Friday, June 7th 2024, starting 17:00, at Casa Universitarilor Iași, meet our European experts invited to present their perspective on this challenging topic: Georgiana Buț (Austria), Maja Ćirić (Serbia), Suzana Dan (România), Cristina Moraru (România), Larisa Oancea (Italy), Bojana Piškur (Slovenia), Alice Ongaro Sartori (Italy), Cristina Stoenescu (România) și Eleni Tsopotou (Greece).
Join us for an engaging panel discussion that explores the transformative role of women in curating contemporary art, offering unique insights, challenging traditional curatorial practices and highlighting underrepresented voices. This conversation will explore innovative curatorial practices, using current and past exhibitions as case studies in order to promote inclusivity and foster cultural dialogue. By highlighting women's pivotal roles, this panel aims to inspire future generations and advocate for a more equitable and dynamic curatorial landscape, providing a platform for researchers, practitioners and activists to critically engage with the role of women in the field of curating.
Georgiana Buț is a curator, editor and researcher working at the intersection between philosophy and history of art, exhibition and curatorial studies. She holds Ph.D in Philosophy from the Doctoral School of Philosophy, Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, 2023. She is currently coordinating, together with Larisa Oancea, the Mediation and Research Program for the Romanian Pavilion at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale. She is also a guest researcher at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien and Ausstellungshaus Spoerri, Hadersdorf am Kamp, where she is carrying out curatorial research focusing on Daniel Spoerri’s Le Déjeuner sous l’herbe (1983). In 2023 she edited, together with Eva and Radu Pervolovici, the first edition in Romanian of Spoerri’s artist book, O topografie anecdotată a hazardului / An Anecdoted Topography of Chance, published by Editura META, Bucharest, and she served as coordinating editor (with Diana Marincu) of the Art Encounters Biennial (5th edition) catalogue, Adrian Notz et. al., My Rhino Is Not A Myth: art science fictions, Art Encounters Publishing House, Timișoara. Between 2019 and 2021, she coordinated the project ECCA – European Centre for Contemporary Art developed by the Cluj Cultural Centre and, within this project, the Autumn School of Curating, organized in partnership with Art Encounters Foundation. Georgiana Buț will have an intervention about ”La bande à Niki: on group dynamics”.
Maja Ćirić, a visionary art expert, embodies the essence of a neohuman—a curator, an art critic and an educator seamlessly blending roles. Shifting focus to planetary computation's multipolar dynamics post-2020, she explores physical realms, spearheading projects at art-science-technology crossroads and venturing into the metaverse. Notable roles include curator (2007) and commissioner (2013) of the Serbian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, curator of the BJCEM Mediterranea Young Artist Biennale in Tirana (2017), and a Chief Curator of the 20th Pančevo Art Biennale (2022). Dr. Ćirić’s contributions redefine curatorial norms, leaving an indelible mark on the global art landscape. The topic presented by Maja Ćirić: ”Is the World Too Small for Your Next Step?: The Secret Epistemology of a Female Independent Curator”.
Suzana Dan is a visual artist and cultural manager. She is part of the generation of artists who, in the early 2000s, actively contributed to challenging the (non)existent structures on the local contemporary art scene. Founder of Noaptea Albă a Galeriilor (NAG), in 2007, she develops together with the local community of the independent cultural scene, working in parallel within the first national institution dedicated to contemporary culture in Romania, MNAC Bucharest. In 2016, together with the 10-year anniversary edition of NAG, she contributes to the arrangement and opening to the public of the contemporary culture center Rezidența9. From the same year, she begins to ask himself the question "What is the phase with contemporary art?", in a cultural mediation program to which he still finds all kinds of answers together with the public of all ages who participate in this cultural mediation program. Starting from 2018, she is the manager of the Rezidența9, where she takes care of the cultural programming, realizes all kinds of projects and events with and about contemporary art and actively contributes to the initiation of new programs, long-term. Suzana Dan will have a talk under the title ”Trust me, I am not a curator (nor an artist, nor a cultural manager)”.
Cristina Moraru is an art theoretician, researcher and curator from Iași, Romania. She was awarded a PhD in Philosophy by the Al. I. Cuza University, Faculty of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences, Iași. She is currently a Lecturer at “George Enescu” National University of the Arts in Iași, where she is teaching critical theories for art interpretation and aesthetics. She is a researcher in a project funded by ICMA (Research Institute of UNAGE Iași) and a member of TPP Research Forum supported by Technische Universität Berlin, Universität Bonn, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg and Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München. She is a founding member of C_F_C Iași, and a member of International Association of Art Critics. She participated in international studies programs, research residencies, and workshops at NEC Institute for Advanced Studies (Bucharest), NCCR University of Basel, CRC “Affective Societies” Freie Universität Berlin, Aarhus University, University of Vienna, Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), Valand Academy for Art and Design (University of Gothenburg), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Universität Hamburg, Loughborough University, Birmingham City University, Pedagogical University of Krakow, European University at St Petersburg, Danube University Krems, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, MTFA Academy Chișinau, EEPAP Lublin, LCCA Latvia, CCA Prishtina, The Cvito Fiskovic Centre in Split, Institute of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Fondazione Arthur Cravan in Milan, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Moscow and other independent institutions. Her interventios focuses on ”Navigating Gender Dynamics and Advocating Inclusive Curatorial Practices in Iași, Romania”.
Larisa Oancea is an art historian and researcher based in Venice, Italy. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Theory from the National University of Arts in Bucharest; her thesis “The Museum of Moving Images. The Influences of Renaissance Art on European Cinema, from Sergei Eisenstein to Peter Greenaway and Lech Majewski” is a continuation of her previous researches on the dialogue between painting and cinema, as well as on the relationship between film and anthropology. Trained both as an art historian and an anthropologist, Larisa Oancea has developed a strong interest in the intersection of the arts with other disciplines. In the last ten years, she worked at La Biennale di Venezia, Triennale di Milano, Prada Foundation, Pino Pascali Foundation, Arte Laguna, Cineteca Pasinetti and Yogurt Magazine, among others. In 2022 she coordinated, together with Daniel Neugebauer, the mediation and research program for the Romanian Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia (within Adina Pintilie’s project “You Are Another Me – A Cathedral of the Body”) and collaborated with the German Pavilion (within Maria Eichhorn’s project “Relocating a Structure”). She is the executive producer of the Swiss Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2024 within the project “Super Superior Civilizations” by Guerreiro do Divino Amor, curated by Andrea Bellini. Since 2021 she has worked as a researcher at Studio 454 in Venice, collaborating with artist and collector Tiane Doan na Champassak in his long-term project of archiving, documenting and enhancing his collection of artists’ books. During this collaboration, she co-curated the exhibitions Burning Matter (2022), Folded Cities (2023) and Text as Image (2024) and is currently working in parallel on the publication "The Appropriationists". Larisa Oancea is the author of “Nancy Spanier: The Arc of a Dancing Life”, published by Performance Inventions in 2021. Larisa Oancea will introduce „Nancy Spanier. The female gaze and Robert Bly’s mythopoetic men’s movement”.
Bojana Piškur works as a curator at the Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana. Most of her work is related to the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav context, the Non-Aligned Movement and the question of the “East(s)”, especially in relation to arts and culture. In the past years she has curated and co-curated a series of Southern Constellations exhibitions namely: Southern Constellations: The Poetics of the Non-Aligned. Moderna galerija, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2019; Southern Constellations: the Gwangju Station in the frame of “Solidarity Spores”, Asia Art Center, Gwangju (South Korea), 2020; Southern Constellations: Poetics of the Non-Aligned, It is not enough to write a revolutionary poem, Filodrammatica Gallery, Rijeka (Croatia), 2021; Collection as Constellation, Contemporary Art Centre of Montenegro, Podgorica, 2022; Which Side Are You On: On the Non-Aligned Decolonial Constellation, National Opera and Ballet, organized by the Faculty of things that can't be learned, Skopje (North Macedonia), 2022; Constellations of Multiple Wishes, The Mosaic Rooms, London (UK), 2023; What do Crocodiles Dream About?, Moderna galerija, 2023; Constellations of Multiple Wishes: Along the Eastern Horizon, Moderna galerija, 2024. Bojana Piškur will talk about ”Women artists in the 2000+ Arteast – the other histories”.
Alice Ongaro Sartori works in the field of visual culture and publishing. Her research focuses on the intersection between nature and culture. She is part of Wetlands, a Venice-based publishing house dedicated to social and environmental sustainability, for which she coordinates the new series afterwords, curated by writer Maaza Mengiste. She is a doctoral candidate in art history at the University of Hamburg and her research is entitled ”Antifascism on Paper: Visual Poetry, Artist's Books, and Other Works from 1960' to the present”. Previously, she was co-curator of the Floating Cinema (2020-2022), of MICROCLIMA, and was Head of Public Program for Ocean Space (2019-2021). She lives and works in Venice. ”Visual Poetry as a revolution: the role of verbo visual experimentation in Italian feminism in the 1960s and 1970s”.
Cristina Stoenescu is an independent curator currently pursuing her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest. Her thesis explores the post-communist Romanian context through the lens of art and politics. Between 2022 and 2024, she has worked as a research assistant and fellow within the program "Understanding 1989 in East-Central European Art," organized by the Piotr Piotrowski Research Center at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, supported by the Getty Foundation. In 2023, she joined the curatorial team for the 5th edition of the Art Encounters Contemporary Art Biennial, titled "My Rhino Is Not a Myth." In the same year, she co-curates a program of video art screenings, performances, and talks as part of the European Cultural Capital Timișoara. The exhibitions curated by Cristina Stoenescu often approaches themes of memory, revisiting the past through art and research. Her intervention will be about ”Reading groups and curatorial collective strategies”.
Eleni Tsopotou is a contemporary art worker. She is currently Head of Exhibitions and Public Program at Ocean Space in Venice, led by TBA21, an international art and advocacy foundation. She has been working for over 15 years in the arts field and has collaborated with institutions such as dOCUMENTA 14, the 6th Athens Biennale, the Venice Art Biennale, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and the Uffizi Gallery. In 2017 she founded the independent art project space Stoa42 in Athens which hosts exhibitions & performances by local and international artists. In Iași, Eleni Tsopotou will talk about feminist curatorial practices in contemporary Greece: ”Would the world be a more caring and compassionate place if women ruled the world?”.
The debate "The role of women in curating: transformative perspectives and redefining practices" is part of the W SPOTLIGHT project, initiated by the Artep Gallery Association and co-financed by AFCN.
The works will take place exclusively in English.
Organised by: Galeria Artep Association
Cultural project co-financed by: National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN)
Partners: University ”Al.I. Cuza” Iași, Faculty of Philosophy and Socio-political Sciences, ”George Enescu” Art University, Institutul de Cercetare Multidisciplinara în Artă, Destination Iași
Media Partners: Revista Propagarta, ASOCIAȚIA EMPOWER ART & ARTISTS, Asociația PIN pentru Promovarea Tehnologiei și lndustriilor Creative, Revista Modernism
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the works may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
