CURATORS’ INTENSIVE 2014

4A’s Curators’ Intensive is an initiative developed by 4A to encourage professional advancement amongst early career Australian cultural practitioners with an interest in curatorial practice. The Intensive will take place between Thursday 10 – Sunday 13 July at various locations in Sydney, Australia.

This is the second Intensive (following 2012) and will be led by three established curators who are working in an international context with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region. In 2014 the Curators’ Intensive will feature:

Cosmin Costinas (HK)

Dr Sophie McIntyre (AUS)

Robin Pekham (HK/Beijing)

These curators along with 4A will deliver this program over four consecutive days through a mix of public discussions and closed forums. The Intensive will consist of the following: each evening there will be a public presentation by one curator. On the following day a closed workshop will be led by one of the curators for participants only. Through these discussions participants will expand on the issues raised by curators during their public presentations.

This program will be of interest to curators or cultural practitioners at the beginning of their careers, as well as those currently working independently or in institutions and interested in participating in an expanded discussion around curatorial practice. While focused on a broad conception of contemporary Asian art, this program will encompass a much larger range of curatorial discussions. The participating curators have a wide variety of experiences from socially engaged art, curating local history, international perspectives, as well as museums and independent spaces.

 

PUBLIC LECTURES

In 2014 the 4A Curators’ Intensive includes a series of free public talks at 4A presented by our guest curators.
Bookings are essential via eventbrite. Please note you will need to book separately for each talks.

 

Thursday 10 July, 6.30pm – 8.00pm
Tracing the Post-Internet: A Case Study in Curatorial Process
Robin Peckham
Book here

What is the relationship between the movement that has come to be called ‘post-internet’ and the media realities of the historical moment that enables it?

This talk will present the curatorial process and research behind the exhibition Art Post-Internet co-curated by Peckham, paying close attention to the differences between survey methodologies and thematic approaches to curating. Peckham will respond to notions including the differences between intent and effect in artistic practice, the tension between documentation and materiality in recent art, collaboration as a tool, the specificities of the exhibition and other possible realisations, and categories of curatorial work from essayistic narrative compositions to forms of analysis.

This presentation will tentatively structure a logic by which we might be able to expand a thematic understanding of post-internet art based on an empirical understanding of its social core.

 

Friday 11 July, 2.00pm – 4.00pm
Politics, Art & Representation: Curatorship in an intercultural context
Dr Sophie McIntyre
Book here

This presentation explores the spatial and relational dynamics of curating exhibitions in an intercultural context by focussing on the meaning and significance of place in a geo-political, cultural, artistic and museological context. Drawing on several exhibitions  of contemporary art from the Asia-Pacific region that Dr. McIntyre has (co)curated, the presentation will delve into the politics of cultural representation and it will reflect on some of the challenges and valuable insights gained when curating across and between different cultures and audiences.

 

Saturday 12 July, 2.00pm – 4.00pm
Ten Million Rooms of Yearning & A Journal of the Plague Year: A Case Study of Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong.
Cosmin Costinas
Book here

This talk will present an insight into recent research and projects by Cosmin Costinas for Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong. Para/Site is Hong Kong’s leading contemporary art space and one of the oldest and most active independent art centres in Asia. It produces exhibitions, publications and discursive projects aimed at forging a critical understanding of local and international phenomena in art and society.
 
Since 2011 Cosmin Costinas has been the Executive Director and Curator of Para/Site, where he has delivered a number of exhibitions that discuss and explore local political and historical contexts. Costinas will discuss a number of the challenges in presenting these projects, and consider how they fit within broader curatorial conversations in Hong Kong.
 
As a relative newcomer to Hong Kong, Cosmin will also speak about his personal perspective in developing exhibitions and the role that collaboration plays in working in a new cultural context. What kind of responsibility does a curator, or indeed an organisation, have to the local?

 

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Curators’ Biographies:

Cosmin Costinas is the Executive Director of the Para/site Art Space, Hong Kong’s leading non-profit organisation dedicated to contemporary visual art. He was born in Satu Mare, Romania in 1982. His was previously curator of BAK in the Netherlands; co-director of the 2010 Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, ; and editor of the magazine documenta 12. Major exhibitions include Taiping Tianguo: A History of Possible Encounters: Ai Weiwei, Frog King Kwok, Tehching Hsieh, and Martin Wong in New York for Para/site (2012); Spacecraft Icarus 13. Narratives of Progress from Elsewhere and In the Middle of Things for BAK (2011), and I, the Undersigned, a touring exhibition at the Institute of International Visual Arts in London, the Lunds Konsthall in Lund, tranzit+display in Prague, and Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart (2010–2011).

Dr Sophie McIntyre is a curator, art writer and lecturer with a particular interest in contemporary Asian art. After working for more than seventeen years as an art curator and gallery director, she completed a PhD on the impact of identity politics on artistic and exhibitionary practices during the post-martial law period in Taiwan. Sophie has lived in China and Taiwan and curated several art exhibitions from this region that have toured nationally and internationally. These include Penumbra (2007); Islanded: Contemporary Art from New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan (2005) (co-curated with Lee Weng Choy and Eugene Tan), Concrete Horizons: Art from China (2004) and Face to Face: Contemporary Art from Taiwan (1999-2000). She has given papers and published extensively on this field in exhibition catalogues, books and journals. Sophie was employed as a curator and gallery director of two university art museums in Australia and New Zealand, and prior to this time she worked at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and in other public and commercial galleries in Sydney and Brisbane.

Robin Peckham is an editor and curator based between Hong Kong and Beijing. He operated the independent exhibition space Saamlung, Hong Kong from 2011-2013, and has organised exhibitions for institutions including the City University of Hong Kong; Goethe-Institut, Hong Kong; and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. Peckham has lectured at the University of Hong Kong City University, and Asia Art Archive. His writing is published in Artforum, LEAP, Monopol and Yishu, as well as books for the Minsheng Art Museum, Para/site Art Space, and Timezone8, including publications on video art pioneer Zhang Peili and architectural interventionists MAP Office.

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2014 Intensive Participants:

Miriam Arbus (VIC) is originally from Canada where she studied Art History, Contemporary Theory and Curatorship at Concordia University and the University of Toronto. After completing her Masters degree she relocated to Melbourne. With dedicated interest in contemporary localised art practice, Miriam works as the Director and Curator of Fitzroy’s Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne. Her areas of foci are pertinent to new media practices as well as participatory art.

Mira Asriningtyas (INDONESIA) works as an independent curator and writer in Yogyakarta. In 2011 she founded an independent space that aims to build a supportive and positive environment for young artists – Lir Space, Yogyakarta. She was chosen as one of the curators in Young Curator Forum of Cemeti Art House, and recently selected to be part of the Young Curators Workshop by the Japan Foundation, Indonesia. Mira is especially interested in conceptually-driven projects, contemporary artworks and text-based art.

Andrew Ewing (NT) is Vietnamese-Australian. He has curated a discussion panel on Art & Censorship in Indonesia in the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival where he worked for three years. He was Program Manager at 24HR Art – the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, curating smaller spaces as well as co-curating a touring show with David Broker called Territorial. He received an Australia Council grant to work at the Venice Biennale, was Director and curator of the Darwin Pride Festival, and is currently on the selection committee for Asialink.

Sebastian Goldspink (NSW) is a Sydney-based curator and administration. In late 2011 he founded ALASKA Projects, a multi-disciplinary art space located in Sydney’s Kings Cross. Since opening, ALASKA has held over 50 exhibitions and showcased the work of over 300 emergings artists. Sebastian has curated extensively for ALASKA’s touring shows including I Miss Your More When It Rains, Dog Park Art Project Space, Christchurch and As Above So Below, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans. He is the curator of the John Fries Memorial Prize and the Art Bank roving curator for 2013/14. He is a regular contributor to arts publications including Inside, Art Collector, NAVA Quarterly and Sturgeon.

Sophie Kitson (NSW) has spent the last few years focusing on architecture and design, public programs, invigilating, writing and arts administration for various Australian and Italian based arts institutions. Most recently, she has been working at the USA Pavilion for the 55th Biennale di Venezia; has been curatorial assistant for Alaska Projects’ Director Sebasian Goldspink; completed a 3-month internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice, and was the recipient of the 2012 Firstdraft Emerging Curators Program.

Alana Kushnir (VIC) is a freelance curator and art lawyer. She recently returned to Melbourne after living in London while completing her MFA Curating course at Goldsmiths. Her curatorial interests are focused on the intersection of the law, methodologies of curating and art practices which have been influenced by the advent of the internet.

While working across a variety of contexts, Tess Maunder (QLD) is primarily interested in a field of public inquiry beyond the individual curatorial position. Maunder is a founding co-director of The Maximilian with Laura Brown. In 2013, Maunder participated in both the 5th Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course and ICI course: What does it mean to be international? Tess currently works for Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane.

Tulleah Pearce (NSW) is a Sydney-based curator and producer. She is interested in performative, situated and interdisciplinary art practices. She currently works as the Associate Curator at Performance Space and is a Co-Director of Firstdraft artist-run initiative. She has previously co-directed Critical Animals creative research symposium as part of This is Not Art, Newcastle.

Kyle Weise (VIC) is co-director of Screen Space, a not-for-profit screen-based gallery in Melbourne. He is a PhD candidate in Culture and Communications at the University of Melbourne, where his research is focused on the moving image and the construction of space. Kyle is a former committee member of Kings ARI, Melbourne and was co-director of Beam Contemporary, Melbourne from 2010 to 2014.

Chloé Wolifson (NSW) is a Sydney-based independent arts writer and curator with an emerging practice across artist-run, commercial and public domains. She has curated exhibitions in Sydney at Breezeblock, Slot Gallery and Carriageworks, and is regularly commissioned as an arts writer. She currently sits on the board of Runway Australian Experimental Art Journal. www.chloewolifson.com

Gintani Nur Apresia Swastika (INDONESIA) is an independent curator currently based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Luisa Tresca (NSW) is an Italian born writer and gallery assistant with a background in Comparative Literature and five years working experience in the Chinese contemporary art field. After receiving an MA in Comparative Literature from Dublin City University, she moved to Beijing in 2009 and worked as a team member of Cao Fei’s RMB City art studio and with contemporary art gallery Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou. Luisa recently relocated to Sydney, Australia.