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Alumni 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2021 Alumni Devashish Sharma has a BFA in Painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, and an MFA from the Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida. After completing his MFA, he joined the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi as a trainee, and was part of the team responsible for the physical verification and documentation of the art collection. In 2017, he received the Public Art Grant from the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA), New Delhi and was able to pursue his interest in setting up a museum for the children of the villages of Kumharpara and Balengapara, Chattisgarh. The Museum of Questions and Imagined Futures is a space for children to think about the future of history in a rural context. Research on architecture and landscapes is a key part of his practice, and in 2019 through a grant funded by the Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi he was able to initiate Road Number Zero, a research project that explores the cusp between rural and urban landscapes within India. His practice revolves around the ideas of bodily experience and movement, and the politics of curating. Devashish is currently based in Bangalore. Beatrice Rubio-Gabriel is an independent curator, writer and performance artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. She finished a double-degree BA in Art History and Theory alongside a BFA from the Monash University School of Art, Design and Architecture, and was the recipient of the BAHCxMUMA Curatorial award at the MADANOW19 exhibition. Centring around a collaborative and experimental practice, she has curated projects that aim to challenge current curatorial and euro-centric modes of exhibiting, and experiments with writing as artform. Her curated projects include /dis/location, MPavilion, Melbourne (2019); The Art of Consumption and The Answers You Need Are Right Where You Are, Intermission Gallery, Melbourne (2019); Revisiting the Quadriennale, CareOf Facility, Milan (2018) and Dwelling Inbetween Here and Some Other Place, Monash Prato Centre, Prato (2018). The former artistic director of Intermission Gallery, she is now currently researching systems of care and intersectional spaces of Resistance Aesthetics. She is also exploring the Baybayin script of the Philippines as a gateway for cultural understanding and re-connection, and how this may be engaged through performance and mark-making. Christophe Barbeau Following a BFA in Quebec City at Université Laval, Christophe Barbeau completed the Master of Visual Studies, Curatorial Studies, at the University of Toronto, Canada, during which his research looked for a political understanding of the position of the “curator” through a specific concept of “authorship”. His projects, as an artist and a curator, have been presented in different group and solo exhibitions in Quebec City, Montreal, Rouyn Noranda, Toronto, Boston, and Nice. Notably : The Die Has Been Cast (2014 Villa Arson, Nice), dans la petite galerie. […] (2014, L’Oeil de Poisson, Quebec City), Dans ce cas-ci (si), […] (2015, Quebec City), Dans le but de décentraliser […] (2016, L’Écart, Rouyn Noranda). In this first stage of projects, the research focused on developing artist’s curated situations of exhibitions where a curatorial strategy was embedded within an artistic practice, specifically through display structures as well as employing strategies of copies, re-makes, re-enactments. Barbeau’s latest exhibitions were entitled : «Qu’avons- nous fait? […] (2019) presented in Toronto; and «and I am the curator of this show1» (2018) presented at the Art Museum University of Toronto in 2018. In this stage of projects, the focus was redirected towards the power relationship specific to the position of the curator, through the use of institutional critique and self-reflexive curatorial gestures, the projects were aiming at deconstructing the conventional and naturalized authorities of the curator, uncovering the political challenges that this figure is facing. < Participants Educational Program Programs >

Sultan Mussakhan < Back The roar, which never vanished Sultan Mussakhan The image of tigers and lions hunting their prey is solid in our memories due to their distinctive representation in the culture of modern-day humans. They are charismatic and murderous. They are indeed hypostasis for what we call as good and evil. So far, history says that they were understood as more evil than the good, which led to their total extinction in Central Asia in XX century, still echoing their majestic influence on people until today. This article mainly focuses on the role of tigers in the new cultural dynamics of modern Kazakhs as their role never vanished and with a further deeper understanding of them generating the new ideas of what is good, to begin with. This article will also combine one of their unique habitats – the shores of Lake Balkhash – as they can have a common destiny: to extinct or to rehabilitate. The history and formation of the modern landscape of Lake Balkhash can be traced back to the Early Pleistocene with evidence of the first colonization by Homo erectus . Epoch after epoch the people habiting the shores and lakesides by Balkhash were replaced and ended up by the rooting of Homo sapiens sapiens – or modern-day humans – generating pastoralist communities with their unique vertical migrations from deserts to alpine mountains as we can still observe today [1] . The Late Pleistocene was the period when large felines as lions and tigers started to vastly expand in Central Asia including the shores of Lake Balkhash. As it follows, it is not a big surprise that the charismatic felines of Central Asia were in close interaction with many human species creating a nexus for the further firm image of them as beautiful, powerful, but dangerous beings. If the archaeological and paleontological evidence is scarce on felines’ representation and their influence on first humans, we have plenty of evidence of how felines had their specific place in Bronze Age cultures as Andronovo people . We believe that these are the people who learned how to work with bronze, were the first nomads to colonize the whole of Central Asia, and had trading patterns with the adjacent other cultures. Besides, they were the first ones who depicted the large felines in petroglyphs. Today, we can map almost 170 different petroglyphs of different periods in Kazakhstan (Bronze age, Iron Age, and Turkic period) with various images of large felines and 30 petroglyphs are identified as lions ( Panthera leo persica ) and 18 as tigers ( Panthera tigris ) ( see fig. 1 and 2) [2] . Figure 1. A tiger petroglyph at Eshkiolmes, Kazakhstan. Belongs to the Iron age [2]. Figure 2. Tiger petroglyph Southern Balkhash region and the Khantau mountains, the Bronze Age, researched by A.G. Medoev [3] Lake Balkhash and deltas of various rivers enriching its waters were the natural habitats for the Caspian tiger or how we like to call it today as the Turanian tiger. Its Latin name comes as Panthera tigris virgata what also means in Kazakh as “zholbarys” – the striped feline. Even though the extinction of the last known tiger is recent, there is an attempt to reintroduce the closely related tiger subspecies Panthera tigris altaica from the Russian Far East to the shores of Lake Balkhash by WWF [4] . At first glance, a person who has never seen the Turanian tigers would believe that this is another ambitious yet indoctrinated project where the human takes over nature with an indulgent hand of help, albeit the best gaze would be to look at it as we are asking sorry that we brought so much pain to Lake Balkhash and disastrously treated it. So, who are those tigers and what would they bring to us? Once they inhabited from Turkey to Northwestern China, and their geographical range included almost all of the Central Asian countries. However, with the sedentarization and colonial attitude of the Russian Empire and further with the Soviet Union, not only aboriginal people were endangered, but the flora and fauna too, disturbing the intimate co-existence and ecosystem. The tugay woodlands were reshaped as well as the riversides to grow various cultures of valuable plants. With the loss of natural habitat, the preys of tigers were endangered or completely extinct too, rapidly declining in their population. Previously flourishing tigers almost along all major rivers in Central Asia, went extinct until the 1950s due to systematic poisoning and haunting. Yet, the Ili river- the largest river enriching the waters of Lake Balkhash – was one of three predominant places that could support a dense population of Caspian tigers is under intense human colonization and threat [5] . The situation has several related current events with the Yellowstone National Park in the United States, where the landscape was damaged due to the lack of large predators and the solution was to introduce wolves into the ecosystem [6] . There is one specific historical artwork by Said Atabekov “Way to Rome”, which is highly related to the extinction of Caspian tigers. The artwork represents a Kazakh-style carpet with a soldier’s hat on it (see fig. 3). Interestingly, both the style of the carpet and tiger have vanished for the modern days. The work symbolizes the homicidal policies towards the ethnicities of Central Asia. Probably, this is the only carpet left with the recent tiger representation in Kazakh traditional arts. Both Kazakhs and tigers shared a common destiny in the past. Figure 3. Said Atabekov, from the series of work “Way to Rome” (the last carpet with a portrait of the Turanian tiger). 2020, 70х105 cm. With the new project on the reintroduction of Caspian tigers to the Ili-Balkhash reservoir, it is another attempt to restore what was severely damaged in recent times. It is a hope to restore the actual ecosystem and give another chance for ourselves to co-exist and co-evolve. What is the value of reintroduction? There is a known species Panthera tigris altaica that is believed to be almost genetically identical to and descendants of Caspian tigers. As they are considered as the zenith of the food chain, the proper work on livestock management should be done. Thereby, the restoration of the ecosystem should be prepared from the lower ecological niches for reintroduction. So far, the Ili River delta can support almost 100-150 Amur tiger individuals and the first introduction will count up to 25 individuals [4]. There is a chance that the river delta would become a further National Park supporting the local socio-economic development as long as giving another hope that there will be more dialogue on human activity on Lake Balkhash and communication with Xinjiang (China) where the river takes place. This project can be classified as transboundary because yet it increases the interaction between the Asian countries and probably will be another bridge of cooperation. The introduction of the tiger is a part of decolonial optics too. It shows how the ecosystem depends on all components of the biodiversity including the dangerous predators and the sensitive ecosystem should be treated with more care. This optics bends towards the development of more ecocentric ideas, I believe. We also cannot defy that charismatic feline will be a bridge to personify Lake Balkhash and the Ili River delta with its gorgeous gaze and roar. Yet the appearance of tigers can become another appeal to save the waters of Lake Balkhash and the environment nearby. As we know, the tiger is a part of the national identity of both Turkic and Asian ethnicities. Once the endangered Kazakh people like the tiger itself could probably reflect their destiny to understand how close and co-existential they were as part of the fragile ecosystem teaching its lessons that there could be always a chance to survive, to flourish, and to respect where you live in. The introduction of the tiger and its value to the ecosystem, to the people, and the identity of Kazakhs can be only hypothesized and imagined, but it is another platform to synthesize, rethink, and re-evaluate what we are today. Personally, I think that biology and ecology narratives have to be decolonized by opening a wide window to the co-existence among all living species and the reintroduction of tigers is one step closer. References (apa style): [1] Deom, J. M., Aubekerov, B., Sala, R., & Nigmatova, S. (2012). Quaternary evolution of the human habitats in the Ili-Balkhash region from paleolithic to modern times. Toward a sustainable society in Central Asia: An historical perspective on the future , 49-58. [2] Schnitzler, A., & Hermann, L. (2019). Chronological distribution of the tiger Panthera tigris and the Asiatic lion Panthera leo persica in their common range in Asia. Mammal Review, 49 (4), 340-353. [3] https://edu.e-history.kz/ru/publications/view/1279 [4] https://wwf.ru/regions/central-asia/vosstanovlenie-turanskogo-tigra/ [5] Chestin, I. E., Paltsyn, M. Y., Pereladova, O. B., Iegorova, L. V., & Gibbs, J. P. (2017). Tiger re-establishment potential to former Caspian tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) range in Central Asia. Biological Conservation, 205 , 42-51. [6] Smith, D. W., Peterson, R. O., & Houston, D. B. (2003). Yellowstone after wolves. BioScience, 53 (4), 330-340. Sultan Mussakhan is a Ph.D candidate in Biological Science at Brock University ( Canada) as well as member of Art Collider. Previous Next

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Lecture by Dorothea von Hantelmann / The Exhibition. A Lecture Demonstration Saša Tkačenko, Flags from the WCSCD series, 2018. Photo by Ivan Zupanc THE CURATORIAL COURSE WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? IS GLAD TO ANNOUNCE A PUBLIC TALK BY Dorothea von Hantelmann The Exhibition. A Lecture Demonstration MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART BELGRADE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2018 AT 6 PM Art institutions are deeply connected to core socio-economic parameters of their time, which they symbolically cultivate and ritually enact. Looking at art spaces as a series of decisive moments of transformation, I will pose the question if the transformations of our epoch are asking for a new kind of ritual, after that of the exhibition. (The Exhibition. A Lecture Demonstration by Dorothea von Hantelmann) In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, the second lecture within the series of public programs organized by WCSCD will be presented by Dorothea von Hantelmann (Professor of Art and Society at Bard College Berlin, A Liberal Arts University gGmbH). The series is designed to offer new and different perspectives on the theories and practices of exhibition-making. An esteemed theorist, scholar, writer, and curator, von Hantelmann’s work is at the forefront of conversations around the rethinking and retooling of exhibition rituals in contemporary art and the cultures of exhibition-making in general. For this occasion, von Hantelmann will deliver a lecture titled The Exhibition. A Lecture Demonstration. As she explains: “We can, and this is the perspective of art history, understand museums and exhibitions as places, as repositories for art objects, which classify and present important treasures of a cultural heritage. Or we can, and this is a more sociological and anthropological approach, see them as institutions that derive their social function from the fact that they carry specific values and concepts into society. My lecture both explores and demonstrates certain aspects of this second perspective. It analyses the cultural format of the museum and the exhibition as a specifically modern ritual in the historical and contemporary context of Western liberalism. Art institutions are deeply connected to core socio-economic parameters of their time, which they symbolically cultivate and ritually enact. Looking at art spaces as a series of decisive moments of transformation, I will pose the question if the transformations of our epoch are asking for a new kind of ritual, after that of the exhibition.” ABOUT THE LECTURER: Dorothea von Hantelmann is Professor of Art and Society at Bard College Berlin. Before taking the position at Bard College Berlin she was documenta Professor at the Art Academy/University of Kassel where she lectured on the history and meaning of documenta and was involved in the constitution of a documenta research institute. Her main fields of research are contemporary art and theory as well as the history and theory of exhibitions. She is the author of How to Do Things with Art, one of the seminal works on performativity within contemporary art; co-editor of The exhibition. Politics of a Ritual; and has written on artists such as Daniel Buren, Jeff Koons, Philippe Parreno, and James Coleman. Her current book project is titled The exhibition: Transformations of a ritual, which explores exhibitions as ritual spaces in which fundamental values and categories of modern, liberal, and market-based societies historically have been, and continue to be, practiced and reflected. Her curatorial work includes such projects and exhibitions as I promise it’s political (Museum Ludwig, Cologne 2002); Elective Affinities (Vienna Festival 1999); and I like Theater & Theater likes me (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg 2001). She was a co-curator of A Prelude for The Shed, a multidisciplinary arts project that took place in the framework of The Shed, a new institution for the arts in New York City, scheduled to open in 2019. The WCSCD curatorial course and series of public lectures are initiated and organized by Biljana Ciric together with Supervizuelna. The lecture by Niels Van Tomme is made possible with the help of MoCAB and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the additional support of Zepter Museum and Zepter Hotel. Project partners: The Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade; GRAD—European Center for Culture and Debate; EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial, ’Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ Foundation and Zepter Museum. The project is supported by: the Goethe Institute in Belgrade; Istituto Italiano di Cultura Belgrado; the Embassy of Sweden; the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the Embassy of Ireland in Greece; the Embassy of Indonesia; the EU Info Centre; Pro Helvetia – Swiss Art Council; and galleries Eugster || Belgrade, HESTIA Art Residency & Exhibitions Bureau, and Zepter Hotel, Royal Inn Hotel and CAR:GO. Media partners: EUNIC Serbia, RTS3. < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities The first talk in the 2019 series is titled: Exhibition as language/space/agency for contradicting ideas, forms, and experiences By Luca Lo Pinto Date: September 5, 2019 Time: 18:00 Venue: Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art (14 Pariska Street) The curatorial course What Could/Should Curating Do is proud to announce that we continue collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art in the presentation of a series of public talks as part of 2019 program. For this talk, Lo Pinto will discuss his curatorial practice, focusing on a number of key exhibitions he has organized inside and outside of institutional contexts. Lo Pinto’s practice involves the various roles of curating, writing, researching, making exhibitions, and making books. His work takes different forms by maintaining an openness through the employment of different tools and modes all according to what each project requires. Making exhibitions is a way to develop a situation that can have multiple points of entry both visually and conceptually, offering the viewer a wide range of possibilities and allowing the existence of various narratives. Lo Pinto approaches the curatorial process as a way of questioning different works in relation to each other, in order to see what happens. The same attitude informed his activity as a publisher. This dimension of in-between-ness across disciplines also shaped his education. For this presentation, he will focus on a number of projects which embraces his ongoing interest in house museums, the investigation between the original and copy, the exhibition as a living object, and will also touch upon a number of editorial projects. About Speaker: Luca Lo Pinto (1981) is the curator of Kunsthalle Wien. He is the co-founder of the magazine and publishing house NERO . At Kunsthalle Wien he organized solo exhibitions of Nathalie du Pasquier, Camille Henrot, Olaf Nicolai, Pierre Bismuth, Babette Mangolte, Charlemagne Palestine and the group exhibitions Publishing as an artistic toolbox: 1989-2017; More than just words; One, No One and One Hundred Thousand; Individual Stories e Function Follows Vision, Vision Follows Reality. Other curatorial projects include Io, Luca Vitone (PAC),16th Art Quadriennale (Palazzo delle Esposizioni), Le Regole del Gioco (Achille Castiglioni Studio-Museum); Trapped in the closet (Carnegie Library/FRAC Champagne Ardenne), Antigrazioso (Palais de Toyko); Luigi Ontani (H.C. Andersen Museum); D’après Giorgio (Giorgio de Chirico Foundation); Olaf Nicolai-Conversation Pieces (Mario Praz Museum). He has contributed to many catalogues and international magazines. He edited the book Documenta 1955-2012. The endless story of two lovers. In 2014 he released a time capsule publication titled 2014. The event is free and open to the public. The WCSCD curatorial course and series of public lectures have been initiated and organized by Biljana Ciric. The lecture by Luca Lo Pinto is made possible with the help of the Austrian Cultural Forum Belgrade. < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

WCSCD Defining curating Defining WCSCD Situating Our Vision Our Values Our Priorities Programs & Inquiries Plans 2022-2025 Thinking with. Our Team Defining curating WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO?—WCSCD was initiated in 2018 in Belgrade as an educational platform focused around notions of the curatorial and is a registered civic association. WCSCD was established by Biljana Ciric and these two bodies are deeply entangled and define themselves as she/her. These two bodies are relational and hoping to be transformed by the relationships they are entangled with. Their mode of existence, visibility and opacity in the world is shaped by thinking and walking with an advisory group—which since 2020 has consisted of Matt Packer, Andrea Palasti and Ares Shporta—as an exercise in how to become more than yourself- pluralself (Rolando Vazquez). Defining these two entangled bodies as she/her, we are hoping to engage in larger conversations of deconstruction and of imagining institutions by decolonizing our expectations. What do we mean when we say curating? We understand curatorial practice as walking with. We mean walking not as a way of getting somewhere, but walking with, as sharing time and creating space for unevenness to co-exist. When writing about walking, Canadian geographer Juanita Sundberg separates this into two steps. The first step is positioning, which is locating my body-knowledge in relation to the existing paths I know and walk. Sundberg defines the second step as walking with. “Walking with means ‘reciprocal respect for the autonomy and independence of organizations’ involved in the struggle; in other words, respect for the multiplicity of life worlds. Step two, then, involves learning to learn about multiplicity.” What do we mean when we ask the question What Could/Should Curating Do? We propose this question in order to engage with practices and encourage curating to stay dynamic and responsive in the world around me, anchored in caring with. Situating We are situated in Belgrade, Serbia, where the work of cultural workers is undervalued. A very big part of myself is also situated in the places where our collaborators struggle working under similar conditions. We are also with many bodies that experience and fight against the extraction of natural resources and exploitation of human and more than human worlds. Our Vision We dream and practice contemporary culture as a political movement that stand against that moves away from certain economically bounded locations creating the conditions for us on the margins to participate in discussions where our futures are negotiated and our pasts reflected on. I dream of an instituting model that is attentive to human and more than human worlds, asking myself who I am in relation to others. Our Values Education and new methodologies Ambition and openness to failure as part of the learning process Professional network of colleagues and peers who think together with me Slow modes of working that allow for deeper entanglements Our Priorities Ways of doing based on a pedagogy of positionality Education and methodologies I use in creating new kinds of human Creating citations in art practices from the margins that contribute to the global Ways of working together that are long-term and based on the equal sharing of resources Creating conditions for equal participation within contexts that are economically uneven Contributing to practising towards sustainable art institutions WCSCD existing programs and inquiries 2018-2022 WCSCD’s main program focus is an educational program and long-term inquiries towards decolonizing modes of relationality within the arts. WCSCD’s education program has been run on an annual basis every year since 2018. It is a three-month program for practitioners situated in Belgrade. In 2020 I started the first curatorial inquiry of WCSCD in the form of a long-term research project: As you go…roads under your feet, towards the new future looking at the impact of BRI in Central Asia, Balkan, Ethiopia and China. The project is structured around partner cells: Zdenka Badovinac (Ljubljana), Robel Temesgen and Sinkneh Eshetu (Addis Ababa), Public Library Bor (Bor), Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai), Times Museum (Guang Zhou), Artcom platform (Almaty) and WCSCD (Belgrade). Our plans 2022-2025 My plan is to work with a group of colleagues to bring WCSCD into a new stage of positioning itself. In this phase WCSCD will consider itself in relation to merging the rural and the urban, through an open inquiry into what it means when an art institution becomes a custodian of the land. I am hoping to explore the role of art institutions within rural-urban, nature-culture relations and possible sustainable economies for both. I hope that our entanglement will bring long lasting alliances, bringing like-minded practitioners together to work collectively on deconstructing our methodologies of working within the arts. Thinking with. Since 2020 I have been thinking with Matt Packer (director of Eva International), Andrea Palasti (artist and educator Novi Sad) and Ares Shporta (director of Lumbardhi Foundation) as part of an active advisory group. From 2023 we will continue without Ares as he is starting a new chapter in his life and we thank him for his insight and knowledge. From 2023 we will welcome to the advisory group Amelie Aranguren (head of artistic programming at INLAND’s Center for the Approach to the Rural (CAR) in Madrid and Inland member since 2010.) Besides the Advisory Group we I have been accompanied in thinking and practising with Susie Quillinan and Madeliene Collie through Study Pattern. Our Team Founding Director Biljana Ciric what.could.curating.do@gmail.com WCSCD previous team members: Sasa Tkacenko, Katarina Kostandinovic, Ana Anakijev, Aigierim Kapar. Defining WCSCD Situating Our Vision Our Values Our Priorities Programs & Inquiries Plans 2022-2025 Thinking with. Our Team

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

Alumni 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2022 Alumni Adelina Luft is an unaffiliated curator whose practice emerged and developed in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) along decolonial lines of thought and modes of working that favor collaboration, processes and interdisciplinarity. Her curatorial projects address trans-local affinities, shared histories, human/nonhuman relations with land, migration and identity. In 2021 she moved to Bucharest where she continues to initiate interdisciplinary and socially-engaged art projects. She collaborates with tranzit.Bucuresti and is a member of the curatorial team for Biennale Jogja Equator 2023, where she previously took on roles as assistant curator in 2017 and residency manager in 2015. Adelina holds a BA from the National University of Political Studies in Bucharest and a MA in Visual Art Studies from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. She often contributes with translations and texts about Indonesian art, more recently for the book A History of Photography in Indonesia: From the Colonial Era to the Digital Age published by Amsterdam University Press and Afterhours Jakarta. She participated in several curatorial programs: Kuandu Museum of Fine Art in Taipei (2018), ODD in Bucharest (2018), and Curator’s Agenda in Vienna (2016). Anastasia Albokrinova has an education in design and a post-graduate in urban research at Strelka Institute (Moscow). While being a student she and her friends established a self-organisation ‘XI komnat’ which was a studio, exhibition and event space from 2008 to 2011. In 2012 she made a residency at NODE center for curatorial studies. Her work path lead from graphic to exhibition design and brand-design for local museums to working as an assistant curator at Shiryaevo Biennial (2018) and later as a curator of Victoria gallery in Samara (2020-present). There Anastasia is mainly responsible for Victoria Underground space and defines her mission as supporting local artists (from different regions of Russia) and practicing experimental curatorial approaches. Her interest includes, but is not limited to cultural identity and local geography, (post)digital art, performance and contemporary dance, time- and process-based art, artificial intelligence, post-human, hybrid practices. Since 2017 Anastasia joined the team of VolgaFest – an urban culture festival on the Volga embankment in Samara as an art-director. Currently she is in the process of completion of her first book (supported by garage.text grant) ‘Vision hunters: artistic and anomalous experiences on the Volga’ that is based on the exhibition she made in 2020 putting together various cultural and occult practices in local geography. Sabine Wedege (1993, she/her) is a visual artist from Denmark, educated from Jutland Art Academy and Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. Works primarily with sculpture, but also with text, video, and sound – used in parallel and in contrast. Researching how to harmonize concept and material, by putting associations in a new frame of references. Occupied with history versus topicality, to connect the past to contemporary issues and questions. Ginevra Ludovici (Rome, 1992) is an independent curator and a Ph.D. candidate at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca. Graduated in Economics and Management from Bocconi University and in Contemporary Arts History at Ca’ Foscari University, in 2019 she attended CAMPO – course for curators of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and co-founded the curatorial collective CampoBase. She has carried out collaborations with several institutions, including Carpe Diem Arte and Pesquisa (Lisbon), ASK Research Center – Art, Science, Knowledge (Milan), MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art (New York) and Pushkin Museum (Venice). She deepened her research and training at UNIDEE Academy (Biella), PACT Zollverein (Essen), BAK (Utrecht), SixtyEight Art Institute (Copenhagen), MACBA (Barcelona) and MADRE (Naples). She has published in academic and sector journals, such as PARSE Journal, NERO editions, roots§routes and Made in Mind, and presented her research in different universities, including The University of Arts Belgrade, The Lisbon Consortium and The UK Association for Art History. Her curatorial activity is rooted in collaborative practices, and it develops parallel to her academic research which focuses on radical pedagogy programs, processes of self-institutionalization in the arts, and decolonial theories and practices. She is currently conducting a visiting research period at HDK – Valand, Academy of Art and Design, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Giulia Menegale is an independent curator and editor living in Italy. At the moment, she is a PhD candidate in Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage at IMT (Lucca, Italy). She investigates transnational solidarity networks as a possible strategy to decentralise and pluriversalize the production and exhibit of arts. In her research, she considers case studies across institutional and non-institutional settings. She holds a BA in Visual Art from IUAV (University of Architecture of Venice) and a MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. She has collaborated as a curatorial, editorial and research assistant for Looking Forward C.I.C. (London, UK), Castello di Rivoli – Museum of Contemporary Arts (Turin, IT), Island gallery (Brussels, BE) and Taryn Simon Projects (New York, US). Currently, she is editor-in-chief of a series of books on art and theory produced by Ayiné, a Brazilian publishing house (Belo Horizonte, Brazil). Karlygash Akhmetbek is a Kazakhstani socially engaged artist and creative producer of community-oriented educational projects. She holds a BA in Interior Design from the Savannah College for Arts and Design and has experience studying and working in Atlanta, United States, and Hong Kong. As a spatial designer she researches and creates environmentally sustainable solutions for infrastructures, conceptual and immersive spaces that evoke connection. Currently she works in a core team of Artcom Platform Public Association and curates activities for communities around Balkhash lake ecosystems. She designs projects like Beine in order to engage everyone in a community to explore one’s space, its beauties and challenges, and to find new perspectives to address them. Lera Lerner (b. 1988, Leningrad) is an artist, curator, and mediator from St. Petersburg, Russia. Her practice, which she defines as sociopoetic art, is based on mutually educative and inclusive projects. Lerner is interested in helping different communities to create magic safe spaces for sharing and support. She researches everyday rituals of care and joy. She explores how we can blur or accept boundaries of otherness through performative practices of embodied empathy. She believes in coincidence, miracle, intuition and love. She creates spontaneous communication in public space through performances, installations, and research. Lera graduated from the Pro Arte Program for contemporary artists (2015) and completed the MA program in Biology at the Faculty of Biology of St. Petersburg State University (2012). She had projects with the Manifesta biennale in St. Petersburg, Grafikens Hus and LAVA-Dansproduktion in Sweden, Mattress factory in Pittsburgh, CEC ArtsLink in NY, Ars Electronica in Linz, Pro Helvetia Swiss art consul in Moscow, Red Square Festival in Berlin, Agents of Change: Mediating Minorities in Finland, Kone foundation in Finland, Consulate General of Italy in St. Petersburg, Institut français de Russie in St. Petersburg. Since 2017 Lerner is co-curating the Art Prospect public art festival. Simon Gennard is a writer and curator based in Ngāmotu New Plymouth, Aotearoa New Zealand, where he is Assistant Curator Contemporary Art and Collection at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. He has previously worked for Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington; The Dowse Art Museum, Te Awakairangi Lower Hutt; and Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Previous research has examined queer desire, politics and artmaking in Aotearoa. He holds a Master of Arts in Art History from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington (2017). Jelena Andžić is a visual artist from Belgrade, Serbia. She received her MFA in Set Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2019 and in 2016 graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. She recently finished the Metàfora Studio Arts diploma course in Barcelona and defended her final thesis at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (MACBA) in January 2022. Her artistic practice revolves around the static image and the potential it holds in terms of giving and absorbing knowledge. Her main points of interest are the impenetrability and ambiguity painting inherently possesses, as well as the different roles time plays in painting and photography. She recently had her solo exhibition at N.O. Concept Gallery (Belgrade) and took part in group exhibitions in Homesession (Barcelona), àngels barcelona | Espai 2 (Barcelona), Mutuo galería (Barcelona), Cultural Center Pančevo (Pančevo), Museum of Applied Arts (Belgrade). In 2022 she was a resident at Fabra i Coats: Fàbrica de Creació in Barcelona. She is currently based in Belgrade and works in a studio space in Jugošped building. < Participants Educational Program Programs >

Pedagogies of Transition MARCH 2 I 2023 Join us for an online discussion series with Dr Frances C. Koya Vaka’uta, Larys Frogier, Elvira Espejo Ayca, Manuela Moscoso, Zena Cumpston and Vanessa Machado de Oliveira. The series is initiated by Biljana Ciric, Madeleine Collie and Susie Quillinan (Study Pattern Collective) and co-facilitated by: Deniz Kırkalı, Ka Yuet Lau and Iris Long and organised by Monash University and Goldsmiths, University of London . March to April 2023 For so long, we have been implicated in ongoing systemic and institutional crises. We understand these crises as political, economical, epistemological and ecological. As cultural workers we recognize a need to move towards structural change. In this series of gatherings we will share possibilities for epistemic shifts—some speculative, others involving very practical and concrete steps—towards undoing institutional working rituals. We share these conversations as a process of continuously composting knowledge that will contribute to our collective struggle. In these public moments we have invited people who have had an intimate impact on us and our way of thinking and doing, and in whose work we glimpse possibilities for breathing, imagining and instituting otherwise. We are a study group of three cultural workers, curators and artists—Biljana Ciric (What Could Should Curating Do), Madeleine Collie (initator of Food Art Research Network) and Susie Quillinan (Hawapi)—who are currently all undertaking a PhD in Curatorial Practice at Monash University, and who share an interest in imagining and practising different modes of instituting within the arts. Since 2021 our gatherings have been composed of invisible and visible encounters as a need to learn with each other, and also from peers in intersecting fields who share the same concerns. What are the ‘pedagogies of transition’ (Rolando Vazquez, 2021) towards different modes of instituting? For us, instituting is closely connected to the curatorial, which we understand as a gesture of caring with others that can collectively lead us to more sustainable working methodologies. I. Discussion Oceanic visions – 29 March Larys Frogier – Artist at Ocean & Wavz with Alfie Chua, researcher, advisory member and previous director of the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. Dr Frances C. Koya Vaka’uta Team Leader, Culture for Development, Pacific Community (SPC) · UK (Goldsmiths) – 9am (BST) · Melbourne (MADA) – 7pm (AEDT) · Lima – 3am (PET) · Paris – 10am (CEST) · Fiji – 8pm (FJT) II. Discussion – Crianza Mutua12 April Elvira Espejo Ayca – director of the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz Manuela Moscoso – CARA Director, New York · La Paz -8.30am (BOT) · NYC – 8.30am (EDT) · UK (Goldsmiths) – 1.30pm (BST) · Melbourne (MADA) – 10.30pm (AEST) · Lima – 7.30am (PET) III. Discussion Metabolisms – 26 April Zena Cumpston – Curator Emu Sky and CoAuthor of Plants: Past Present and Future Vanessa Machado de Oliveira – Professor and author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing humanity’s wrongs and implications for social activism · Melbourne (MADA) – 10am (AEST) · UK (Goldsmiths) – 1am (BST) · Vancouver – 5pm (PDT 25 April) · Lima – 7pm (PET 25 April) Note that the first event is in Melbourne (AEDT) time and the second and third dates are in Melbourne (AEST) time. There is also an issue with EventBrite’s “save to calendar” function. Please ensure that you have noted the correct time of this event

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Borderlines July 2024 – ongoing Organized by WCSCD in collaboration with Sreda Obitaninya WCSCD is honored to announce a series of lectures, workshops and gatherings with and at Sreda Obitaninya, a cultural space established by two scientists from Saint Petersburg. This collaboration with Sreda Obitaninya is an extension of our educational program and alliances that welcome new communities that call Belgrade their home in recent years. According to Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, the term “borderlands” refers to both a physical and metaphorical space of crossing and intersection, particularly concerning cultural, social, and identity boundaries. In her seminal work, “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza”, Anzaldúa describes the borderlands as a space of hybridity and tension where different cultures, languages, and identities meet and interact. For Anzaldúa, the borderlands are not just geographic regions, but also psychological, social, and spiritual spaces where individuals navigate and negotiate their complex identities. This concept highlights the experiences of those who live on the margins or in between different worlds, emphasizing the fluidity and multiplicity of identity and the transformative potential of these in-between spaces. The borderlands represent a place of struggle but also a site of creativity and resistance, where new identities and ways of being can emerge. In the post-pandemic world, we have witnessed the migration of humans and more-than-humans due to climate change, wars, political and economic recessions, and tighter border controls of the European Union. In the past three years, the influx of Russian communities and those from economically struggling regions, engaging in precarious work in Belgrade, has become our everyday reality. Through collaboration with Sreda Obitaninya, we aspire to equip both locals and new neighbors with the tools needed to comprehend and navigate a place like Belgrade. This will allow us to situate ourselves within the city and facilitate the collective production and exchange of knowledge. The city of Belgrade, with its rich history of migration, has long played a pivotal role in fostering Global South alliances and navigating Cold War politics between the so-called Former East and Former West, while consistently remaining on the periphery of the European Union. However, its troubled history is marred by power struggles and political missteps, which have ignited deadly civil conflicts throughout the Yugoslav region. In the present day, as Belgrade undergoes gentrification and the commercialization of its public spaces, new waves of migration are once again transforming the city into a complex and multifaceted environment. Bringing different communities together is essential for fostering a harmonious and progressive society. When diverse groups interact, they become more familiar with each other's cultures, experiences and perspectives, which helps reduce stereotypes and prejudices. This engagement promotes mutual respect and understanding, leading to social cohesion. Using culture as a means of integrating different communities enriches the social fabric. Cultural exchange broadens the collective worldview and promotes global awareness, fostering a deeper appreciation for the richness of human diversity and helping to overcome the isolation of diaspora communities. The encounters in Sreda Obitaninya that will start from July will share marginal histories, silenced histories, from feminist and partial perspectives that will serve as a platform for exchange of ideas and dialogue through presentation and workshops. Format Every month we will be organizing lectures, workshops, and gatherings led by local artists, curators, and cultural workers that will be set around the extensive history of Belgrade that is relevant to understanding the current city's constantly changing environment and social fabric. Migrant communities have the potential to create a wide array of presentations through collective music listening, reading groups, food tastings, and workshops that share their culture, experiences, knowledge, and perspectives with diverse audiences. Storytelling sessions provide a platform to share folktales, personal stories, and historical narratives from their countries of origin, fostering understanding and empathy. Discussions with speakers from diverse backgrounds tackling topics such as cultural identity and migration policies. Cross-cultural workshops foster mutual understanding by allowing participants to share their backgrounds, beliefs, and customs interactively. Anti-discrimination sessions can raise awareness about challenges like racism and xenophobia, promoting inclusivity and respect. 1) July 4, 7 pm Part 1. Feminizing the City: A Workshop on Gender, Mapping, and Memory A workshop with Dunja Karanović Language: English Duration: 2 hours Admission fee: 900 RSD We invite you to take part in Feminizing the City: A Workshop on Gender, Mapping, and Memory, led by journalist and visual artist Dunja Karanović. This workshop will serve as a follow-up to our Walking as a Way of Knowing program, a series of artist-led walks organized in Belgrade from March to June 2024 by the educational platform WCSCD. Participants will have a chance to engage in a feminist reading of cultural policy and politics of remembrance in the city of Belgrade, investigating questions like who gets commemorated in public spaces, how women’s bodies, names, and actions show up in monuments, what’s missing and what we can learn from looking at margins. Street names, squares, and monuments often reflect a revisionist, one-sided historical narrative that celebrates violence and oppression – by looking into what gets sidelined and forgotten, we will attempt to co-create a more caring perspective, mapping out the contributions of feminist activists, scholars, artists, and community leaders. By engaging in collective reading, discussion, mapping, and collage, we will have an opportunity to learn about women who shaped the city’s history with their pioneering initiatives, personal histories, and artistic endeavors. 2) July 18, 7 pm Part 2. “Not in Our Name”: Women’s Anti-war Movement in the 1990’s A lecture by Dunja Karanović Language: English Duration: 2 hours Admission fee: 900 RSD A lecture and discussion continuing our exploration of feminist perspectives on Belgrade’s history. The 1990s conflicts in the ex-Yugoslav region prompted a re-traditionalization of gender roles and heightened nationalism, evident in contemporary cultural policies and public spaces. The lecture will delve into the historical and social backdrop of the 1990s Yugoslav wars, highlighting the critical role women played in opposing the conflict. It will cover the formation and actions of anti-war groups and their connections with the Yugoslav feminist traditions of the 1970s, focusing on prominent figures like Žarana Papić, Jelena Šantić, Borka Pavićević, the origins of Women in Black (Žene u crnom), Center for Anti-war Action, and other initiatives, their strategies, challenges, and legacy of bravery, resilience, and solidarity. Part of the lecture will also involve discussing how remembrance culture, archiving, and feminist heritage equip us for reading, recognizing, and resisting revisionism and media obfuscation in today’s increasingly polarized world. Location: Sreda Obitaniya, Šafarikova 6, Belgrade Dunja Karanović is a visual artist and journalist based in Belgrade, Serbia. She holds an MA degree from the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Arts in Belgrade and an MFA from the China Academy of Arts. In her practice, she explores ways of bridging cultural policy, theory, and practice through interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches that foster radical friendship and collective care. Her research is focused on mainstreaming care in cultural institutions and reimagining them as slower, softer, and more inclusive spaces. She is a regular contributor of Liceulice magazine. She is passionate about feminist art histories, embroidery, the small, and the marginal. 3) August 1, 7 pm Feminism in Iran A lecture by Rosie Raha Language: English Duration: 2 hours Admission fee: 900 RSD This lecture will explore the history and current state of women's rights in Iran, beginning with the first women's rights movement during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution between 1905 and 1911. While significant legal advancements were made, any activity towards achieving more freedom and rights for women was allowed only under government supervision during Reza Shah's rule. After Reza Shah, during the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, new groups and organizations were formed, but their activities were also under government control and monitoring. Most of the legal advancements made during the previous decades were slowly dismantled following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, leading to increasing restrictions on women under the new regime. Despite widespread protests, the regime's grip has remained unyielding. We will examine Iran's Islamic constitution, where political leadership is dominated by clergymen and religious figures. The Supreme Leader holds absolute authority over politics, religion, governance, military power, and social affairs, and has the power to implement laws impacting and discriminating against women. Beyond these laws, we will discuss the institutional misogyny evident in daily life, such as the criminalization of non-compliance with 'Islamic standards' of dress, leading to severe penalties. Women live under constant surveillance, stifling their individuality and personal freedom. The focus will be on the resilient ways a large group of Iranians, both women and men, resist oppression and strive for self-expression despite restrictions on forming groups. In a society where a woman's body is seen as a source of sin, any act of feminine self-expression is attacked. Yet, more women than ever are fighting back in unique ways. When the regime constrains women within rigid societal frames, even the smallest public acts of femininity become powerful symbols of defiance. Location: Sreda Obitaniya, Šafarikova 6, Belgrade Rosie Raha is an accomplished educator and researcher with a diverse background in English Language and Literature, Fine Arts, and Art History. Born in Iran, she pursued a BA in English Literature and explored her passion for fine arts by attending classes at the University of Art in Tehran. Preparing for an MA in Art History and Research, Rosie also wrote a column on fine arts for a widely circulated newspaper in Iran. Throughout her career, Rosie has continually engaged in writing and painting, learning from various artists and educators. Her professional experience spans multiple roles in education, including assisting a social worker for a Dutch NGO in Iran, serving as an educational manager at a language academy, and working as a researcher at the University of Medical Sciences, focusing on the internationalization of education. Rosie's international experience includes teaching English in China for two years. In 2021, she moved to Serbia to pursue an MA in Cultural Policy and Management. Subsequently, she worked as a 4th grade teacher at an international school in Belgrade. Over the past year, Rosie has shifted her focus towards painting and writing. Together with her husband, she is developing the idea of opening a cultural center that emphasizes permaculture and sustainable practices in art. < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities To be enjoyed endlessly – a zine final project by WCSCD2019 curators Seda Yıldız and Ewa Borysiewicz NOVEMBER 14, 2019