Due to lack of formal education related to curating in the Balkan region (while in former West there has been a proliferation of MA and PhD programmes in curating) WCSCD has been initiated with a goal to foster the new generation of curators and artists as well as to raise awareness of the importance of curatorial knowledge and positions when thinking of art institutions and its role within larger social context.
WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO?—WCSCD was initiated and funded in 2018 in Belgrade as an educational platform around notions of curatorial.
Its main activities for 2018 and 2019 include an annual program of curatorial workshops, lectures, and studio visits for young practitioners three months in duration, with the intention to bring together key international and local figures engaged in curatorial discourse, who specifically are able to offer important institutional knowledge and networks to the program participants. Through the program, the notion of international we try to complicate by inviting mentors from non-western context as well as local figures.
In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade annual series of public lectures are presented on regular bases thinking the relationship between curatorial and new institutional models.
WCSCD does not have a physical space but in its curatorial inquiries proposes to work with different agents and institutions nurturing slow modes of working and being. In times of the global world, WCSCD tries to think and negotiate what international is and what kind of international knowledge we try to share as a constant reminder that what we know stays dynamic.
From 2020 WCSCD started to initiate its own curatorial inquiries and projects that should unpack above -mentioned complexities keeping educational component as a core to the WCSCD.
WCSCD is proud to also announce the advisory group from who will help us shape the program, the members of which include: Matt Packer, Director of the Eva International Biennial; Ares Shporta, Director of the Lumbardhi Foundation; and Andrea Palasti, a Novi Sad based artist.
Artist Saša Tkačenko has been commissioned to develop the visual identity for the project.
Team of the project for 2018 included art historians Ana Anakijev and Katarina Kostandinović.
In 2019 curator Tjaša Pogačar joined WCSCD team as a tutor.
In 2020 curator Aigerim Kapar joined WCSCD core team