Author of the project: Biljana Ćirić, in collaboration with Supervizuelna / Visual identity: Saša Tkačenko
Application deadline: April 30, 2018
Start date: September 2018
Duration: September 7 – December 7, 2018
Final exhibition project: January 2019
The first international course for emerging curators to take place in Belgrade, Serbia, will be held from September to December 2018, and will draw upon the unique local and regional context as a critical source of knowledge. Participants will be engaged in a rigorous itinerary of extensive studio visits, research visits to public and private institutions and collections, along with a series of closed door workshop sessions led by both international and local mentors of the program. The program aims to situate curatorial practice within the specific contextual framework of the region, while also providing insights to the wider international framework related to exhibition-making practices on both a theoretical and practical level.
Over the course of the three month-long program, international cultural producers will conduct specific workshops related to different aspects of curating, offering participants the opportunity to individually and collectively consider the different institutional aspects that often frame curatorial endeavors. For the culmination of the course, participants will propose a collective exhibition and will also be tasked with working on the accompanying publication.
The Belgrade-based artist Saša Tkačenko has been commissioned to develop the visual identity for the project, as well as to conceive how to best document the project and the final exhibition in book format.
Niels Van Tomme, director at De Appel in Amsterdam (a contemporary art institution that runs a pioneering curatorial programme since 1994), will give an inaugural lecture in June about the prominent role the Curatorial Programme takes within De Appel’s institutional context (final date to be confirmed).
The primary mentors for the course include Dorothea von Hantelmann (Bard College, Berlin); Antariksa (co-founding member of KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Yogyakarta, Indonesia); the Flash Art Magazine editorial team (Flash Art is a bimonthly magazine focused on contemporary art, based in Milan); Elena Filipović (director of Kunsthalle Basel); Tara McDowell (director of curatorial practice at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia); Maria Lind (director of Tensta konsthall, Stockholm); Matt Packer (director of EVA International); Hou Hanru (artistic director of MAXXI Rome, Italy); and What, How & for Whom (a curatorial collective formed in 1999 and based in Zagreb, Croatia), among others.
Application requirements:
– Applicants must be 35 years of age or younger
– No prior degrees in art or art history are required
– The course fee of 300 € (international participants will be assisted with finding accommodation in Belgrade – an accommodation rate is approximately 150 € per month)
– Applications should include the following items as a single WORD or PDF document, sent by email to what.could.curating.do@gmail.com with the subject line Curatorial-course-Belgrade by April 30 2018:
– CV/Portfolio
– Letter of Interest (500 words maximum, explaining why you are interested in curatorial practices)
– Project Description(300 words maximum, an urgent project you would like to develop)
Based on the quality of the submitted documents, 15 participants will be selected to attend the course. Selected applicants should plan to arrive in Belgrade no later than September 7, 2018. The final list of the participants will be announced in May 2018.
After the run of the program, three attendees who have been recommended by program mentors will have an opportunity to submit a proposal to the Ming Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai for their curatorial research residency (in 2019).
The course is long term project initiated by Biljana Ćirić together with Supervizuelna, with the following institutions as project partners: The Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, GRAD—European Center for Culture and Debate, EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial and Zepter Museum.
Project was supported by: Goethe Institute in Belgrade, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Belgrado, Embassy of Sweden, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, EU Info Centre; Eugster || Belgrade, Zepter Hotel.
Media partners: EUNIC Serbia, RTS3.