness of their respective locales manifests in the final exhibitions. I wish I could be in Singapore right now to see some of the examples that Fumio spoke of.

Article on Fumio Nanjo in The Star (Malaysia).

Article on Douglas Fogle in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Curator Dianne Vanderlip is featured in this Denver Post story.

Vanderlip has brought more than 7,000 works to Denver on an acquisitions budget of exactly zero. It's something nobody mentioned when she was hired.

"I was in Philadelphia and Denver kept calling and calling," she recalled. She'd never been to the city, but her husband, an architect, had a meeting in Fargo, N.D., and, thinking it was nearby, she decided to fly here to check out the job.

"I got out of the taxi and I saw that building," she said of the daring Geo Ponti-designed art museum, "and I thought to myself, 'Anybody that had the chutzpah to put up a building like that, well, I wanted to build a contemporary art collection for that city."'

Only after she took the job did she think to ask about the acquisitions budget. "You have to raise it," they said.

(via Artkrush)