Curators Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte, Co-Artistic Directors of the 2024 Busan Biennale
Photo Credit
Karl Chitham, Curator and Director of The Dowse Art Museum, and Aaron Lister, Senior Curator at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi
Photo Credit
Event Details
tetuhi.artAt two special events in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte, Co-Artistic Directors of the 2024 Busan Biennale, will discuss the complexities of curating biennials with Karl Chitham, Director of the Dowse Art Museum. They will be joined in Wellington by Aaron Lister, Senior Curator at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi.
Why would anyone curate a biennial in this day and age when the format itself attracts so much criticism? What do biennials offer in the gamut of representation within a competitive attention economy? Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte, Co-Artistic Directors of the 2024 Busan Biennale, will discuss the complexities of working on a deeply flawed yet potentially generative format such as a biennial, in Asia, in a period where traditional platforms for exhibition making in traditional artistic centres appear to be collapsing. They will explore the opportunities for collaboration that biennials offer, as well as how the symbolic value of presenting art has evolved over the past decade, revealing an often uncomfortable entanglement between artistic experimentation and the co-option of market forces, and the strategies of various artists for autonomy in an increasingly display-statured world.
Philippe Pirotte will recall his experiences curating biennials and large format exhibitions including the 2016 Montreal Biennale, the 2017 Jakarta Biennale and as a member of the commission for Documenta 15, 2022. Vera Mey will discuss her insistence on forms of internationalism in what feels like a turn to localism in exhibitionary practice, drawing upon her research looking at the relationship between art and regionalist solidarity movements across Asia and Africa in the middle of the 20th century, during a period of decolonial upheaval in world history. They are joined in conversation by Karl Chitham, a champion for the arts in New Zealand for 20 years with a specific interest in toi Māori and currently the Director of the Dowse Art Museum, Head of Arts and Culture for Hutt City.
Chairing the conversation in Te Whānganui-a-Tara Wellington will be Aaron Lister, Senior Curator at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi.
Note Location: Parnell Station, 23 Cheshire Street
Price
- Free - All Welcome
Date
- Wed 22 May
Time
- 6:00 pm
Address
- Parnell Station
- 23 Cheshire Street
- Auckland, 1052
At two special events in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte, Co-Artistic Directors of the 2024 Busan Biennale, will discuss the complexities of curating biennials with Karl Chitham, Director of the Dowse Art Museum. They will be joined in Wellington by Aaron Lister, Senior Curator at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi.
Why would anyone curate a biennial in this day and age when the format itself attracts so much criticism? What do biennials offer in the gamut of representation within a competitive attention economy? Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte, Co-Artistic Directors of the 2024 Busan Biennale, will discuss the complexities of working on a deeply flawed yet potentially generative format such as a biennial, in Asia, in a period where traditional platforms for exhibition making in traditional artistic centres appear to be collapsing. They will explore the opportunities for collaboration that biennials offer, as well as how the symbolic value of presenting art has evolved over the past decade, revealing an often uncomfortable entanglement between artistic experimentation and the co-option of market forces, and the strategies of various artists for autonomy in an increasingly display-statured world.
Philippe Pirotte will recall his experiences curating biennials and large format exhibitions including the 2016 Montreal Biennale, the 2017 Jakarta Biennale and as a member of the commission for Documenta 15, 2022. Vera Mey will discuss her insistence on forms of internationalism in what feels like a turn to localism in exhibitionary practice, drawing upon her research looking at the relationship between art and regionalist solidarity movements across Asia and Africa in the middle of the 20th century, during a period of decolonial upheaval in world history. They are joined in conversation by Karl Chitham, a champion for the arts in New Zealand for 20 years with a specific interest in toi Māori and currently the Director of the Dowse Art Museum, Head of Arts and Culture for Hutt City.
Chairing the conversation in Te Whānganui-a-Tara Wellington will be Aaron Lister, Senior Curator at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi.
Note Location: Parnell Station, 23 Cheshire Street
