Francesco Bonami
Posted by Michelle Kasprzak • Sunday, November 26. 2006 • Category: News“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.