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INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL
SPRING 2015 PROGRAM
INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF ICI
WELCOME
Forty years ago, Nina Castelli
Sundell and Susan Sollins came
together to dream up a unique
organization—one of the first ever
to focus on the fundamental role of
curators—with a prescient vision of
a truly global and collaborative art
world. They founded ICI, committed
to the curatorial field and to making
exhibitions accessible around the world. Since then, ICI
has grown in its scope following the expansion of the
curatorial field, producing exhibitions, publications, and
events for broad audiences, as well as training programs
and research initiatives for curators.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Welcome
2 Spring/Summer 2015 Calendar
EXHIBITIONS
4 EN MAS’: Carnival and
Performance Art of the Caribbean
6 Salon de Fleurus
8 Martha Wilson
10 do it
12 Project 35: Volume 2
14 Free Play
15 Harald Szeemann: Documenta 5
16 With Hidden Noise
17 Performance Now
PUBLIC PROGRAMS & RESEARCH
18 Curatorial Intensive
22 Alumni Updates
24 40 Years of ICI
26 Research Fellowships
30 Curator’s Perspective
32 Curatorial Hub
NETWORK & ACCESS
34 Online Networks
36 Publications
38 Limited Editions
40 Annual Benefit
43 Support ICI
47 Thank You
48 Access ICI
Today more than ever, the curator’s role is central to
art scenes around the world: when connecting artists to
one another and to an audience, curators create more
than experiences; they support art practice and build
communities—through exhibitions, publications, events,
and by creating art spaces and leading institutions.
In turn, by connecting curators in an international
framework for collaboration, ICI expands the support
structures they create.
This dynamic network keeps growing, one collaboration
at a time. ICI programs have already taken place in
more than 400 cities and 55 countries since 1975. And
this gives ICI a unique international perspective, while
remaining connected to the specificities of local art
scenes across the globe.
This spring, we are thrilled to see so many individuals
from ICI’s international network involved in the 56th
Venice Biennale. Chief among them is Okwui Enwezor,
this year’s Artistic Director of the Biennale, and the
recipient of ICI’s 2007 Agnes Gund Curatorial Award, who
is also featured in a conversation with Terry Smith in our
upcoming publication, Talking Contemporary Curating.
And dozens of curators, including several Curatorial
Intensive Alumni, and artists are part of Enwezor’s
exhibition, and several National Pavilions.
This is a sign that ICI thrives as a meaningful force
for cultural exchange internationally. And our efforts
continue: in the coming months, ICI will hold a Curatorial
Intensive for the first time in Marrakech, in collaboration
with Dar al-Ma’mûn; for the second time in Bogota,
held entirely in Spanish, in a renewed partnership
with IDARTES; and in New York in September. These
international professional development programs for
curators provide new ways to create collaborative
networks, while—critically—also providing unique
opportunities and access in a world where borders,
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language, visas and other economic factors remain
obstacles to the sharing of knowledge.
Shared learning and experiences are also generated
by our exhibitions, which in the past year alone were
seen in 37 art spaces in 16 countries. A new exhibition,
EN MAS’, curated by Claire Tancons and Krista
Thompson, debuts this March at CAC New Orleans,
our partner in the project. And we are announcing ICI’s
latest exhibition, Salon de Fleurus, which recreates
a contemporary reconstruction of Gertrude Stein’s
Parisian salon designed as a semi-private salon in Lower
Manhattan from 1992 to 2013. The exhibition will be
presented internationally with ICI, calling into question
one of the main creation myths of Modernism, as one
time capsule within another.
As we celebrate ICI’s 40th spring, and continue building
a unique organization for a truly global and collaborative
art world, we would like to thank everyone who has
been a part of the journey—first and foremost all who
have served on ICI’s Board of Trustees over the past
four decades (see a complete list is on page 47). And on
behalf of all of us at ICI, I want to also thank everyone
who makes our programs possible: the curators, artists,
our collaborators at art spaces around the world, the
foundations, and the many individuals who help us carry
the mission. Thank You!
Renaud Proch
Executive Director
SPRING/SUMMER 2015
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SPRING/SUMMER 2015
CALENDAR
MARCH
EVENTS
Curator’s Perspective:
Naomi Beckwith
Tuesday, March 10
7–8:30pm
NYU Steinhardt
New York, NY
HUB EVENTS
Some Thoughts on
Culture and Revolution:
Dread Scott and Ryan
Wong
Thursday, March 19
6:30–8pm
ICI Curatorial Hub
New York, NY
APRIL
EVENTS
Curator’s Perspective:
Inti Guerrero
Wednesday, April 8
7–8:30pm
School of Visual Arts
New York, NY
ICI Conversations: Yinka
Shonibare
Wednesday, April 29
James Cohan Gallery
New York, NY
HUB EVENTS
In the Canyon, Revise
the Canon: Géraldine
Gourbe
Thursday, April 2
6:30–8pm
ICI Curatorial Hub
New York, NY
Felipe Mujica: Jugador
Como Pelota, Pelota
Como Cancha
Tuesday, March 24
6:30–8pm
ICI Curatorial Hub
New York, NY
EXHIBITIONS
do it
February 23–April 3
The Episcopal Academy
Newtown Square, PA
do it & do it (archive)
February 13–April 24
Anne & Gordon Samstag
Museum of Art, University
of South Australia
Adelaid, Australia
Domestic Revolution:
Megan Witko with
Alina Bliumis and Ben
Kinmont
Tuesday, April 7
6:30–8pm
ICI Curatorial Hub
New York, NY
A Conversation on
Photography in Ethiopia
and Guyana with
Grace Aneiza Ali and
Aida Muluneh
Tuesday, April 28
6:30–8pm
ICI Curatorial Hub
New York, NY
EN MAS’
March 6–June 7
Contemporary Arts
Center, New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Project 35 Volume 2
January 15–June 8
Art Gallery, University of
Saint Joseph
West Hartford, CT
Free Play
January 13–March 6
The College of Wooster
Art Museum
Wooster, OH
With Hidden Noise
February 24–May 3
Pasadena Art Center
College of Design
Pasadena, CA
Harald Szeemann:
Documenta 5
February 24–March 20
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
do it
February 23–April 3
The Episcopal Academy
Newtown Square, PA
do it & do it (archive)
February 13–April 24
Anne & Gordon Samstag
Museum of Art, University
of South Australia
Adelaid, Australia
EN MAS’
March 6–June 7
Contemporary Arts
Center, New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Free Play
April 25–August 3
Art Gallery of Greater
Victoria
Victoria, BC, Canada
EVENTS
ICI Reception at Fabrica,
2015 Venice Biennale
May 6–10
Venice, Italy
ICI at NADA New York
May 14–17 299 South Street
New York, NY
Curator’s Perspective:
Sam Bardaouil and Till
Fellrath
Tuesday, June 2
7–8:30pm
Hunter College MFA
Campus
New York, NY
Martha Wilson
February 20–April 30
Fales Library, New
York University; Pratt
Manhattan Gallery
New York, NY
EXHIBITIONS
MAY/JUNE
Patrons Trip: Garage
Grand Opening
June 9–15
Moscow, Russia
Martha Wilson
February 20–April 30
Fales Library, New
York University; Pratt
Manhattan Gallery
New York, NY
Project 35 Volume 2
January 15–June 8
Art Gallery, University of
Saint Joseph
West Hartford, CT
With Hidden Noise
February 24–May 3
Pasadena Art Center
College of Design
Pasadena, CA
JULY/AUGUST
EVENTS
Summer Cocktails
July
New York, NY
EXHIBITIONS
do it
May 22–July 31
KKW Kunst Kraft Werk
Leipzig, Germany
do it & do it (archive)
June 19–August 30
Napa Valley Museum
Yountville, CA
CURATORIAL
INTENSIVE
Curatorial Intensive in
Marrakech, Morocco
May 19–25
Curatorial Intensive in
Bogotá, Colombia
June 17–23
HUB EVENTS
EXHIBITIONS
do it
May 22–July 31
KKW Kunst Kraft Werk
Leipzig, Germany
EN MAS’
March 6–June 7
Contemporary Arts
Center, New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Y.ES Collect
Contemporary El
Salvador
Claire Breukel, Simón
Vega, and Mario CaderFrech
Thursday, May 28
6:30–8pm
ICI Curatorial Hub
New York, NY
Free Play
April 25– August 3
Art Gallery of Greater
Victoria
Victoria, BC, Canada
do it
June 27–September 5
Kunsthal Rotterdam
Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
Project 35 Volume 2
August–January
Garage Museum of
Contemporary Art
Moscow, Russia
do it
July 30–August 8
Nuevo Museo de Arte
Contemporáneo
Guatemala City,
Guatemala
With Hidden Noise
June 5–July 27
University of Southern
Florida Contemporary Art
Museum
Tampa, FL
Project 35 Volume 2
January 15–June 8
Art Gallery, University of
Saint Joseph
West Hartford, CT
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With Hidden Noise
February 24–May 3
Pasadena Art Center
College of Design
Pasadena, CA
do it
June 27–September 5
Kunsthal Rotterdam
Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
do it & do it (archive)
June 19–August 30
Napa Valley Museum
Yountville, CA
With Hidden Noise
June 5–July 27
University of Southern
Florida Contemporary Art
Museum
Tampa, FL
EXHIBITIONS
EN MAS’
EN MAS’
EN MAS’: CARNIVAL AND PERFORMANCE ART OF THE CARIBBEAN
Curated by Claire Tancons and Krista Thompson, co-organized with Contemporary
Arts Center, New Orleans
EN MAS’: CARNIVAL AND PERFORMANCE ART OF THE CARIBBEAN is a pioneering
exploration of the influences of Carnival on contemporary performance practices
in the Caribbean, North America, and Europe. Conceived around a series of nine
commissioned performances realized during the 2014/2015 Caribbean Carnival season
across eight cities in seven different countries, the exhibition considers the connections
between Carnival and performance, masquerade and social criticism, diaspora and
transnationalism.
EN MAS’ introduces performance art with a focus on
the influence that Carnival and related masquerading
traditions in and of the Caribbean and its diasporas
have had on contemporary performance discourse and
practice, in both the artistic and curatorial realms. Indeed,
EN MAS’ takes into account performance practices that
do not trace their genealogy to the European avant–
gardes of the early twentieth–century but rather to the
experiences of slavery and colonialism through to the
mid–nineteenth century, the independence struggles and
civil right movements of the mid–twentieth century and
population migrations to and from the former colonial
centers for most of the last century.
Throughout the 2014/15 Caribbean Carnival season, EN
MAS’ tracked nine artists as they engaged, transformed,
or critiqued historical and contemporary Caribbean
performance practices from Carnival in Santiago de los
Caballeros, Port of Spain, Fort-de-France, Kingston,
London and Brooklyn, to Junkanoo in Nassau and the
New Orleans second line—or in their own imaginary
cartographies and invented performance traditions.
The resulting newly commissioned works took place
according to different modes of public address and
audience engagement including semi-private rituals
at the margin of the festival celebrations and street
processions in the midst of the carnival revelry.
Marlon Griffith, Positions + Power, 2014, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
©Marlon James, 2014.
Taking its title from a pun on “Mas” (short for masquerade
and synonymous with carnival in the English-speaking
Caribbean), EN MAS’ considers a history of performance
that does not take place on the stage or in the gallery but
rather in the streets, addressing not the few but the many.
PUBLICATION
An accompanying publication, co-published by ICI and
CAC, and distributed by DAP, will include critical essays
by the exhibition’s curators as well as Shannon Jackson
and Kobena Mercer, monographic texts by an array
of cultural and art critics, and extensive illustrations.
In addition to the publication, a newly launched
website hosted by ICI offers insights into each artist’s
performance while tracking the exhibition tour.
EN MAS’ ON ICI’S WEBSITE
ICI has created a dedicated online platform to track the
progress of EN MAS’ around the globe. Each artist’s
performance is represented with detailed images,
multimedia, project descriptions, and press. An interactive
map charts the nine performances, and the tour as it
travels internationally. Follow us on #enmas.
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Charles Campbell, Actor Boy: Fractal Engagement, performance, April 21, 2014, Kingston, Jamaica. Photo: Marvin Bartley
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CURATORS
ARTISTS
Claire Tancons is a curator, writer, and researcher with
a focus on Carnival, public ceremonial culture, civic
rituals, and popular movements. The Associate Curator
for Prospect.1 New Orleans (2007-9), a curator for the
7th Gwangju Biennale (2008), Guest Curator for CAPE09
(2009), Associate Curator for research for Biennale Bénin
(2012), and a curator for the Göteborg Biennial (2013),
Tancons has developed genealogies and methodologies
for thinking about and presenting performance—including
reclaiming the processional as exhibitionary mode. She
has written extensively about Carnival, the carnivalesque,
performance and protest in NKA, Small Axe, Third Text,
and the e-flux Journal. Tancons was most recently guest
curator for Up Hill Down Hall: An Indoor Carnival as part
of the 2014 BMW Tate Live series at Tate Modern.
John Beadle, Charles Campbell, Christophe Chassol,
Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Marlon Griffith, Hew Locke,
Lorraine O’Grady, Ebony Patterson, Cauleen Smith
Krista Thompson is Associate Professor of Art History
at Northwestern University and the author of An Eye
for the Tropics (2006). She has written articles in Art
Bulletin, Art Journal, American Art, Representations,
The Drama Review, and Small Axe. Exhibitions include
the National Exhibition (NE3) (2006) and Developing
Blackness: Studio Photographs of “Over the Hill” Nassau
in the Independence Era (2008) at the National Art
Gallery of the Bahamas. Her book Shine: The Visual
Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice
on the intersection of popular photography, performance,
and contemporary art in the circum-Caribbean will be
published by Duke University Press in 2015.
EN MAS’: Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean is made
possible by an Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award. Additional support
is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the
Institut français in support of African and Caribbean projects.
BASIC FACTS
Number of artists: 9
Number of works: selections to be made from the
original commissioned performances, which form the
basis of the exhibition at CAC New Orleans
Tour dates: spring 2015–2018
For additional information and dates of availability,
contact Alaina Claire Feldman at
alaina@curatorsintl.org or 212 254 8200 x127
The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a multi-disciplinary arts center,
financially stable and professionally managed, which is dedicated to
the presentation, production, and promotion of the art of our time. It
expresses its mission by organizing world class curated exhibitions,
performances, and public programs; educating and enlarging audiences
for the arts; and encouraging collaboration among diverse stakeholders
composed of artists, institutions, communities, and supporters throughout
the world.
SALON DE
FLEURUS
SALON DE FLEURUS is a contemporary reconstruction of Gertrude Stein’s Parisian
salon that existed at 27 rue de Fleurus from 1904–34. It is a project that displays
and references a story of modern art’s beginnings through one of the first gathering
places for burgeoning young artists such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and
Stein herself.
It was in Stein’s salon that paintings by Cezanne,
Matisse and Picasso were seen exhibited together for
the first time both by her peers and transatlantic art
experts who spread the word back home, eventually
creating the American narrative of European modern art
familiar today.
Through 34 painted reproductions exhibited within a
constructed interior, Salon de Fleurus questions where,
why and how certain narratives of modern art originated
through the salon structure that first canonized them.
When one looks at Picasso here, they are viewing
Picasso through the lens of Stein. Perhaps then, these
reproductions are more significant and tell us more about
history than the original artworks themselves by weaving
fiction into history and leaving space to contemplate and
reconsider the past.
From 1992 to 2013 Salon de Fleurus existed as a semiprivate salon in lower Manhattan. It has appeared in
fragments in Beirut, Paris and Los Angeles and will now
be touring as a complete project by ICI. The exhibition
contains painting reproductions as well as a library
of publications, and training video for a “doorman” or
raconteur to best evoke the story of the salon to visitors.
Art spaces are invited to source local details such as
furniture, decorations, and objects that further relate
to early modernity, and to organize readings, talks,
screenings and events that use the salon as a forum
for discussing diverging art historical narratives. An
additional PDF booklet including press from the Salon’s
20-year history and images of the full archive will also be
available for circulation.
ABOUT SALON DE FLEURUS
Salon de Fleurus is an educational institution dedicated
to assembling, preserving, and exhibiting memories on
early modern art. Its permanent exhibit, titled from The
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, located at 41 Spring
Street, New York, was open to the public from 1992—
2013. A selection from the Salon’s permanent collection
was part of the Fiction Reconstructed that was shown in
Ljubljana, Belgrade and Budapest from 2000 to 2002.
In 2002, Salon de Fleurus was included in the Whitney
Biennial, Sydney Biennial, and exhibition Am Anfang
der Bevegung stand ein Skandal in the Lenbachhaus
Munich. Selections from the Salon’s permanent collection
were also shown at the exhibitions What is Modern Art?
(Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2006),The Making of
Americans (James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center,
New York) and Les Fleurs Americaines (Le Plateau,
Paris, 2012). In 2011, the Metabolic Studio (Los Angeles)
opened another version of the Salon de Fleurus, with a
collection titled Portraits and Prayers that more closely
resembles the early twentieth century Paris Salon and
traveled to Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, 2014.
BASIC FACTS
Number of works: 34 paintings and a small, curated
library of related publications
Space required: approximately 400 square feet, or a
similarly constructed interior space
Tour dates: Fall 2015 through December 2018
For additional information and dates of availability,
contact Alaina Claire Feldman at
alaina@curatorsintl.org or 212 254 8200 x127
SALON DE FLEURUS
Salon De Fleurus, Metabolic Studio, Los Angeles, 2011. Courtesy of Salon de Fleurus.
EXHIBITIONS
Salon De Fleurus, installation view, New York, 1992-2013. Courtesy of Salon de Fleurus.
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Martha Wilson’s 40-year career encapsulates the key debates in feminist and socially
engaged practices, wherein identity and positioning are not just self-defined or projected
but also negotiated, disputed, and constantly reimagined. The complex nature of
Wilson’s work encompasses her activities as an artist since the early 1970s, her position
as the director of Franklin Furnace, and her music collaborations in DISBAND.
Written into and out of art history according to the
theories and convictions of the time, Martha Wilson first
gained attention in 1973 through Lucy R. Lippard, who
contextualized her early work within the parameters
of conceptual practice, and among other women artist
contemporaries. A year later, Judy Chicago denounced
Wilson after a performance she presented at the Feminist
Art Program at CalArts for “irresponsible demagoguery.”
She has been regarded by many as prefiguring Judith
Butler’s ideas on gender performativity through her
practice, and in the words of art critic Holland Cotter, she
was described as one of “the half-dozen most important
people for art in downtown Manhattan in the 1970s.”
Responding to the wide scope of Wilson’s career, Peter
Dykhuis has assembled a diverse collection of works
in this retrospective, which is intended as a flexible,
modular, and collaborative exhibition. Curators at each
presenting institution collaborate directly with the artist
to select works from the overlapping stages of Wilson’s
career. Selections include examples of her conceptually
based performances, videos, and photo-texts, or focus
on Franklin Furnace, an arts organization founded by
Wilson to support the preservation and advocacy for the
production of avant-garde, ephemeral, and alternative
forms of art. Wilson has been working with curators of
presenting institutions to further explore ways in which
identity and contested histories can be shown in the
context of their local constituencies and according to
each venue’s programming priorities. In some cases,
Wilson has selected works from the museum’s collection
or worked with people in the community to develop an
exhibition that explores the nature of visibility, or what
feminism means now, or the role of the activist today.
PERFORMING FRANKLIN FURNACE
From February 26 to March 1, Participant Inc. hosted
a series of performances organized by Martha Wilson
and ICI to coincide with the final presentation of the
exhibition Martha Wilson in New York. The series
captured the spirit of Franklin Furnace as a physical
space through a four-day series of screenings and live
works, including performances by Michael Smith (who
re-created a version of Baby Ikki, presented at Franklin
Furnace in 1978), Coco Fusco (a Franklin Furnace alum
who performed A Lecture by Dr. Zira, a recent work),
and an evening of performances in-progress hosted by
Clifford Owens and inspired by typical Sunday events at
Franklin Furnace.
Franklin Furnace serves the local, national and
international community of activist artists—artists who
have addressed urgent subjects such as war, poverty,
disease, racism, sexism, and homophobia. In 1976,
artist Martha Wilson founded Franklin Furnace in
Lower Manhattan as a primary source for producing
and mediating works vulnerable to neglect due to lack
of institutional support, ephemeral nature, or politically
unpopular content. Until 1996, when it moved online to
its current digital platform, Franklin Furnace occupied a
Tribeca storefront space that presented historical and
contemporary exhibitions of artists’ books as well as
temporary installations and performance art to the public.
Coco Fusco, Observations of Predations in Humans: A Lecture by Dr. Zira, Animal.
Curated by Peter Dykhuis
Martha Wilson and clown performer at Performing Franklin Furnace,
Participant Inc., 2015.
MARTHA
WILSON
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Amanda Alfieri, Performing Franklin Furnace, Participant Inc., 2015.
MARTHA WILSON
Mike Smith, Baby Ikki, Performing Franklin Furnace, Participant Inc., 2015.
EXHIBITIONS
Installation view of Martha Wilson at Arcadia University Art Gallery, Glenside, PA, 2012.
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To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of do it in
2013, Obrist and ICI collaborated on its newest
iteration, stemming from a new publication, do it: the
compendium—complete with the history of this landmark
project and a selection of 250 artists’ instructions,
including 80 brand new ones. A call to action, do it invites
you to take part, to interpret, re-invent and generate
ideas, creating new dynamic institutional and exhibition
formats for years to come.
Since May 2013, this latest iteration of do it has been
shown in more than 16 art spaces internationally, with
many more scheduled this year. New versions and
projects were also generated in the past two years, and
can be found on ICI’s website. Several of them, such as
do it (homage), do it (archive), and do it (short), can even
be shown alongside future presentations of do it.
CURATOR
Hans Ulrich Obrist is co-director of the Serpentine
Galleries, London. Prior to this, he was the Curator of
the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris. Since his
first show World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991 he
has curated more than 250 exhibitions. Obrist’s recent
publications include A Brief History of Curating, Project
Japan: Metabolism Talks with Rem Koolhaas, Everything
You Always Wanted to Know About Curating But Were
Afraid to Ask, do it: the compendium, Think Like Clouds,
Ai Weiwei Speaks, Sharp Tongues—Loose Lips—Open
Eyes—Ears to the Ground, along with new volumes of his
Conversation Series.
DO IT: EA
Starting in the fall of 2014, The Episcopal Academy (EA)
in Newtown Square, PA, has been the first school of its
kind to become a hosting venue for do it. Developed
by ICI trustee Susan Coote, this unique iteration of the
project puts do it in the hands of pre-k through 12th
grade students, their teachers, parents, and the school
community. Through video-making, website and music
production, performances, twitter conversations, and
school-wide workshops or after-school clubs, students
of all ages experience contemporary art first-hand, and
are asked to consider art-making in a completely different
way, through an understanding of the intentions of an
artist. DO IT: THE COMPENDIUM
By Hans Ulrich Obrist. Foreword
and acknowledgements by Kate
Fowle and Frances Wu Giarratano;
introduction by Hans Ulrich Obrist;
essays by Bruce Altshuler, Hu
Fang, Virginia Pérez-Ratton, and
Elizabeth Presa. Softcover, 448
pages. 8 x 10 inches. Co-published
by Independent Curators International (ICI) and D.A.P.,
2013. ISBN: 978-1-938922-01-5. $35.00
BASIC FACTS
Number of artists or artists groups: 250
Number of works: 250
Space required: extremely flexible, though at least 1,000
square feet is recommended
Tour dates: March 2013–December 2017
For additional information and dates of availability,
contact Alaina Claire Feldman at
alaina@curatorsintl.org or 212 254 8200 x127
do it instruction by Nicolás Paris, do it
at The Episcopal Academy, Newtown
Square, Pennsylvania, USA, 2015.
In the more than 20 years since Obrist, Boltanski, and
Lavier mused over the potential of “scores,” or written
instructions by artists, to create exhibition formats that
could be more flexible and open-ended, do it went from
a selection of 12 instructions to an ongoing project
including over four hundred artists. Every time it was
presented, in any of the more than 60 venues worldwide,
do it was re-interpreted anew. Many new versions
appeared, including do it (museum), do it (home), do it
(TV), do it (seminar), and an online do it in collaboration
with e-flux, among others.
do it, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 2014.
What would happen if an exhibition never stopped? Since it began in 1993, with this
question being asked by Hans Ulrich Obrist and artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand
Lavier, DO IT has become the longest-running and most far-reaching exhibition to ever
happen—constantly generating new versions of itself.
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do it instruction by Robert Ashley, do it at The Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square,
Pennsylvania, USA, 2015.
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
do it Moscow, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2014. Architect: Andreas
Angelidakis. Photo: Anton Silenin. © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
DO IT
Opening of do it at The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 2014.
DO IT
EXHIBITIONS
do it instruction by Lygia Pape,
interpreted by Robert Hamblin, do it
at The Michaelis School of Fine Art,
University of Cape Town, Cape Town,
South Africa, 2014.
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PROJECT 35
VOLUME 2
GLOBALITY IN ARTISTS’ FILM & VIDEO
In conjunction with the presentation of Project 35
Volume 2 at the University of Westminster (October
23–November 30, 2014), the Centre for Research
and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) and the
International Centre for Documentary and Experimental
Film organized the symposium Globality in Artists’ Film
& Video. The event addressed expanded geographies
of research on artists’ moving image and experimental
video and gathered together artists, researchers and
writers including Shezad Dawood (an artist in Project 35
Volume 2), George Clark, May Adadol Ingawanij, Ozlem
Koksal, Michael Mazière, Lucy Reynolds, Julian Ross,
and Erika Tan.
In 2010, ICI launched PROJECT 35, a program of single-channel videos selected by 35
international curators who each chose one work from an artist they think is important
for audiences around the world to experience today. The resulting selection was
presented in more than 30 venues around the globe, at times simultaneously, inspiring
discourse in places as varied as Berlin, Germany; Cape Town, South Africa; Lagos,
Nigeria; Los Angeles, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Skopje, Macedonia; Storrs,
Connecticut; Taipei, Taiwan; and Tirana, Albania. Following the widespread popularity
and success of the first exhibition, ICI has collaborated with 35 more international
curators to produce PROJECT 35 VOLUME 2.
Taking advantage of the flexibility of video formats, Project
35 Volume 2 can be shown in almost any space worldwide. It can be projected in a gallery, featured in monthly
screenings, or shown on a monitor running in a café or
education room. A pamphlet accompanies the exhibition
with a short introduction to each work by the selecting
curator, along with the curators and artists bios. Since this
second version launched in 2012, Project 35 Volume 2
has been on view in over 27 international art spaces from
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Jaffna, Sri Lanka to Montevideo,
Uruguay, including a coordinated presentation across the
Caribbean. These itinerant presentations have built
a shared understanding of art practice by grasping the
complexity of our contemporary landscape, and at the
same time, generated diverse discourse inspiring artists
and audiences all over the world.
CURATORS
Leezy Ahmady (Afghanistan / US), Meskerem
Assegued (Ethiopia), Daina Augaitis (Canada), Defne
Ayas (Turkey / The Netherlands), Regine Basha (US),
Valerie Cassel-Oliver (US), Rosina Cazali (Guatemala),
Stuart Comer (US / UK), Veronica Cordeiro (Brazil /
Uruguay), Christopher Cozier (Trinidad and Tobago),
María del Carmen Carrión (Ecuador / US), Rifky Effendy
(Indonesia), Özge Ersoy (Turkey), N’Goné Fall (Senegal),
Thirteen of the artists and ten of the curators in Project
35 Volume 2 are based in Asia. Reflecting on this, and
in conjunction with the Asian Contemporary Art Week
(ACAW), ICI hosted works from Project 35 Volume 2
on October 23, 2014. Selections were also screened at
Asia Society during the ACAW Field Meetings series,
organized by Project 35 Volume 2 curator Leeza Ahmady. Amirali Ghasemi (Iran), Vít Havránek (Czech Republic),
Hou Hanru (US / China), Virginija Januskeviciute
(Lithuania), Abdellah Karroum (Morocco), Pablo León
de la Barra (Mexico / US), Maria Lind (Sweden), Yandro
Miralles (Cuba), Srimoyee Mitra (Canada), Nat Muller
(The Netherlands), Sharmini Pereira (Sri Lanka), Nataša
Petrešin-Bachelez (France / Slovenia), Kathrin Rhomberg
(Austria), Sun Jung Kim (South Korea), Mats Stjernstedt
(Norway / Sweden), David Teh (Australia / Thailand),
Philip Tinari (US / China), Christine Tohme (Lebanon),
Raluca Voinea (Romania), Jochen Volz (Germany / UK),
Adnan Yildiz (Germany)
ARTISTS
Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil), Marwa Arsanios
(Lebanon), Zbyněk Baladrán (Czech Republic), Michael
Blum (Israel / Canada) and Damir Nikšić (Bosnia /
Sweden), Deanna Bowen (US / Canada), Pavel Braila
(Moldova), Aslı Çavuşoğlu (Turkey), Park Chan-Kyong
(South Korea), Chen Zhou (China), Josef Dabernig
(Austria), Elena Damiani (Peru), Shezad Dawood (UK),
Annika Eriksson (Sweden), Antanas Gerlikas (Lithuania),
Annemarie Jacir (Palestine), Jin-Me Yoon (Korea),
Lars Laumann (Norway), Aníbal López (A-1 53167)
(Guatemala), Reynier Leyva Novo (Cuba), Basim Magdy
(Egypt), Cinthia Marcelle (Brazil), Bradley McCullum
& Jacqueline Tarry (US), Ivana Müller (France / The
Netherlands / Croatia), Ahmet Ögüt (Turkey), Jenny
Perlin (US), Agnieszka Polska (Poland), Sara Ramo
(Spain), Wok the Rock (Indonesia), Sona Safaei (Iran),
Heino Schmid (The Bahamas), Sun Xun (China), Prilla
Tania (Indonesia), Alexander Ugay (Kazakhstan), Dale
Yudelman (South Africa), Helen Zeru (Ethiopia)
Sara Ramo, A Banda Dos Sete (Band of Seven), 2010. Film Still. Courtesy of the artist.
ICI has once again drawn from its extensive network of
curators to trace the complexity of regional and global
connections among practitioners and the variety of
approaches they use to make video. 35 curators from
6 continents each chose one work for this compilation,
showcasing a variety of artists’ takes on the medium.
ASIAN CONTEMPORARY ART WEEK (ACAW), NYC
13
Zbyněk Baladrán (Czech Republic), 40.000.000, 2010.
Film Still. Courtesy of the artist.
EXHIBITIONS
Installation view of Project 35: Volume 2 at Fresh Milk, St. George,
Barbados, 2013. Photo: Mark King
EXHIBITIONS
12
14
EXHIBITIONS
EXHIBITIONS
DOCUMENTA 5
FREE PLAY
HARALD SZEEMANN: DOCUMENTA 5
Curated by David Platzker
Curated by Melissa E. Feldman
“No vital periods ever began from a theory. What’s first is a game, a struggle, a
journey.” —Guy Debord
Even 40 years later, DOCUMENTA 5, the exhibition that was criticized in 1972 as being
“bizarre…vulgar…sadistic” by Hilton Kramer and “monstrous…overtly deranged” by
Barbara Rose, resonates today as one of the most important exhibitions in history. Both
hailed and derided by artists and critics, the exhibition was the largest, most expensive
and most diverse of any exhibition anywhere, and foreshadowed all large-scale,
collaboratively curated, comprehensive mega-shows to come. HARALD SZEEMANN:
DOCUMENTA 5, explores the many facets of this particularly controversial Documenta
exhibition, which jumped outside the contemporary art sphere into an expanded realm
of activity, a legendary extravaganza that invited both visceral criticism and praise.
Seeking the initial moment described by Debord, FREE PLAY explores the work of
artists who borrow from play and games to reveal social, philosophical, and cultural
issues. From playfulness, to mathematical strategy, the artists in FREE PLAY have mined
the significance of games, reinventing them to create experiences, often meant to be
involving the viewer, and reflecting on the nature of participation in art.
Cory Arcangel, Patrick Bernier and Olive Martin, Ruth
Catlow, Mary Flanagan, Futurefarmers, Ryan Gander,
Jeanne van Heeswijk and Rolf Engelen, Allan McCollum
and Matt Mullican, Paul Noble, Yoko Ono, Pedro Reyes,
Jason Rohrer, David Shrigley, Erik Svedäng
CURATOR
The arcade of games in Free Play include a version
of Guitar Hero by Cory Arcangel, hopscotch by Mary
Flanagan, and Ryan Gander’s version of blackjack—
while the more mystically inclined may gravitate toward
Allan McCollum and Matt Mullican’s divining game.
Melissa E. Feldman is a Seattle-based independent
curator and writer, and holds the position of Distinguished
Visiting Faculty at Cornish College of the Arts. She is
a frequent contributor to Art in America, Frieze, Third
Text, Aperture, among others. Her recent exhibitions
include Dance Rehearsal: Karen Kilimnik’s World of
Ballet and Theatre (2012), organized by the Mills College
Art Museum, Oakland, which traveled to the Museum
of Contemporary Art Denver, CO; Afterglow: Rethinking
California Light and Space Art (2010), Wiegand Gallery,
Notre Dame de Namur University Art Gallery, Belmont,
CA and the Hearst Art Gallery at St. Mary’s College,
Walnut Creek, CA; and Sampler: Textiles at Creative
Growth (2007) at Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland.
Feldman has taught at the California College of the
Arts, the San Francisco Art Institute, and Goldsmith’s
College, London, and is credited with organizing the first
monographic exhibitions in America for Kilimnik, Martin
Kippenberger, and Hiroshi Sugimoto in the early 1990s
as curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA),
Philadelphia, PA.
BASIC FACTS
Number of artists or artists groups: 14
Number of works: approximately 17
Space required: extremely flexible
For additional information and dates of availability,
contact Alaina Claire Feldman at
alaina@curatorsintl.org or 212 254 8200 x127
contemporary art scene of 1972, to see what this
particularly fertile cultural moment produced. Venues
might like to host an evening of local artists’ talks about
contracts and rights, building from discussion of The
Artists Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement, or
could work with community groups to generate their own
100-day series of events.
Harald Szeemann: Documenta 5, installation view, CAC Vilnius, 2011.
David Shrigley, Your Parents, You, Your Wee Sister, and The Social
Services, 2011. Image courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery.
ARTISTS
Artistic processes tied to game playing have historically
attracted the avant-garde, most famously the chess
master Marcel Duchamp. His every artistic move had
his chess partner—the viewer—in mind. Games were
also intrinsic to the work of war-addled Surrealists
and Dadaists, the inventors of exquisite corpse and
automatic drawing, in their quest to upend the bourgeois
pretensions of art and free the artistic imagination. In the
1960s and 1970s, the countercultural and antiwar Fluxus
group and the New Games Foundation questioned
capitalism and corporate culture by staging massive
public games in city parks. Moving away from the
classical chess period of kings, queens, and bishops,
the works Free Play do not represent medieval figures
but strategies of decision making around contemporary
issues.
15
CURATOR
Documenta, a major international contemporary art
presentation that takes place every five years in Kassel,
Germany, is in its 14th iteration. This specific 1972
Documenta, chiefly curated by the influential Swiss
curator, Harald Szeemann, was a pioneering, radically
different presentation that was conceived as a 100-day
event, with performances and happenings, outsider art,
even non-art, as well as repeated Joseph Beuys lectures,
and an installation of Claes Oldenburg’s Mouse Museum,
among many other atypical inclusions. The show widely
promoted awareness of a contract known as The Artist’s
Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement, which
protects artists’ ongoing intellectual and financial rights
with regard to their production.
This exhibition includes the catalogue, ephemera,
artists’ publications and editions produced in conjunction
with the exhibition, as well as published reviews and
critical responses. The assembled materials provide
a rich jumping off point for art history students, artists,
and general audiences to plunge into the international
David Platzker is Curator of Drawings and Prints at The
Museum of Modern Art, New York. From 2004 to 2013 he
was the director of Specific Object, an innovative gallery,
bookshop, and storehouse for a range of items from
artists’ publications, multiples and unique works of art,
as well as literature, music, and counterculture. Before
founding Specific Object, Platzker was the executive
director of Printed Matter from 1998 to 2004, the nonprofit institution dedicated to the promotion of artists’
books and publications. His curatorial projects at Specific
Object and Printed Matter included shows of John
Baldessari, Hanne Darboven, Marcel Duchamp, Guerrilla
Girls, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono, Raymond Pettibon,
Ed Ruscha, and Claes Oldenburg. At The Museum of
Modern Art he co-curated There Will Never Be Silence:
Scoring John Cage’s 4’33” in collaboration with Jon
Hendricks.
BASIC FACTS
Space required: extremely flexible
Tour dates: January 2011—Indefinitely
For additional information and dates of availability,
contact Alaina Claire Feldman at
alaina@curatorsintl.org or 212 254 8200 x127
16
EXHIBITIONS
EXHIBITIONS
17
WITH HIDDEN PERFORMANCE
NOW
NOISE
Curated by Stephen Vitiello
Curated by RoseLee Goldberg, co-organized with Performa
WITH HIDDEN NOISE is an exploration of sound art that asks gallery and museum
visitors to spend time listening with ears they may not know they had… With too few yet
important exhibitions focusing on the medium, sound art is made accessible to a wider
range of venues across continents with the artist-curated exhibition.
In her groundbreaking book PERFORMANCE ART: FROM FUTURISM TO THE PRESENT
(1979), art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg showed that performance is central
to the history of twentieth-century art. In 2005, she launched PERFORMA 05, the first
biennial of visual art performance, and predicted that performance would become
“the medium of the twenty-first century.” Indeed, its time has come.
CURATOR
Featured artists in With Hidden Noise include legendary
composer Pauline Oliveros as well as Steve Roden,
Andrea Parkins, and the project’s curator, Stephen
Vitiello. Titled after Duchamp’s readymade ball of string
containing a mysterious sound-making object hidden in
its folds, this exhibition brings together evocative sounds,
some recognizable from traditional instruments and
field recordings, and others masked through electronic
processes.
This self-contained sound-art exhibition pairs down
the installation scale to a single set of surround-sound
speakers (five speakers plus a subwoofer), adaptable to
a wide range of spaces, allowing for many presentation
possibilities. Also included are a number of books
and catalogues on contemporary sound art that may
be distributed around the gallery for those who would
like to read more as they listen. A further reading list,
videography, and programming suggestions are provided
by the curator, making this exhibition as adaptable and
expandable as desired.
Stephen Vitiello is a sound and media artist whose
sound installations have been presented internationally
both in public spaces and museums. Among his recent
projects, A Bell for Every Minute, a site-specific project
commissioned by Creative Time for the High Line, New
York (2010) was included in the Museum of Modern
Art’s exhibition Soundings: A Contemporary Score
(2013). Vitiello has collaborated extensively, working with
artists such as Tony Oursler, Julie Mehretu, Joan Jonas,
Steve Roden, Nam June Paik, and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Originally from New York, he is now based in Richmond,
Virginia where is a professor in the Department of Kinetic
Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University.
ARTISTS
Taylor Deupree, Jennie C. Jones, Pauline Oliveros,
Andrea Parkins, Steve Peters, Steve Roden, Michael J.
Schumacher, Stephen Vitiello
BASIC FACTS
Number of artists: 8
Number of works: 7
Space required: extremely flexible
Tour dates: March 2012–December 2015
For additional information and dates of availability,
contact Alaina Claire Feldman at
alaina@curatorsintl.org or 212 254 8200 x127
CURATOR
Installation view of Performance Now at Kraków Theatrical
Reminiscences, Kraków, Poland, 2014.
Installation view of With Hidden Noise at MADA Gallery, Monash
University, Victoria, Australia, 2013.
This is an exhibition about listening, wherein Vitiello
traces a lineage for contemporary sound art in the
charged silences of Fluxus performances, as in John
Cage’s seminal 4’33”, which forced audience members to
acknowledge the sounds of the concert space or of their
own restless bodies. —Allison Young, Artforum
Performance Now is a selection of works by artists
from a vast repository of new performance from around
the world since 2000, a period that has witnessed an
exponential growth in the field. Bringing together some of
the most significant practitioners today, Performance Now
surveys critical and experimental currents in performance
internationally, featuring key Performa commissions, and
works by Marina Abramović, Jérôme Bel, Marvin Gaye
Chetwynd, William Kentridge, and Clifford Owens, among
others.
Together, the works in the exhibition are an indication
of the extent to which visual artists use performance as
part of their creative process; how that process produces
objects, installations, video, or photography; and how
these mediums have been enlivened by the demands
of recording performance in innovative ways. Exploring
live performance, artists capture its ephemerality and
transform it into new work that contains the power and
content of the original.
RoseLee Goldberg’s seminal study, Performance Art:
From Futurism to the Present (first published in 1979 and
now in its third edition) is regarded as the leading text
for understanding the development of the genre and has
been translated into more languages (including Chinese,
Croatian, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese,
Spanish and Russian) than any other book of its
kind. When director of the Royal College of Art (RCA)
Gallery in London, Goldberg established a program that
pioneered an integrative approach to curating exhibitions,
performance, and symposia, directly involving the various
departments of the RCA in all aspects of the exhibitions
program. As curator at The Kitchen in New York she
continued to advocate for multi-disciplinary practices to
have equal prominence by establishing the exhibition
space, a video viewing room, and a performance series.
It was here that Goldberg curated the first solo exhibitions
of Cindy Sherman, Sherri Levine, Robert Longo, Jack
Goldstein and The Kipper Kids, among others. Most
recently, her vision in the creation of Performa has set
a precedent for performance art that is now impacting
museum programming and diverse audiences across
the U.S. and abroad. In 2010 she was awarded the ICI
Agnes Gund Curatorial Award and in 2006 named a
Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. Since 1987,
Goldberg has taught at New York University.
ARTISTS
Marina Abramović, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo
Calzadilla, Yael Bartana, Jérôme Bel, Guy Ben-Ner,
Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Nikhil Chopra, Nathalie
Djurberg, Claire Fontaine, Christian Jankowski, Jesper
Just, William Kentridge, Ragnar Kjartansson, Regina
José Galindo, Liz Magic Laser, Kalup Linzy, Nandipha
Mntambo, Kelly Nipper, Clifford Owens, Santiago Sierra,
Laurie Simmons, Ryan Trecartin
CURATORIAL
INTENSIVE
ICI’s CURATORIAL INTENSIVE was established in 2010 as the world’s first shortcourse, low-cost training program for curators. Intended to bring working professionals
together to gain new skills and perspectives on pragmatic aspects of curating, as well
as to increase dialogue in curatorial ideas, the Intensive supports early- to mid-career
curators working independently or institutionally in emerging and established art
centers around the world. Programs are held at ICI in New York, and around the world
in collaboration with institutional partners.
The Curatorial Intensive consists of a weeklong schedule
of seminars, workshops, advisement meetings, and site
visits developed by ICI and taught by leading curators,
artists, critics, and directors. Participants apply with an
exhibition proposal to workshop through the program, the
outcomes of which are presented to a public audience
on the last day. Through their intensive engagement
with each other during the sessions, participants realize
opportunities for developing new collaborations and
networks.
In 2015, ICI has established new international sites for
the Curatorial Intensive and developed partnerships with
institutions such as: Prospect and the Contemporary Arts
Center in New Orleans, LA; Dar al-Ma’mûn in Marrakech,
Morocco; and Gerencia Distrital de las Artes (IDARTES)
in Bogotá, Colombia. Bolstering ICI’s involvement in
Southeast Asia, the Curatorial Intensive will also take
place in Manila, the Philippines in October 2015.
MARRAKECH, MOROCCO
Program Dates: May 19–25, 2015
This May, ICI in collaboration with Dar al-Ma’mûn,
presents the inaugural Curatorial Intensive in Marrakech,
Morocco. Following the Curatorial Intensive in Addis
Ababa with the Zoma Contemporary Art Center (ZCAC)
in 2014, and in Johannesburg with The Bag Factory
Artists’ Studios in 2013, ICI continues its commitment to
supporting curatorial training in Africa and to developing
regional networks. The program will focus on the cultural
landscape of West Africa and the Maghreb while also
exploring the role of curators working for both local and
international audiences.
INSTRUCTORS AND ADVISORS
Omar Berrada and Julien Amicel (co-funders of Dar
al-Ma’mûn), María del Carmen Carrión (Director of
Public Programs & Research, ICI), Hassan Darsi and
Florence Renault-Darsi (Founders, La source du lion,
Casablanca), Koyo Kouoh (Founding Artistic Director,
RAW Material Company, Dakar), Renaud Proch
(Executive Director, ICI), Mohamed Rachdi (independent
curator, Marrakech), Shuddhabrata Sengupta (artist,
New Delhi), Bisi Silva (Founder/Director, Centre for
Contemporary Art, Lagos), and Christine Tohme (founder,
Ashkal Alwan, Beirut), among others.
The Curatorial Intensive is made possible in part by grants from the
Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the Hartfield Foundation, and by
generous contributions from Toby Devan Lewis, the ICI Board of Trustees,
ICI’s Leadership Fund for Africa, and the supporters of ICI’s Access Fund.
Scholarships for curators from Turkey will be supported by SAHA.
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA
Program Dates: June 17–23, 2015
This June, ICI in collaboration with Gerencia Distrital de
las Artes (IDARTES), presents the second Curatorial
Intensive in Bogotá. Following the success of the last
Curatorial Intensive in Bogotá in November 2013, ICI
is pleased to continue its active programming in Latin
America and offering professional training opportunities
for emerging curators in Spanish.
The Curatorial Intensive is made possible in part by grants from the
Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the Hartfield Foundation, and by
generous contributions from Toby Devan Lewis, the ICI Board of Trustees,
the ICI Gerrit Lansing Education Fund, and the supporters of ICI’s Access
Fund. The Kurimanzutto Scholarship for Latin American curators will be
offered to one successful applicant.
For more information on the instructors, advisors, and schedule, as
well as past Curatorial Intensives, visit ICI’s website, curatorsintl.org, or
contact Kimberly Kitada at kimberly@curatorsintl.org.
CURATORIAL INTENSIVE
19
Curating Now, Curatorial Intensive in New York, seminar with Holland Cotter, September 21–30, 2014.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS & RESEARCH
18
REPORT: NEW YORK
Program Dates: September 21–30, 2014
Last September, the Curatorial Intensive in New York:
Curating Now offered curators the opportunity to
discuss, among colleagues, the concepts, logistics, and
challenges of organizing exhibitions, public programs,
and other discursive formats. Topics under discussion
included social practice, community engagement, and
alternative exhibition formats, among others.
The program explored independent practices and
spaces in New York, such as Participant Inc, and gave
curators the opportunity to engage with independent and
institutional curators based in the city, as well as one
of New York’s leading voice on contemporary art,
Holland Cotter.
INSTRUCTORS AND ADVISORS
María del Carmen Carrión (Associate Director of Public
Programs & Research, ICI), Stuart Comer (Chief
Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, The
Museum of Modern Art, New York), Holland Cotter (Cochief Art Critic and Senior Writer, The New York Times,
New York), Reem Fadda (Associate Curator of Middle
Eastern Art, Abu Dhabi Project, Solomon R. Guggenheim
Foundation, New York), Lia Gangitano (Founder/Director,
Participant Inc., New York), Andrea Geyer (artist, New
York), Elizabeth M. Grady (Director of Programs, A Blade
of Grass, New York), Larissa Harris (Curator, Queens
Museum of Art, New York), Tumelo Mosaka (independent
curator, New York), and Renaud Proch (Executive
Director, ICI)
The Curatorial Intensive is made possible in part by grants from the
Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Hartfield Foundation, and by generous contributions from the ICI Board of Trustees, the ICI Gerrit Lansing
Education Fund, and the supporters of ICI’s Access Fund. Scholarships
for this Curatorial Intensive were generously provided by SAHA.
Curatorial Intensive in New Orleans, seminar with Franklin Sirmans, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, January 18–24, 2015.
CURATORIAL INTENSIVE
NEW ORLEANS
Program Dates: January 18–24, 2015
In January 2015, ICI inaugurated the Curatorial Intensive
in New Orleans in collaboration with Prospect and the
Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans. This program
represented the first 8-day Intensive in the U.S. outside of
New York, which is part of an ongoing series of programs
engaging with curatorial and artistic practices around
the Gulf of Mexico—including exhibitions and curatorial
research fellowships. The Intensive brought together
emerging curators from across the South and around the
world for the opportunity to exchange ideas, develop
their exhibitions and projects, and explore Prospect.3
Notes for Now, the international biennial curated by
Franklin Sirmans.
INSTRUCTORS AND ADVISORS
Andrea Andersson (Chief Curator of Visual Arts, CAC
New Orleans), María del Carmen Carrión (Director of
Public Programs & Research, ICI), Tumelo Mosaka
(independent curator, New York), Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
(artist, San Juan), Valerie Cassel Oliver (Senior Curator,
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston), Elvira Dyangani
Ose (Lecturer in Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University
of London and Curator of the 8th Edition of the Göteborg
International Biennial for Contemporary Art, GIBCA
2015), Renaud Proch (Executive Director, ICI), Franklin
Sirmans (Artistic Director, Prospect.3, New Orleans and
Terri and Michael Smooke Department Head and Curator
of Contemporary Art, LACMA, Los Angeles), and Claire
Tancons (independent curator, New Orleans)
PROSPECT NEW ORLEANS
Prospect New Orleans was conceived in the tradition of
the great international exhibitions, such as the Venice
Biennale and the Bienal de São Paulo, to showcase
new artistic practices from around the world in settings
that are both historic and culturally exceptional, and
contribute to the cultural economy of New Orleans
and the Louisiana Gulf region. Prospect.3: Notes for
Now, the third edition of the New Orleans International
Contemporary Art Biennial, is on view through January
25, 2015.
CAC NEW ORLEANS
The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a multi–
disciplinary arts center dedicated to the presentation,
production, and promotion of the art of our time.
Formed in 1976 by a passionate group of visual and
performing artists when the movement to tear down the
walls between visual and performing arts was active
nationwide, the CAC expresses its mission by organizing
world class curated exhibitions, performances, and
public programs that educate and enlarge audiences
for the arts while encouraging collaboration among
diverse stakeholders composed of artists, institutions,
communities, and supporters throughout the world.
The Curatorial Intensive is made possible in part by grants from the
Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the Hartfield Foundation, and by
generous contributions from Toby Devan Lewis, the ICI Board of
Trustees, the ICI Gerrit Lansing Education Fund, and the supporters
of ICI’s Access Fund.
21
Curatorial Intensive in New Orleans, seminar with Andrea Andersson, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, January 18–24, 2015.
CURATORIAL INTENSIVE
20
NOTES FROM NOLA
Program Dates: January 18–24, 2015
Coinciding with the closing week of the Prospect 3
Biennial: Notes for Now, curated by Franklin Sirmans, the
vibrant art scene in New Orleans proved to be a dynamic
context for the first Curatorial Intensive in the Crescent
City. Tumelo Mosaka opened the week with a seminar
asking the curators to consider their motivations, their
goals, and the urgency of their work. Andrea Andersson,
newly appointed Chief Curator of Visual Arts at CAC,
incorporated the publication aspect of curatorial work by
focusing on the book format, and looking at exhibitions
as a “visual essay.” One remarkable highlight of the week
was a site visit to L9 Center for the Arts, where the artists
Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun, provided us with
a glimpse into their work.
Participants also received an internal perspective on
the planning, development, and realization of the P.3
Biennial from Brooke Davis Anderson, Executive Director
of Prospect New Orleans, and Franklin Sirmans, Artistic
Director of P.3. Sirmans spoke about his conceptual
starting point of an existential journey by way of Walker
Percy’s novel The Moviegoer, and shaping the biennial to
reflect the local content and the current moment.
Claire Tancons, a New Orleans-based independent
curator, and curator of EN MAS’ spoke of her practice
and projects and joined by Delaney Martin to discuss
Public Practice: An Anti-Violence Community Ceremony,
a project the two co-organized in October 2014 during the
opening events of P.3.
Later in the week, Elvira Dyangani Ose, curator of the
8th Edition of the Göteborg International Biennial for
Contemporary Art (GIBCA), spoke about the Lubumbashi
Biennial. And on the final day of seminars, Valerie Cassel
Oliver, Senior Curator at CAMH, discussed her interest in
moving image and performance-based practices through
the lens of several past exhibitions. Another international
perspective from Beatriz Santiago Muñoz brought the
artist’s voice to the conversation as she discussed her
own practice. She also co-founded Beta-Local in San
Juan, Puerto Rico: a collective, visionary project to
generate a new model for discussion, engagement, and
community within an art space.
The final symposium at CAC provided the participants
with an opportunity to present their exhibition proposals
to a public audience. Based on their proposals, the topics
of presentations included social and economic inequality,
contemporary implications of the civil rights movement,
and new models for audience engagement. Following
the day of presentations, a member of the audience,
impressed with the curators and quality of the program,
made an anonymous donation to fund a travel fellowship
for several participants to attend the 56th Venice Biennale
in May 2015. The curators will receive a travel stipend,
invitations to events organized by ICI Collaborators in
Venice, and have the opportunity to meet dozens of
colleagues and alumni from around the world at a reunion
and meeting organized by ICI in partnership with Fabrica,
held at the Italian foundation’s grounds in Treviso.
Freya Chou (Summer NY ’11) was appointed as the first
Curator of Education and Public Program at Para Site,
Hong Kong.
Sally Frater (Summer NY ‘12) curated 1972 at Pollock
Gallery, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas,
on view October 10−November 8, 2014.
There are currently 327 alumni of the Curatorial Intensives, based in 61 different
countries and 22 U.S. states. ICI remains in contact with alumni through the Curator’s
Network, and is updated on the exhibitions and projects that become fully realized
after the Intensives, as well as the alumni’s other public programs and curatorial
endeavors around the world.
In Santiago, Chile, Soledad García (Bogotá ‘13) cocurated Block Mágico at Museo de la Solidaridad
Salvador Allende (October 11, 2014−January 25, 2015).
Nazli Gurlek (Derry ‘13 and Istanbul ‘13) curated
Common Ground: Water at Borusan Contemporary in
Istanbul, Turkey (November 29, 2014−March 22, 2015).
Ivan Isaev (Moscow ’14) was appointed as the new
curator for the young art platform START at CCA
Winzavod in Moscow, Russia.
Priscila Fernandes, For a Better World, 2012.
Installation image, Pratfall Tramps, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center,
February 6–April 11, 2015. Photo: Jan Rattia.
EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMS DEVELOPED
THROUGH THE CURATORIAL INTENSIVE
Jesse van Oosten
The Value of Nothing
September 4–November 16, 2014
TENT Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Rachel Reese
Pratfall Tramps
February 6–April 11, 2015
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
The Value of Nothing springs from long-term research
initiated by TENT into shifts in thinking about value and
economics, and the role that art can play therein. In
the aftermath of the global economic crisis increasingly
urgent questions arise that are related to neoliberal
values seeping into almost every aspect of our lives. The
Value of Nothing presents artists who contribute to the
current debate on commodification in society, expose
the underlying mechanisms, or propose alternative
strategies.
How do we begin to qualify and draw connections
between artists and artworks dealing with or
about ‘funniness’ as subject matter, however
individualized? Pratfall Tramps investigates an artwork’s
comedic desire, through the work of Tammy Rae Carland,
Jamie Isenstein, Sara Greenberger Rafferty and Mary
Reid Kelley. These four women artists have developed
strong practices that reference mainstream comedy’s
systems and authors, while reflecting on issues of gender
in comedy and the art world they occupy. Each artist
takes a comedic approach, uniquely tied to their personal
visual styles and narratives, as a means to explore their
work and their deviations from norms (whether cultural,
social, logical, or linguistic). João Laia (Derry ‘13) is on the Curatorial Committee of the
19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc Videobrasil, to be
held October 6−December 6, 2015 in São Paulo, Brazil.
Tess Maunder (Tokyo ‘13) has joined the team of The
Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia as Public
Programs and Publications Officer.
Yameli Mera (Mexico City ‘14) curated the exhibition
of Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Matrulla: Landscape and
Memory at Sala de Arte Publico in Mexico City, on view
September 4−November 23, 2014.
Sofia Olascoaga (Inhotim ’12) has joined the curatorial
team for the 32nd São Paulo Biennial, scheduled for
September 2016.
Sidd Perez (Tokyo ‘13) curated Articles of Disagreements
at the Lopez Museum & Library, Pasig City, Philippines
(September 19−December 20, 2014).
Balimunsi Philip (Addis Ababa ’14) and Robinah
Nansubuga (Johannesburg ‘13) were part of the
curatorial team for the 2014 Kampala Contemporary Art
Festival, October 4−31, 2014 in Kampala, Uganda.
TransHisTor(ia), a collective comprised of María Sol
Barón Pino and Camilo Ordóñez Robayo (Mexico City
‘14), curated Con Wilson...dos décadas vulnerables
locales y visuales at Galería Santa Fe, Bogotá, Colombia
(October 17−November 14, 2014).
Adnan Yildiz (Fall NY ’11) was named Director of
Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand.
For more information about the Curatorial Intensive and the program’s
alumni, visit ICI’s website, www.curatorsintl.org, under the Curatorial
Intensive section.
Balimunsi Philip at the Curatorial Intensive in Addis Ababa, May 13–19,
2014.
Diana Campbell (Inhotim ‘12), Director of the Samdani Art
Foundation, announced the third edition of the Dhaka Art
Summit, which will take place from February 5–8, 2016 in
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Ivan Isaev at the Curatorial Intensive in Moscow, August 3–9, 2014.
ALUMNI
UPDATES
ALUMNI NEWS
23
João Laia at the Curatorial Intensive in Derry~Londonderry, May
19–25, 2013.
ALUMNI UPDATES
TransHisTor(ia), María Sol Barón Pino and Camilo Ordóñez Robayo, at
the Curatorial Intensive in Mexico City, June 30–July 7, 2014.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS & RESEARCH
22
INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL
40 YEARS OF ICI
40 YEARS
OF ICI
Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering
Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces, were not
ICI’s first partnerships with the artist. Just three years
after ICI was established, and at the same time as
Wilson founded the alternative space Franklin Furnace,
ICI produced Artists’ Books U.S.A., a unique survey
exhibition of artists’ publications, co-curated by Wilson
and Peter Frank. The show included well over a hundred
examples of book art—showing a broad range of
attitudes towards publishing, from ad-hoc to ephemeral,
experimental to activist. From 1978 to 1980, it expanded
the often-informal distribution of these publications
to reach broad audiences in art spaces across North
America. ICI has remained committed to supporting
independent publishing as an artistic and curatorial
practice, and regularly organizes panel discussions,
events, and book launches, at its Curatorial Hub and
beyond.
Since 1975, ICI has been a pioneering organization focusing on the role of the curator
as a contextualizing force for contemporary art. With exhibitions, events, publications,
curatorial training and research, ICI today is the only art organization of its kind to be
active in every U.S. state and over 40 countries—from California to Indonesia, wherever partnerships are activated. With this unique perspective, ICI works with curators,
artists, and art spaces, to supports independent practice. One collaboration at a time,
we foster the local structures and expand the regional networks that allow for cultural
exchange in a global world.
Collaboration is at the core of ICI’s approach to
supporting curators and creating access to contemporary
art and discourse for broad audiences. As they travel
to art spaces internationally, many ICI exhibitions are
the basis of collaborations with the hosting venues
and curators that generate new content, even new
publications, and new experiences with local audiences
in mind. ICI exhibitions such as do it (1997–2001, and
2013–present), FAX (2009–12), and Living as Form
(the Nomadic Version) (2012–14), actually grow as they
travel, gathering new local contents that are then taken to
international contexts.
ICI’s training and research programs for curators also rely
on the power of working together, sharing knowledge,
and learning from one another. The Curatorial Intensive
is the first-ever professional development and training
program to build a growing, active network of peers
for continued learning among curators. Each Intensive
held outside of New York City is developed by ICI with
a partner institution, around ideas selected by both for
their relevance to the local, regional and international
contexts. Even ICI’s Research Fellowships allow curators
40 YEARS OF ENCOURAGING
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
Over the past 40 years, ICI has built an unparalleled
network of collaborators—curators, artists, and art
spaces of all sizes—with the goal to support independent
practice locally, and encourage the sharing of
independent thought across the globe. This has been
true since day one, and ICI today continues to build upon
this rich history of support to independent projects.
Take for example ICI’s current collaboration with Martha
Wilson, which has roots in the late 1970s. Martha Wilson
—an evolving retrospective of the artist’s work—and the
ENERGIZING CURATORIAL NETWORKS,
AND FOSTERING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AROUND THE WORLD
Recognizing the critical issues faced by emerging
curators working in different contexts across the U.S.
and around the world—including cost, time, and access
to resources—the Curatorial Intensive was developed
in 2010 as a weeklong, low-cost program that can take
place in collaboration with art organizations around the
world. Just like with many ICI exhibitions, the program
is adapted to each local partnership, promoting a better
understanding of the local context.
Curatorial Intensive in Mexico City, Public Symposium at Museo
Jumex, July 7, 2014.
ICI’s founders, Susan Sollins and Nina Castelli Sundell,
defined in 1975 the vision behind one of the first
organizations in the world to be dedicated to curators.
Their work together shaped their understanding of how
an international network of curators, artists, and art
spaces could emerge through collaboration and serve
to advance curatorial practice and the presentation of
contemporary art.
to conduct the research that is critical to their practice
in conversation with ICI staff, and with access to ICI’s
international network of collaborators.
Workshop at TEOR/éTica, Costa Rica led by Pablo León de la Barra.
WORKING COLLABORATIVELY WITH CURATORS,
ARTISTS, AND ART SPACES
25
Meskerem Assegued at the Curatorial Intensive in Addis Ababa, May
13–19, 2014.
24
And just like ICI’s first exhibition catalogue in 1975
was published in Spanish and Portuguese, translation
remains a critical consideration at ICI, in order to address
issues of access in the curatorial field. Since 2013, the
Curatorial Intensive was organized in 3 cities in Latin
America, conducted entirely in Spanish. The upcoming
Intensive in Marrakech, Morocco, will be conducted in
English, but also in Arabic and French, following a new
model developed with our partners, Dar al-Ma’mûn,
an art space whose activities include educational and
translation programs. In addition, key curatorial resources
will be translated into French and Arabic for the first time
for the occasion.
International iterations of ICI’s programs and the
Curatorial Intensive in particular have also shown to give
broader access to emerging curators, recognizing that
opportunities are still often curtailed by borders, visas,
and other political and economic factors.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS & RESEARCH
26
RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) Travel Award, the ICI/SAHA Research
Award, and the French Institute Fellowship support curators in providing opportunities
for in-depth research.
View of abandoned oil facilities, Aruba, June 2014. Photo: María Elena Ortiz
2015 CPPC TRAVEL AWARD
CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Application guidelines for the CPPC Travel Award can
be found on ICI’s website. Independent curators and
those with institutional affiliations may apply. Applications
from established and emerging curators (3+ years of
professional experience) will be considered. A jury of
professionals who live in, or have extensive knowledge of
the region, will select the successful applicant.
The inaugural CPPC Travel Award was granted in 2012
to Pablo León de la Barra, who conducted research trips
to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama, and
Puerto Rico with the aim to reread seminal historical
moments in the region that have acquired new relevance
in the current political and economic reality. The 2013
recipient, Remco de Blaaij, set out to research women
activist practices in the countries of Guatemala, Jamaica,
Nicaragua, and Suriname. The 2014 awardee, María
Elena Ortiz, explored film and video practices in Aruba,
Martinique, the Bahamas, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Application Deadline: April 1, 2015
In 2015, The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
(CPPC) and ICI continue their partnership with The 2015
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Travel Award for
Central America and the Caribbean. In its fourth edition,
this travel award will support a contemporary art curator
based anywhere in the world to travel to Central America
and the Caribbean to conduct research about art and
cultural activities in the region. Intended to generate
new collaborations with artists, curators, museums,
and cultural centers in the area, this award will cover
curatorial residencies, studio visits, and/or archival
research.
The CPPC Travel Award will support a curator to visit
either one or multiple locations in Central America and
the Caribbean. The travel period can be anywhere
between three weeks and three months, and take place
between May and November 2015. The grant will cover
costs of up to $10,000.
Thank you to the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) for
their generous support of this fellowship. CPPC works to increase the
understanding and awareness of Latin America’s contributions to the
history of art and ideas, and to support innovation, education, and
research in the field of Latin American art.
View of Théâtre Aimé Césaire, Martinique, July 2014. Photo: María Elena Ortiz
RESEARCH
FELLOWSHIPS
27
2014 CPPC TRAVEL AWARD
María Elena Ortiz was selected as the third recipient
of the CPPC Travel Award for Central America and
the Caribbean. She visited new and established
contemporary art centers, artist initiatives, and film
festivals in the Caribbean countries of Aruba, the
Bahamas, Martinique, and Trinidad and Tobago. She
conducted interviews with local cultural producers and
studio visits with artists to investigate film and video
practices with the aim of strengthening the ties between
art in the Caribbean and the Diaspora, particularly in the
local community of Miami, Florida.
In the Bahamas an artist mentioned to me, “I enjoy not
feeling the burden of cultural history.” I found this creative
attitude in many places in Nassau, as I came across
a locality always in action, generating compelling art
that questions the cultural pillars that formed this young
nation, while also tracing their history in provocative
exhibitions. During my stay, I visited the National Gallery
of the Bahamas, the city’s well-established artist-run
spaces, and met with a group of artists actively shaping
contemporary art in Nassau.
I had studio visits with various artists, some of whom
participated in the exhibition at the National Gallery. I met
with Tessa Whitehead and Heino Schmid, who have been
working collaboratively, and creating a series of works
focused on sculpture and time-based experimentation, in
which the artists use found materials to make improvised
sculptural works. Also, I spoke with Holly Parotti, an
artist working in video and photography to address
notions of identity, landscape, sexuality, and gender. I
had the opportunity to visit with John Beadle, one of the
most important artists working in the Bahamas. Beadle
is known for using found materials to create formal
arrangements that question tradition and representation.
— María Elena Ortiz
To read more from María Elena Ortiz’s travel-log, please visit the
Research section of ICI’s website.
FELLOW
María Elena Ortiz currently works as Assistant Curator
at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). Previously,
she was the Curator of Contemporary Arts at the Sala
de Arte Público Siqueiros in Mexico City. Ortiz has also
collaborated with institutions such as TEOR/éTica, San
Jose, Costa Rica; Tate Modern, London; the Museum of
Craft and Folk Art, and New Langton Arts, both in San
Francisco.
RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
ICI / SAHA RESEARCH AWARD
Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, 2014 ICI / French Institute Fellowship
recipient. Photo: Jure Eržen
Closed-Door Think Tank with Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, ICI Curatorial
Hub, New York, October 22, 2014.
28
Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez is the third ICI / French
Institute Fellow. The fellowship program offers a French
curator a new opportunity for international research and
the development of professional networks. The program
spans over a period of 6 months and includes research
trips to the U.S. and now to other cities throughout the
international network of ICI collaborators.
Petrešin-Bachelez’s research focuses on cooperative
practices in curating and on common urgencies,
solidarities, empathy and antagonisms of dynamic
networks, including collaboratively-run spaces, advocacy
groups, and artist-activist groups. In October 2014,
Nataša furthered her research in New York by facilitating
a closed-door discussion at the ICI Curatorial Hub with
María del Carmen Carrión (Director of Public Programs &
Research, ICI), Reem Fadda (Associate Curator, Middle
Eastern Art, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project), Julia
Knight (Operations Director, apexart), Nitin Sawhney
(Assistant Professor of Media Studies, The New School
for Public Engagement), and Nato Thompson (Chief
Curator, Creative Time).
Nataša also traveled to Mexico City, where she met
with artists Julia Rometti and Victor Costales, curators
Magali Arriola, Julieta Gonzalez (Senior Curator, Museo
Rufino Tamayo), and Cuauhtemoc Medina (Chief Curator,
MUAC) as well as the critic Susanna Vargas. I chose to embark on the short but intense investigation
and comparison into the common urgencies, solidarities,
empathy and antagonisms that drive some of the more
visible institutional networks in the contemporary art
world in Europe, U.S., and also more transnationally,
including cooperatively-run spaces, advocacy groups,
and artist activist groups. Having just begun to work
as the managing editor of L’Internationale Online, the
new online platform of the confederation of European
museums and art institutions, the idea about the
research on cooperative practices in curating and in
the institutional politics has been in the forefront of my
current interests.
The recipients of the 2013 ICI / SAHA Research
Award were Gürsoy Doğtaş (Turkey) and Alejandra
Labastida (Mexico), who participated in the Summer
2013 Curatorial Intensive in New York. Their research
aimed to explore the impact of the military regime in
the 1980s Turkish Republic, focusing on Zeki Müren
(1931–1996), a Turkish poet, composer, and singer who
was banned from performing on stage for several years.
The curators are using his work as an example to reveal
the often little-know history of artistic repression during
this time.
Aside from the institutional work on the mutualization
of resources, solidarity and working together on the
basis of affinities, L’Internationale can be taken as a
starting point. One can detect through its organisation
what are the possibilities of participation today, in
the global exchange of ideas, the spectacularization
of the art institutions and wild speculation of art
market. L’Internationale is a confederation of six modern
and contemporary art institutions; it proposes a space
for art within a non-hierarchical and decentralized
internationalism, based on the values of difference and
horizontal exchange among a constellation of cultural
agents, locally rooted and globally connected.
—Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez
FELLOW
Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez is an art critic and independent
curator based in Paris, France. She is currently managing
editor of the online platform of L’Internationale, which is
hosted by KASK/School of Arts in Ghent. Since 2011,
Petrešin-Bachelez has been chief editor of Manifesta
Journal.
Thank you to l’Institut français in Paris, and the Cultural Services of the
French Embassy for generously supporting this fellowship. L’Institut
français in Paris promotes French culture abroad and the Cultural
Services of the French Embassy provides Americans access and
resources to engage with French culture.
Images for Zeki Muren research and publication. Image by Gürsoy Dogtas and Alejandra Labastida.
2014 ICI / FRENCH INSTITUTE FELLOWSHIP
Since 2012, SAHA and ICI have been collaborating
on a $3,000 award for Curatorial Intensive Alumni to
encourage productive networks between curators.
29
RESEARCH PUBLICATION
The research conducted by Alejandra Labastida and
Gürsoy Doğtaş led to a bilingual (Turkish and English)
publication in the style of a fanzine. It served to
present the preliminary state of research, with further
contributions examining more detailed questions from
the interviews, such as the significance of voice and his
break with the heteronormative image of men. The full
digital publication titled The Politics of the Melancholic
Voice: Zeki Müren’s Kahir Mektubu is now available on
the ICI website: curatorsintl.org/research/journals
Thank you to SAHA for their generous support of this fellowship. SAHA
aims to contribute toward the presence and visibility of art from Turkey
and supports artistic projects and research working in contemporary art.
CURATOR’S PERSPECTIVE
CURATOR’S
PERSPECTIVE
Naomi Beckwith, Photo: Nathan Keay.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The CURATOR’S PERSPECTIVE is a free, itinerant public discussion series ICI developed
as a way for international curators to share their interests and experiences with audiences
in New York. These talks provide an opportunity to access information about a wide
variety of international perspectives on art today. This year, ICI has invited curators
based in Chicago, Hong Kong, Munich, and New York to speak about art, culture, and
the exhibitions in which they are most interested, as well as the artists and the sociopolitical contexts that are shaping curatorial practice now.
Naomi Beckwith is the Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator
at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Prior to
joining the MCA, Beckwith was a fellow at the Institute of
Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, working on numerous
cutting-edge exhibitions including Locally Localized
Gravity (2007), which was an exhibition and program
of events featuring over 100 artists whose practices
are social, participatory, and communal. Beckwith
was previously the Associate Curator at The Studio
Museum in Harlem, where she focused on themes of
identity and conceptual practices in contemporary art
and artists of African descent, as well as managed the
Artists-in-Residence program. Beckwith has curated key
exhibitions such as 30 Seconds off an Inch at The Studio
Museum in Harlem (2009–10), exhibiting work by 42
artists of color or those inspired by black culture.
Inti Guerrero, independent curator and art critic. Courtesy
of Inti Guerrero.
Curator’s Perspective: Valerie Cassel Oliver, Hunter College MFA Campus, New York, September 10, 2014.
Valerie Cassel Oliver, Photo: Eric Hester
Valerie Cassel Oliver, Senior Curator at the
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, spoke at the
Hunter College MFA Campus about her recent curatorial
projects and ideas on exhibition-making. She discussed
some of her key exhibitions from Splat Boom Pow! The
Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art (2003) to
Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art since 1970
(2005), as well as her recent Radical Presence (2012);
and her relationship to the institution she has worked at
for over a decade, and the audience that has followed its
program.
curated exhibitions for Tate Modern, London, UK;
Museum of Art of Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Para Site,
Hong Kong; TheCube, Project Space, Taipei; ARKO
art centre, Seoul; Kadist, San Francisco; and Bergen
Assembly, Bergen. His writings have appeared in Afterall,
ArtNexus, Metropolis M, Nero, Manifesta Journal, and
Ramona, among other publications and exhibition
catalogues.
Naomi Beckwith
Tuesday, March 10, 7–8:30pm
NYU Steinhardt, Einstein Auditorium
34 Stuyvesant Street
New York, NY 10003
PAST PROGRAMS
Valerie Cassel Oliver
September 10, 2014
31
Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, co-founders of Art Reoriented.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS & RESEARCH
30
Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath
Tuesday, June 2, 7–8:30pm
Hunter College MFA Campus
205 Hudson Street Gallery, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10013
Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath co-founded Art
Reoriented, a multi-disciplinary curatorial platform
operating from Munich and New York, in 2009. Their past
and ongoing exhibition, research and publication projects
were presented internationally with institutions such
as MoMA in New York, Mathaf in Doha, INHA in Paris,
IVAM in Valencia, Casa Arabe in Madrid, The Museum
of Contemporary Art in Gwangju, Tashkeel in Dubai, the
China Art Museum in Beijing and BOZAR in Brussles.
They are members of several art prize and residency
committees such as Dar Al-Ma’mun in Marrakech and
the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels. Bardaouil
and Fellrath have held teaching positions at several
universities such as the London School of Economics
and the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
All events in the Curator’s Perspective series are free of charge and
open to the public. For more information about upcoming events visit
ICI’s website, curatorsintl.org, or contact Kimberly Kitada at
kimberly@curatorsintl.org.
The 2014 Curator’s Perspective program is made possible, in part,
by grants from the Hartfield Foundation, the support of ICI’s Board of
Trustees and ICI’s Gerrit Lansing Education Fund.
Inti Guerrero
Wednesday, April 8, 7–8:30pm
School of Visual Arts
132 W. 21st Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10010
Inti Guerrero is an art critic and curator based in Hong
Kong. Until recently he was Associate Artistic Director
of TEOR/éTica, San José, Costa Rica. Guerrero has
PUBLIC PROGRAMS & RESEARCH
CURATORIAL HUB
CURATORIAL
HUB
Film Preview and Talk with Nitin Sawhney
October 14, 2014
Nitin Sawhney spoke about his recent documentary
Zona Intervenida, co-produced with the Andén Collective
in Guatemala, with a limited sneak preview. Zona
Intervenida is an artistic exploration of the historic
memory of violence, civil war and apathy in Guatemala.
He also briefly discussed his emerging curatorial
research project, Guatemala Después.
Curatorial Intensive alumna Megan Witko presents a
panel discussion on social practice in the domestic
sphere, featuring artists Alina Bliumis and Ben Kinmont.
Megan Witko, who participated in the Moscow Intensive
in August 2014, developed this proposal over the course
of the program, which is also published on the ICI
website under Alumni Proposals.
The Curatorial Hub was established with the support of the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, and programs at the Hub are made possible in part by a
grant from the Hartfield Foundation.
Check ICI’s website, curatorsintl.org, for updates on Hub events.
“You Belong Here”: Tavares Strachan in conversation
with María del Carmen Carrión
February 10, 2015
New York-based artist Tavares Strachan and ICI’s María
del Carmen Carrión discussed the artist’s past and
current projects to a full house, including the large-scale
neon work, You Belong Here, commissioned for the
Prospect.3 Biennial in New Orleans.
Holeng: Lyrical Memoirs, ICI Curatorial Hub, New York, January 14, 2015.
Domestic Revolution: Panel Discussion with
Megan Witko
Tuesday, April 7, 6:30–8pm
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Hartford Wash: Washing, Tracks, Maintenance (Outside), 1973; Part of Maintenance Art performance series, 1973-1974,
Performance at Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.
UPCOMING EVENTS
To coincide with her new publication In the Canyon,
Revise the Canon: Utopian Knowledge, Radical
Pedagogy and Artist-run Community Art Spaces in
Southern California, philosopher Géraldine Gourbe joins
ICI from Paris to discuss her research and propose a
framework for which we can continue to use feminism as
a tool to engage with art and culture at large.
Tavares Strachan, Polar Eclipse, 2013, Courtesy of the artist.
Film Preview and Talk: Zona Intervenida // Colectivo Andén, directed by
Nitin Sawhney, ICI Curatorial Hub, New York, October 14, 2014.
PAST EVENTS
Over the past year, ICI hosted 23 events in the Curatorial Hub, all of which were
free and open to the public. Intended to better facilitate the informal exchange of
ideas and experiences between professionals, the Curatorial Hub provides a flexible
and discursive space for artist and curator talks, panel discussions, small press events,
performative lectures, reading sessions, and training programs. It also houses a
curatorial library of periodicals and books from institutions all over the world. Events
at the Hub are announced throughout the year.
IN THE CANYON, REVISE THE CANON:
Géraldine Gourbe
Thursday, April 2, 6:30–8pm
33
Spaces, Species and Situations: David Brooks and Meredith Johnson, ICI
Curatorial Hub, New York, February 24, 2015.
32
Holeng: Lyrical Memoirs
January 14, 2015
Holeng, an artist and curator from Singapore and
currently based in Vienna, presented a talk titled Lyrical
Memoirs: Cultural, criticism, and curating of photographic
engagement of an existential space. The event
focused on a visual ethnography project comprised of
photographs and text by Holeng on the sociological
processes of urban regeneration in Asia.
Spaces, Species and Situations: David Brooks in
conversation with Meredith Johnson
February 25, 2015
Artist David Brooks, in conversation with curator Meredith
Johnson, spoke about his expeditions, installations, and
public work exploring the relationship between culture
and the natural world. Brooks and Johnson considered
how our communal and individual relationship to geologic
time can be translated through the ephemeral language
of the exhibition, and the role artists play in a political
conversation that spans species and epochs.
34
NETWORKS & ACCESS
NETWORKS & ACCESS
ONLINE
NETWORKS
35
ICI’s website offers access to more than the latest information on ICI exhibitions and
programs. It is a curatorial resource that makes available recordings of ICI talks and
conferences, commissioned writings, a 40-year exhibition archive, from anywhere
around the world. It includes an online catalogue of the ICI Library, located at the
Curatorial Hub in New York. And it hosts the Curator’s Network, ICI’s online professional
membership program, which facilitates international exchange and dialogue for over
500 members from more than 60 countries.
The Curator’s Network is ICI’s professional membership
program and an online community of curators from
around the world, with over 500 members from more
than 60 countries, all professionals in the field, including
recent alumni and faculty of the Curatorial Intensive.
Members share a desire to build and enrich their interests
and research through international connections. The
Curator’s Network provides select access to professional
resources, including a Reading Room, a Forum, and an
online guide to sought-after opportunities. Through the
Network, curators can access information on residencies,
current job and fellowship opportunities, calls for
exhibitions and conference papers, as well as articles on
curating and source material for research.
ONLINE RESOURCES: RESEARCH
The Research section of ICI’s website offers an array
of curatorial resources to professionals and broad
audiences alike. The Journal section provides interviews
with recipients of the Independent Vision Curatorial
Award, as well as commissioned research texts from ICI
collaborators and Curatorial Intensive alumni, in addition
to reports and publications from our research fellows.
Announcements on ICI’s fellowship opportunities are
available in the Fellowships section.
The Media Room contains audio recordings from ICI
public programming such as The Curator’s Perspective
and Curatorial Hub events, edited in collaboration with
Clocktower Radio’s “Art on Air.” A growing archive of
recordings also includes a series of video interviews with
Curatorial Intensive faculty in Mexico City, conducted in
Spanish.
Membership also grants access to a quarterly newsletter
with program updates, opportunities, suggested reading
and articles, as well as exclusive offers from ICI; a closed
group on LinkedIn; and to ICI’s Curatorial Hub and
Library. International members of the Curator’s Network now will
have access to NeueHouse as a base when they are in
New York City. This new partnership offers the flexible
workspace, meeting rooms, and networking opportunities
needed when traveling.
The fully tax-deductible annual subscription to the Curator’s Network is
$100 per year. For more information or to register, visit ICI’s website,
curatorsintl.org, under the Network section. For questions about the
Curator’s Network, email network@curatorsintl.org.
ICI LIBRARY
Like the Curatorial Hub that houses it, the ICI
Library serves to document recent developments in
contemporary art through the lens of international
curatorial practice. It presents itself as a tool for research
and an accessible resource for curators living in or
coming through New York. The books in the ICI Library
are non-circulating, but we encourage visitors to schedule
an appointment to access this unique resource. You can
begin by exploring the ICI Library holdings through our
digital database, LibraryThing:
www.librarything.com/profile/CuratorsINTL
do it instruction by Nicolás Paris, do it at The Episcopal Academy,
Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA, 2015.
ICI has developed specific online platforms for generative
exhibitions such as do it, in order to make accessible
the contents created by each iteration of the project.
Similarly, the online platform for EN MAS’ contains of
a wealth of documentation and materials tracking the
development and production of the nine performances
around which the exhibition is articulated.
Ebony G. Patterson, Invisible Presence: Bling Memories,
performance, April 27, 2014, Kingston, Jamaica. Photo: Monique
Gilpin and Philip Rhoden
CURATOR’S NETWORK
Juan A. Gaitán at the Curatorial Intensive in Mexico City, Museo
Jumex, June 30-July 7, 2014.
ONLINE RESOURCES: DO IT AND EN MAS’
NETWORKS & ACCESS
36
PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATIONS
For the past four decades, ICI has been dedicated to producing catalogues to accompany
its exhibitions, as well as publications that reflect on the latest developments of curatorial
practice. Since 2011, ICI also launched two new publication series: the SOURCEBOOK
series of artists-edited publications; and PERSPECTIVES IN CURATING, which offers
timely reflections on emerging debates in curatorial practice, and debuted with the
best-seller Thinking Contemporary Curating.
1975
1987
1990
ICI’s first exhibition, VIDEOART U.S.A. was curated by
Jack Boulton, and showcased artists who were pioneers
of the new medium, including Lynda Benglis, Nam June
Paik, Keith Sonnier, and Vito Acconci. The exhibition
served as the American representation in the São Paulo
Biennial, and was shown across Latin America from
1975-76. The accompanying catalogue was produced in
Portuguese and in Spanish.
A catalogue that accompanied ICI’s Morality Tales:
History Painting in the 1980s, curated by Tom
Sokolowski, this large publication reflects on the work
of Ida Applebroog, Eric Fischl, and Leon Golub, among
others, with an essay by Sokolowski reviving the concept
of istoria, or history painting, to make sense of the times.
Faced with the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, Sokolowski and
other curators and artists looked at history painting to
convey otherwise untold stories, largely ignored by the
government and the media; and to set a record, one that
is both historical and moral in nature.
VIDEOART U.S.A. also provided the impetus for many
other ICI exhibitions including the CAPS/ICI Traveling
Video Festival curated by ICI Co-founder Nina Sundell
(1981–84), and more recently Project 35 and Project 35
Volume 2 which have continued tracking contemporary
approaches to the medium around the world.
Out of print
Five years later, Sokolowski, together with Robert Atkins,
curated ICI’s From Media to Metaphor: Art about AIDS,
which departed from Morality Tales’ focus on painting,
and presented 60 works in all media to explore the
intersection of art and activism. Artists included Kathe
Burkhart, Keith Haring, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Robert
Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, and Gran Fury.
VIDEOART U.S.A.
Sokolowski, Thomas W., Morality Tales: History Painting
in the 1980s, ICI, New York, 1987. 40 Pages 14 x 11 in.,
hardcover. Published by Indian Publishing. Available
through ICI’s website.
$24.95
Lombardi’s drawings map the complex and densely
interwoven narratives of our post-imperial, transnational
economy. Included in the exhibition were several
monumental drawings, as well as Lombardi’s archive
of 14,500 index cards on which Lombardi recorded his
research.
Hobbs’ incorporation of source material in the catalogue,
and the focus on a single artist provided a precedent
for the development of ICI’s Sourcebook series, which
launched in 2011 with Martha Wilson Sourcebook.
Out of print
2013
Team Spirit
ICI was founded by two art world pioneers, Susan Sollins
and Nina Castelli Sundell, who together defined the
vision behind one of the first organizations in the world
to be dedicated to the work of curators. In 1990, they
co-curated Team Spirit, which reflected on their own
history of working together and focused on “the growing
phenomenon of collaborative art.”
At the cusp of a new era of collaborative practice ushered
in the late 1980s, the exhibition drew a genealogy of
international collaborations as a mode of production
going back to the mid-60s, including, Equipo Cronica,
General Idea, Gilbert & George, and Komar & Melamid,
creating a foundation of and imperative towards
collaboration that continues to this day.
Morality Tales
37
Sollins, Susan and Sundell, Nina Castelli, Team Spirit,
ICI, New York, 1990. Essays by Irit Rogoff and James
Hillman. 84 pages. 9 x 11.5 in., softcover. Available
through ICI’s website.
$19.99
2003
Thinking Contemporary Curating
Thinking Contemporary Curating is the first book to
offer an in-depth analysis of the volatile territory of
international curatorial practice and the thinking—or
insight—that underpins it. In five essays, renowned art
historian and critic Terry Smith describes how today
curators take on roles far beyond exhibition making, such
as reimagining museums, writing the history of curating,
creating discursive platforms, and undertaking social or
political activism, and rethinking spectatorship.
The catalyst for the publication was “The Now Museum”
conference that ICI produced in collaboration with the
CUNY Graduate Center and the New Museum in New
York in 2011. Over 30 leading artists, art historians,
curators, museum directors took part such as Claire
Bishop, Okwui Enwezor (Director, Haus der Kunst),
Massimiliano Gioni (Associate Director and Director of
Exhibitions, New Museum), Maria Lind (Director, Tensta
Konsthall) – many of whom later responded to Smith’s
argument for a second volume authored by him, Talking
Contemporary Curating, forthcoming (2015).
Mark Lombardi: Global Networks
Mark Lombardi: Global Networks was an ICI exhibition
that brought together for the first time twenty-five
of Lombardi’s works spanning 1984 through 2000.
Smith, Terry, Thinking Contemporary Curating,
Independent Curators International (ICI), New York,
2012. Introduction by Kate Fowle. 272 pages, 54 B&W
illustrations, softcover. Available through ICI’s website. $19.95
38
NETWORKS & ACCESS
LIMITED EDITIONS
LIMITED
EDITIONS
Since 1990, ICI has commissioned limited edition artworks to raise funds for its programs,
by artists including Marina Abramovi´c, Jacob Kassay, Robert Rauschenberg, and
Laurie Simmons. Most recently, ICI teamed with Robert Burnier to introduce a new
exclusive limited edition sculpture.
Robert Burnier
Ne Aro, 2014
Primer on aluminum
8 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, approximately
1 in a series of 20, each unique
Robert Burnier‘s works are created within what he describes as an “anti-maquette” process. Sculpting the path
of a visual landscape through bending, shaping, and
warping material he aims to emphasize the non-linear,
unpredictable relationship between the starting forms
and ending results. The challenge is presented by the
materials he chooses, in this case sheet aluminum, and
through his unmeditated interventions and intersections
the form takes shape. With Ne Aro he explores the issue
of the identical, seeking multiple possibilities in a common basis. Each piece is made complete from the exact
Jacob Kassay
Untitled #1, 2011
Silkscreen on archival newsprint
24 5/16 x 27 inches, each
Edition of 5
Louise Bourgeois
Ear, 2002
Pink rubber
4 x 8 x 91/4 inches
Edition of 20 with 3 APs
Ernesto Neto
Once in Love, 2010
Wood and stocking filled with beads
13 x 13 x 13 inches
Edition of 20 with 5 APs
Liz Glynn
Untitled, 2013
Gold-plated Bronze, Silver-plated
Bronze, and Plated Bronze necklace
7 x 1 inches
3 Editions of 9, each unique
same beginning structure. The combinations, however,
are more a product of circumscribed geometry, physical
potential, and subjective decision than the space of set
theory. Each edition is therefore unique.
In titling the work, Burnier made use of L. L. Zamenhof’s
universal language of Esperanto, developed in the late
19th Century. “Ne Aro”, translates roughly as “Non Set”.
Esperanto borrowed from existing linguistic traditions in
hope of providing a bridge to communicate. This organic
approach appeals in its attempt at universality without
erasure, without requiring a blank slate mentality, just as
Burnier begins with a set structure of material. As well,
the translation speaks to the exploration of what combinations are available to us with and also outside of a given discourse or architecture, similar to Burnier’s process.
39
ANNUAL BENEFIT
Held at the prestigious Cunard Building, the benefit was
crafted by New York’s event designers Jung Lee and
Josh Brooks of FÊTE, who shaped a magical evening
inspired by the venue’s history. Dinner & Cocktails were
designed by Cipriani. Highlights also included a very
special performance by Stephen Petronio Company
which kicked off the after party. ICI’s 2014 Benefit
Committee, championed by Co-chairs Ann Cook,
Belinda Kielland, Noreen K. Ahmad, and Bridget
Finn collaborated with ICI to create an unforgettable
soiree that both celebrated ICI’s accomplishments and
built support for its future. Some of the world’s leading
curators and museum directors were in attendance
to raise a glass to ICI and our honorees—Dimitris
Daskalopoulos and Eva Barois de Caevel—including
Richard Armstrong, Iwona Blazwick, Stuart Comer,
Suzanne Cotter, RoseLee Goldberg, Lisa Phillips, Jay
Sanders, among many others.
BENEFIT COMMITTEE
Benefit Host Committee: Richard Armstrong, María
Constanza Cerullo, Agnes Gund, Dorothy Lichtenstein,
and Svetlana Uspenskaya
Benefit Committee: Adam Abdalla, Augusto Arbizo,
Sarah Arison, Bethanie Brady, Jill Brienza, Jennifer
Brown, Rafael de Cárdenas, Carter Cleveland, James
Cohan, Pippa Cohen, Bridget Donahue, Brian Faucette,
Jack Geary and Dolly Bross Geary, Kavi Gupta,
Mackie Healy, Rhona Hoffman, Heather Hubbs, Anne
Huntington, Tony Karman, Kate Krone, Sydie Lansing,
Heidi Lee Komaromi, Rose Lord, Michele Maccarone,
Liz Mulholland, Dimitris Paleocrassas, Simon Preston,
Sangeetha Ramaswamy, Erica Redling, Nicole Russo,
Ann & Mel Schaffer, Lisa Schiff, Mari Spirito, Susan
Thompson, Courtney Treut
Agnes Gund and Derrick Adams. ICI Annual Benefit & Auction, November 17, 2014. Photo: David X
Prutting / Billy Farrell Agency, New York
CELEBRATING ICI
Josephine Nash, Jimmy Armentrout, Bridget Finn, Trevor Paglan, Robert Longo,
and Eddie Martinez. ICI Annual Benefit & Auction, November 17, 2014. P
hoto: David X Prutting / Billy Farrell Agency, New York
On Monday, November 17, 2014 ICI welcomed over 300 guests to its Annual Benefit &
Auction to celebrate and support the organization’s international network of curators,
artists, and art spaces. The event was held at the historic Cunard Building, whose
frescos of world maps and sea routes provided a fitting, and majestic, setting for the
celebrations.
LIVE & SILENT AUCTION
The evening featured a Live & Silent Auction powered
by ARTSY, and led by Gabriela Palmieri, Senior Vice
President, Senior Specialist, Contemporary Art of
Sotheby’s, New York. ICI is proud to have benefited from
the generosity of artists who have consistently shown
great confidence in ICI and support for its programs.
The 2014 Auction featured lots generously
donated by: Marina Abramović, Derrick
Adams, Diana Al-Hadid, Renate Aller, Grimanesa
Amorós, Helene Appel, John Baldessari, Judith
Bernstein, Ryan Brown, Zoë Buckman, Lucky
DeBellevue, Tara Donovan, David Flaugher,
Rochelle Goldberg, Goldschmied & Chiari, John
Gordon Gauld, Valerie Hegarty, Jennie Jieun Lee,
Hanna Liden, Adam Marnie, Steve McQueen, Iván
Navarro, Trevor Paglen, GT Pellizzi, Zoe Pettijohn
Schade, Mac Premo, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Analia
Segal, Andres Serrano, Alyson Shotz, Dylan
Spaysky, Kunié Sugiura, Peter Sutherland, Rikrit
Tiravanija, Jeffrey Tranchell, Oscar Tuazon, Leo
Villareal, Chuck Webster, Hank Willis Thomas, Saya
Woolfalk, and Heeseop Yoon.
Alaina Claire Feldman and Martha Wilson. ICI Annual Benefit & Auction, November 17, 2014. Photo: Yuko Torihara for ICI
ANNUAL
BENEFIT
41
ICI Annual Benefit & Auction, November 17, 2014. Photo: David X Prutting / Billy Farrell Agency, New York
NETWORK & ACCESS
40
NETWORKS & ACCESS
NETWORKS & ACCESS
ICI AWARDS
LEADERSHIP
COUNCIL
At the Annual Benefit & Auction, ICI honored Dimitris Daskalopoulos with the 2014
LEO AWARD. The award was designed by artist Margaret Lee, and presented by ICI
Trustee Emerita Agnes Gund. Independent Curator Eva Barois de Caevel, based in
Paris and Dakar, was also honored with the 2014 GERRIT LANSING INDEPENDENT
VISION AWARD, selected and presented by Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and
Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
EVA BAROIS DE CAEVEL
2014 Leo Award recipient Dimitris Daskalopoulos. Photo: Trevor
Leighton
2014 Gerrit Lansing Independent Vision Award recipient Eva Barois
de Cavel. ICI Annual Benefit & Auction, November 17, 2014. Photo:
David X Prutting / Billy Farrell Agency, New York
DIMITRIS DASKALOPOULOS
Dimitris Daskalopoulos is a collector of contemporary art,
founder of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection (1994), and
founder of NEON (2013)—a “foundation without walls”,
which works to bring contemporary culture in Greece
closer to everyone. He is also a member of the Board of
Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation,
Chairman of the Collections Council of the Solomon
R. Guggenheim Foundation, and active member of the
Tate International Council, the Director’s Vision Council
of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the
Leadership Council of the New Museum, and a founding
partner of the Whitechapel’s Future Fund.
With the Leo Award, ICI recognizes outstanding
achievements in advancing the field of contemporary art.
In recent years, Mr. Daskalopoulos created remarkably
supportive environments for contemporary artists
and curators through the D.Daskalopoulos Collection
and NEON. Both entities promote the dissemination
of contemporary art to broad audiences, treating
the collection as an open resource, conceiving the
organization as a vessel for exhibitions and education,
and connecting artists, curators and audiences from
across the globe. This echoes ICI’s core mission in so
many ways. —Agnes Gund
Eva Barois De Caevel is an independent curator based in
Paris, assistant curator at Raw Material Company, Dakar,
and co-founder of Cartel de Kunst, an international
collective of emerging curators. Recent projects include:
Avant-Garden, FIAC (2014); The Floating Admiral in
Nouvelle Vagues, Palais de Tokyo (2013); Who Said
It Was Simple, part of a series with Raw Material
Company that explores culture, community, and sexual
liberties in Senegal. Upcoming in 2015, Barois De
Caevel collaborations with Raw Material Company’s
artistic director Koyo Kouoh will continue with Body
Talk - Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Work of
African Women Artists at WIELS in Brussels and with
Streamlines at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. Barois De
Caevel graduated from the Universite de Paris-Sorbonne
Paris IV in contemporary art history and curatorial
training.
Barois De Caevel was selected by Nancy Spector,
Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief
Curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from
a list of 15 emerging curators, each nominated by one
of 15 curators and ICI collaborators from across ICI’s
international network.
43
ICI’s extensive global presence would not be possible without the transformative role
of the LEADERSHIP COUNCIL. Established in 2013, the visionary group develops new
initiatives that will elevate ICI to the next level. The members of the Leadership Council
share a passion for international perspectives on contemporary art and recognize
the need for strong regional networks of curators and art spaces within ICI’s global
scope. In this way, the Council works closely together with ICI to nurture the curatorial
network from the inside out, and establishes the crucial foundations for the future of
international exchange.
VISIONARY INITIATIVES
The Council is crucial to shaping the trajectory of ICI’s
public programs, exhibitions, and professional training
opportunities in a unique way that is specialized to each
member’s vision of contemporary art. ICI has expanded
curatorial research opportunities in regions such as
Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean through the ICI
Leadership Fund; and has allowed ICI to engage with
the largest audience in the organization’s history through
the redesign of ICI’s online platform. In the last year,
the members of the Leadership Council were involved
in nearly all of the many facets of the organization.
The Leadership Council supported the broad reach of
ICI’s exhibitions and publications, as well as pioneering
programs in education and curatorial research. It also
developed new fundraising opportunities and created
scholarship funds that are critical for emerging curators to
attend the Curatorial Intensive internationally.
Nicole Gallo and Agnes Gund. ICI Annual Benefit & Auction, November 17, 2014. Photo: David X Prutting / Billy Farrell Agency, New York
42
THE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
For more information about the Leadership Council, contact Jenn Hyland
at jenn@curatorsintl.org.
Sarina Tang
ICI Board of Trustee’s International Representative
Peter Brant
James Cohan
Agnes Gund
Alexei Kuzmichev and Svetlana KuzmichevaUspenskaya
Dorothy Lichtenstein
Julie Mehretu and Jessica Rankin
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
Mercedes Vilardell
Helen Warwick
NETWORKS & ACCESS
NETWORKS & ACCESS
INTL FORUM
The INTERNATIONAL FORUM brings together an exclusive group of people who
share ICI’s mission and global reach. Whether near or far, patrons of the Forum stay
connected to the curators and artists who shape the contemporary art world, and gain
behind-the-scenes access to ICI programs in New York, select international exhibitions,
biennials, and art fairs around the world.
PAST EVENTS
Guests at ICI’s Annual Miami Luncheon, with special guest Hans Ulrich
Obrist, December 5, 2013. Photo courtesy of ICI.
Join ICI’s International Forum and support a truly
international art organization that is active in 44 countries
with access to the curators, artists and art spaces that
are keeping a finger on the pulse of contemporary art.
In New York, the International Forum connects directly
to ICI’s programs through ICI Conversations, a series
of exclusive events, site visits, cocktails, and dinners
with international curators and artists held throughout
the year. As a member of the International Forum, you
will receive recommendations on the places to visit and
curators to meet when traveling independently. Finally,
each December during NADA Miami Beach, the Forum
meets with other ICI collaborators, Leadership Council
members, the ICI Board of Trustees, guest curators, and
artists at the Annual Miami Luncheon.
UPCOMING EVENTS
EXPO Chicago
September 18–21, 2014
Venice Biennale
May 6–9, 2015
ICI gathered in Chicago this fall on the occasion of
EXPO, the Chicago Fair of Contemporary and Modern
Art, and the fair’s IN/SITU section of large-scale
installations, which was selected by ICI’s Executive
Director Renaud Proch. International Forum members
joined us for gallery walks, collection visits, and private
dinners with curators and artists including: Glenn Kaino,
Mickalene Thomas, and Franklin Sirmans.
Together with Fabrica, ICI has invited curators from
around the world to meet in Treviso on the occasion of
the Venice Biennale to host a conversation between
some of the contemporary art world’s most forwardthinking constituents. Forum members who are planning
to visit the Biennale will receive ICI’s recommendations
and invitations to special events.
NADA Miami
December 4–7, 2014
ICI hosted its Annual Miami Luncheon on the terrace of
Canyon Ranch in honor of Chicago-based artist Robert
Burnier. Guests enjoyed delicious food and cocktails to
launch Burnier’s exclusive ICI Limited Edition Ne Aro.
Patrons Trip to Moscow and St Petersburg
June 9–16, 2015
The trip will coincide with the Grand Opening of Garage’s
new museum building designed by Rem Koolhaas
and give us behind-the-scenes access to some of the
grandest museum collections in Europe, and to the
latest in Russian contemporary art: meet the artists and
curators who shape the scene, and experience Garage’s
programs, which have fostered some of the most driven
art and curatorial practices in Russia in the past couple
of years.
For more information about the International Forum and the spring
calendar, contact Jenn Hyland at jenn@curatorsintl.org.
45
THE
INDEPENDENTS
ICI connects curators, artists and art spaces to forge international networks and generate
new forms of collaboration. THE INDEPENDENTS is an invitation-only membership
group of dynamic individuals active in the contemporary art world who support the
organization’s programs and vision for the future.
The Independents is a membership group for
cultural influencers and those actively connected
to the contemporary art world. This invitation-only
membership group offers insights into new approaches
to contemporary art and culture by connecting with
emerging and established curators, artists, collectors,
and leading figures in the art world.
nne Huntington. ICI Annual Benefit & Auction, November 17, 2014. Photo: David X Prutting /
Billy Farrell Agency, New York
44
PAST EVENTS
Video Screening & Cocktails with María Elena Ortiz
January 29, 2015
Associate Curator of the Perez Art Museum Miami
(PAMM) María Elena Ortiz presented her research into
the Caribbean that resulted from the 2014 Colección
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC)/ICI Travel Award at
the Anthology Film Archive in New York. Ortiz presented
Video Islands, a program of artists’ video works from
Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Martinique, Trinidad and
Tobago; which was followed by a conversation and Q&A
moderated by ICI’s María Del Carmen Carríon. The event
was followed with more private conversations about
the work, with curators, artists, and other patrons at the
nearby Experimental Cocktail Club.
Discussion & Dinner with Tavares Strachan
February 10, 2015
CONNECT TO ICI
With direct access to ICI programs and professionals
in ICI’s international network, the Independents gain
a broader perspective on the latest developments in a
global art world, through shared reading, educational
programs and social events. The Independents also play
a key role in supporting new engagement with ICI and
its programs around the world, connecting in the process
with ICI’s staff, Board of Trustees and other patrons.
New York-based artist Tavares Strachan spoke about his
work at the Curatorial Hub, and joined the Independents
and their guests as well as ICI Trustees for a special
dinner in Tribeca, and more intimate conversations about
his practice. Following the success of his recent work
You Belong Here at Prospect.3 in New Orleans, this was
an opportunity to connect more directly with the artist on
past and future projects.
The Independents nominate new members on a regular basis. Individuals
are selected to join based on their creative contributions and dedication to
the contemporary art world. For more information about the Independents,
contact Jenn Hyland at jenn@curatorsintl.org.
46
NETWORKS & ACCESS
PATRONS
EVENTS
Lucy Freeman Sandler, Ellen Staller, and Elizabeth Grady. ICI Summer
Cocktails, July 16, 2014. Photo: Aria Isadora / Billy Farrell Agency,
New York
Yona Backer, Franklin Sirmans, and Michelle Coffey. ICI Conversations.
March 24, 2014, New York.
ICI CONVERSATIONS is a thought-provoking series of patrons’ events that give exclusive
access to the people—artists, curators, critics, collectors, and museum directors—who
influence contemporary art today. ICI CONVERSATIONS is a way for our members
to gain an insider’s perspective on ICI, and is their access point to contemporary art
from around the world. ICI hosts approximately 10–12 private events a year, which are
dedicated to connecting our donors to the contemporary art community in meaningful
and significant ways.
UPCOMING EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Conversation & Champagne with Zoë Buckman
March 7, 2015
Patrons are invited to join ICI in conversation with
British artist Zoë Buckman as we walk through her
solo exhibition, Present Life, at Garis & Hahn Gallery.
Buckman will speak of her exploration of femininity and
mortality.
Discussion & Dinner with Naomi Beckwith
March 10, 2015
Join Naomi Beckwith, Curator at the Museum of
Contemporary Art Chicago, in New York for a Curator’s
Perspective talk on her upcoming projects and research
around black culture, nationalism, and race in the art
world. The discussion will be followed by an intimate
dinner with curators and patrons.
Cocktails & Conversation with Yinka Shonibare
April 29, 2015
James Cohan Gallery will host a cocktail reception and
Q&A with London-based artist Yinka Shonibare and
Smithsonian curator Karen Milbourne. In celebration of
his exhibition, Rage of the Ballet Gods, ICI patrons will
have the opportunity to meet with the artist, curator, and
other guests.
NETWORKS & ACCESS
THANK YOU
47
We would like to thank all of the individuals and foundations whose generous
contributions continue to make possible our programs worldwide. As we celebrate our
40th anniversary, we also pay homage to the leadership and generosity of the trustees
who shaped ICI over the past four decades.
ICI TRUSTEES FROM 1975 TO TODAY
Burton Aaron, Jan Abrams, Diane Ackerman, Noreen
K. Ahmad, Helen Allen, Steven Ames, Donna Ari,
John Baldessari, Douglas Baxter, Jeffery Bishop, Jack
Boulton, Catherine Brawer, Jill Brienza, Earle Brown,
Jason Briggs, Leslie Cecil, Christo & Jeanne-Claude,
James Cohan, Joseph Cohen, Ann Cook, Susan Coote,
Douglas Cramer, Anne Dayton, Ann Ehrenkranz, T.A.
Fassburg, Nina Felshin, Ann ffolliott, Arthur Fleischer,
Jr., Susan Fleischer, Maxine Frankel, Hugh Freund,
Tom Freundenheim, Gil Friesen, Jack Geary, Carol
Goldberg, John Gossage, Jeannie Minskoff Grant, Hunter
C. Gray, Marilyn Greene, Agnes Gund, Inmaculada de
Habsburgo, Peter Halley, Susan Hancock, Robert Hardy,
Jan Hashey, Sheila Isham, Jerry Jasinowski, Howard
Johnson, Ruth Kainen, Dorothy Kidder, Belinda Buck
Kielland, Elizabeth M. Klein, Luisa Kreisberg, Kenneth
S. Kuchin, Gerrit Lansing, Sydie Lansing, Jo Carole
Lauder, Ray Learsy, Caral G. Lebworth, Laure Lim, Isaac
Lustgarten, Mary Maher, Penny McCall, Andrea Miller,
Robin Moll, Vik Muniz, Richard E. Perlman, Michael Rea,
Aaron Richardson, Dorothea Rockburne, Deedie Rose,
Lela Rose, Alvin Rosenbaum, Ian Rowan, Ann Schaffer,
Mel Schaffer, Irwin Schloss, Marcia Schloss, Douglas
Schwalbe, Robert Shapiro, Patterson Sims, Martin Sklar,
Susan Sollins, Nina Castelli Sundell, Melville Straus,
James Sollins, Marcy Syms, Sarina Tang, Baraba Toll,
Ken Tyburski, Arvin Upton, Robert Wallis, Robin Wright,
Virginia Wright
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& Donald Karp, Joan & David Katsky, Kasia Kay, Susi
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Pite, Prada Foundation, Mac Premo, Louise Puschel,
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Leo Villareal, Helen Warwick, Chuck Webster, Hank
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WEBBCREATIVE, Saya Woolfalk, Heeseop Yoon,
Joseph Yurcik, Paschalina Lilia Ziamou
NETWORKS & ACCESS
48
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