Anna Mikaela Ekstrand < Back Which Side Have You Chosen? A Response to Bruno Latour [1] Anna Mikaela Ekstrand Left: Protesters kneel in front of New York City Police Department Officers as they violate curfew, Plaza Hotel, 59th Street, New York City, June 3, 2020. AP. Right: From left, ex-police officers Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao. All have been charged in the on-duty killing of George Floyd. AP. In the early days of the Corona crisis, I strongly felt the intensity of the online art world – viewing rooms, podcasts, article series, and more launching during the first week of quarantine. The most successful initiative engaging both the art world and mainstream audiences in practices of deep looking, but more importantly revising and restaging, was the Getty Challenge with participants across the world recreating artworks. [2] Etty Yaniv, an independent publisher, has interviewed over 125 artists on how they are coping during Corona times – some of them are published on my platform Cultbytes. [3] The Immigrant Artist Biennial, a project that I am working with, has shifted programming online hosting studio visits on IGLive, and on Zoom, a roundtable on Anti-Asian Racism and an immigration law clinic. [4] The online sphere quickly became a place for reflection and communal support but also a more rigorous competition for visibility, one that artists, many who already work with self-promotion to manage their careers, excelled in. In “What protective measures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model?” [5] Bruno Latour, a French philosopher, anthropologist, and sociologist urges his readers to sacrifice their opinions to rely on descriptions and research to devise systemic solutions to stifle climate change through his call-to-reflect questionnaire. On March 12th I began writing a response to Latour’s text: [6] In America, COVID-19 has provided further magnification and broadcast of racial divides, which has been a hot topic with push back against rampant police violence in recent years, but also class divides – which in the seat of capitalism is not regularly a hot topic. Major companies, like Amazon, are experiencing strikes by their workers, unrelated to unions. In times of crisis, the needs of the people are magnified. Latour and I, and many others, anticipated a shift. We just could not put our finger on what it would be. Before the four now ex-police officers, Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Keung, brutally murdered George Floyd by restraining him, preventing onlookers from intervening, and, the former, pressing a knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds during which time he called-out for his mother and uttered the words “I can’t breath.” [7] Before the arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael’s some two months after they fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, a black man out for a jog. Before these events that would trigger yet another wave of protests against state sanctioned violence against people of color many of us busied ourselves with increased levels of self-care, care for others, and issues of personal finance, while in confinement. Countrywide stay-at-home orders provoked an increased reliance and engagement with government entities, local and state politicians, healthcare providers, or within the American context, insurance providers (or a distancing from them as it were to not override hospitals), Department of Health (for information), and the Department of Labor (to register unemployment) also made these entities more visible in our everyday life. Little did we know that this work would prepare us and offer us tools to carry out the revolution. In America, the Black Lives Matter movement has urged citizens to look beyond their own experiences to see facts; there is rampant systemic racism that violates black people in this country every day. Activist groups, protestors, influencers, democrats and republicans, politicians – basically people of all races and walks of life, many who normally would not have the time or interest, are all chiming in in solidarity for change. In the art world, influencers, galleries, institutions and the media are highlighting black artists, and some have quickly created grants and financial support for arts education for black people. Anti-racist resources are being widely shared to help institutions shift away from tokenizing to truly become more inclusive. [8] Latour’s first question is ‘What are some suspended activities that you would like to see not coming back?’ In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, my answer is: The Police. His second question is why? My answer is: Shifting funding from the police, a racially biased and broken system and the industrial prison complex to education, housing, healthcare and community engagement would help the black population, POC, LGBT community – groups that endure frequent policing aka systemic harassment, murder, and disenfranchising through mass incarceration. Dismantle lobby groups like ALEC that support and are largely funded by companies that profit from mass incarceration. Re-integrate ex-convicts into society by allowing convicts to start and complete degrees and work for minimum wage when they are incarcerated. Create a probation system that supports instead of restrains, and give ex-cons their democratic rights back, the right to vote. The Prison Policy Initiative estimates an annual cost of $181bn for mass incarceration in America. [9] Defunding the police and dismantling the industrial prison complex will leave many out of work. As my response to Latour’s third question: [10] superfluous prison guards, police, parole and probation officers who truly care about reform, rehabilitation and community building can be fast tracked into becoming social workers and educators. The rest can be put on Unemployment Insurance (or how about Revolution Unemployment Assistance? RUA) until they find work in other industries. Maybe Elon Musk ( not Claire Denis) can find a way for them to explore space? [11] The companies that profit from convicts and their families can be allocated federal and state contracts to ideate, create and lobby for environmentally sustainable law-changes (perhaps taxing car and oil production, companies with high carbon footprints, or America’s wealthiest 1%) or just continue selling their goods to other consumers, however, with a mandate to employ at least 70% ex-cons. If they fail or are unwilling, they too can be put on assistance until they find work in other industries. I believe that the longevity of the current wave of the Black Lives Matter movement has been reliant on the government indirectly funding its supporters and participants. It was fueled by an increased proximity to government entities and officials moderated by the Corona crisis in addition to our lived experiences enduring personal sacrifice to curtail the crisis. The police murders of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile and Breonna Taylor [12] have provoked countrywide protests and actions of solidarity, however, none as encompassing as now. With the suspension of local businesses, the ‘closure’ of states and work stop orders, many people are out of work and are eligible to receive between 21 to 39 weeks of benefits. [13] 40 million Americans are currently enrolled in these financial assistance programs. Without a job to go to and financial assistance (stimulus checks at the very least), it is easier to continue organizing against and protesting the American governments repression of its people to provoke real change. [14] Similarly, the wide-spread protest movements, Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate, Climate Strike or Youth Strike for Climate, essentially carved out protected time during the school day for protests to occur as children, protected by various laws stating that they must go to school, were let back into school on Monday after returning from protesting on Friday. In March, America’s market economy became overhauled by federal and state sanctioned regulations to alleviate the healthcare system to tackle the virus outbreak bringing the need to remedy mass unemployment and aiding struggling corporations. Mayors and governors crowded the stage many addressing their constituents directly on a daily basis. Andrew Cuomo’s daily press briefing was broadcasted on most local TV channels across the country. When Cuomo pleads for New Yorker’s to stay at home and social distance, even offering through the NYC Health Department tips for safer sex during COVID-19 [15] and addressing intimate and personal matters, it is not surprising that people feel empowered to speak directly to politicians to advocate for and vocalize defunding a police force that is killing their friends, family and neighbors. Lastly, regulations, fear of infection, death and the uncertainty of what will happen in the world has impacted people. Social media platforms offer spaces to process, discuss, and engage with the Corona crisis and our current situations both through information sharing, critique, humor, and holding others responsible for their actions. The crisis has forced many to (re)learn and spend more time communicating and broadcasting. According to the New York Times, we are ‘internet-ing’ differently and using a wider range of apps and services [16] – Zoom usage climbed from 10 million daily meeting participants in December to 300 million in April. [17] We are also spending more time on our immediate environment, local neighborhood and families. We have all become better at communicating online – thus more people are participating in digital forms of protest to broadcast, negotiate and further the Black Lives Matter movement. Simply put, in the past months, we have moved from recreating our favorite art works to fend off weary in the confinement of our homes to collectively with love, in outrage, despair, hope, and solidarity protest racism and police brutality and reimagine the society we live in; the Black Lives Matter movement has brought us out of our homes back into the streets [18] and, hopefully, to the voting polls. Latour’s appeal to reconsider how we can use this slowdown of capitalism to renegotiate existing production models to better protect our environment is valid. Yet, environmental policy is more mature and developed than anti-racist policy. The former is institutionalized, carried out by a complex system of national and international bi- and multilateral agencies and partnerships pressurized by activists, like Greta Thunberg. We must make sure that the Black Lives Matter movement in America and anti-racist policy across the world continues to develop – like climate change, this is an issue that belongs to us all. We must stay the course. Anna Mikaela Ekstrand is a Swedish/Guyanese independent curator based in New York City. [1] Latour, Bruno. Translated by Stephen Muecke. What protective measures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model?, 2020. http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/853.html , accessed June 22, 2020. [2] https://www.buzzfeed.com/louisekhong/getty-museum-challenge-recreate-artwork , accessed June 22, 2020. [3] “Artists on Coping” published on artspiel.org and cultbytes.com . [4] “Artists Respond to Anti-Asian Racism, Xenophobia, and Immigrant-Bashing in the Time of COVID-19,” April 22, 2020, co-hosted by EFA Project and The Immigrant Artist Biennial and “Visual Artists’ Immigration Clinic,” April 23, 2020, co-hosted by the Center for Art Law, EFA Project Space, and The Immigrant Artist Biennial. [5] See footnote 1. [6] As one of their curatorial residents I was asked by WCSCD? to participate. https://old.wcscd.com/index.php/2020/05/31/series-of-texts-developed-by-participants-of-wcscd-2020-2021-program-as-a-response-to-bruno-latour-text-what-protective-measures-can-you-think-of-so-we-dont-go-back-to-the-pre-crisis-producti/ , accessed June 22, 2020. [7] On July 14, 2014, Eric Garner said the same words under duress before he was killed by David Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department officer, who had put him in a chokehold (despite them being banned in the NYPD since 1993). So, what happened to Pantaleo? In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to bring criminal charges against the officer who had been relegated to desk duty and after disciplinary hearings in an administrative judge recommended that he be fired, which he was on August 19, 2019, five years later after the murder. The system is broken. [8] One example is “Racism in the Arts” created by @rhearhea__ and @paintherlex, two Chicago based artists https://www.instagram.com/p/CBTZeXClSJS/ , accessed on June 23, 2020. [9] PPI includes the cost of operating prisons, jails, parole, and probation, as estimated by the Bureau of Statistics to $81bn — in addition to policing and court costs, and costs paid by families to support incarcerated loved ones. Least we not forget the private entities like bail bond companies, which collect $1.4 billion in nonrefundable fees from defendants and their families; phone companies that charge families up to $24.95 for a 15-minute phone call; and commissary vendors that bring in $1.6 billion a year and the companies that use prisoners as low wage workers (sometimes $0.13-$4/hour) to produce goods “Made in America.” https://eji.org/news/mass-incarceration-costs-182-billion-annually/ , accessed June 22, 2020. [10] “Question 3: What kinds of measures do you advocate so that workers/employees/agents/entrepreneurs, who can no longer continue in the activities that you have eliminated, are able to facilitate the transition to other activities?” [11] High Life (2018), directed by Claire Denis, is set in a dystopian future where convicts are involuntarily sent to explore deep space in space ships designed by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. In 2018, with more idealism, Elon Musk launched Enoch, a satellite by the Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan, into space. The artwork is a 24-karat gold urn featuring a bust of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African-American NASA-trained astronaut. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/arts/design/spacex-enoch-tavares-strachan.html , accessed June 22, 2020. [12] The list goes on. The police killed 1,098 people in America in 2019. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ , accessed on June 22, 2020. [13] Number of weeks varies by state. https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/policy-basics-how-many-weeks-of-unemployment-compensation-are-available , accessed on June 18, 2020. [14] Realizing that state and government had money in their coffers to sustain monetary assistance to curtail a financial crisis but not to help struggling communities with education and healthcare is also a provocation. [15] We have decades of work by the HIV/AIDS activists to thank for its frank, clear, and non-judgmental tone. No rimming please. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-sex-guidance.pdf , accessed June 22, 2020. [16] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-internet-use.html , accessed June 22, 2020. [17] https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/30/21242421/zoom-300-million-users-incorrect-meeting-participants-statement , accessed on June 22, 2020. [18] Police across America have arrested and detained peaceful protestors and members of the press. As an effort to curtail looting, but let’s be real, in an effort to assuage protests, New York City implemented a city-wide curfew during the first week of June. In our fifth week of protesting the slogan Whose Streets! Our Streets! still rings loud. https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/ , accessed June 22, 2020. Previous Next

Educational Program  Educational Program 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 < Participants Educational Program Programs >

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Lecture by Ivet Ćurlin / WHW / My Sweet Little Lamb, (everything we see can also be otherwise) Saša Tkačenko, Flags from WCSCD series, 2018 THE CURATORIAL COURSE WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE A PUBLIC TALK BY: IVET ĆURLIN (WHW) My Sweet Little Lamb, (everything we see can also be otherwise) MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART BELGRADE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8 2018 AT 6 PM In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, the lecture within the series of public programs organized by WCSCD will be presented by Ivet Ćurlin — member of curatorial collective, What, How & for Whom/WHW. The series is designed to offer new and different perspectives on the theories and practices of exhibition-making. Lecture by Ivet Ćurlin entitled “My Sweet Little Lamb, (everything we see can also be otherwise)” will present the work of curatorial collective WHW through several curatorial projects concerned with continuous reconfiguration of the relationships between artistic and cultural production, authorship, collecting, history, display and politics, as well as the discuss the need for starting the new long-term educational program for young artists, called WHW Akademija. The focus will be the project My Sweet Little Lamb, (everything we see can also be otherwise) WHW co-curated in collaboration with Kathrin Rhomberg. After six exhibition episodes, taking place from November 2016 to May 2017 in independent art spaces, artists’ studios and private apartments in Zagreb, the project’s epilogue has been staged at The Showroom, London, in collaboration with Emily Pethick. Based on the Kontakt Art Collection, which includes seminal works by artists from Central, Eastern and South-East Europe from 1960s to the present, the project juxtaposed the collection’s canonical works with a number of historical and contemporary works in order to address and reframe some of the recurring themes that stem from the collection, such as radical utopianism, figure of dissident artist, questions of gendered bodies, political subjectivities and engagement, and the status of public space. Titled after a work by Croatian artist Mladen Stilinović (1947-2016), the project is inspired by his life-long anti-systematic artistic approach that searched for more autonomous ways of artistic production. His artistic practice that humorously engages with complex themes of ideology, work, money, pain and poverty, inspired many of WHW’s projects. ABOUT THE LECTURER: Ivet Ćurlin is member of curatorial collective, What, How & for Whom/WHW, formed in 1999 and based in Zagreb and Berlin. Besides Ivet, WHW’s members are curators Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović, and designer and publicist Dejan Kršić. WHW organizes a range of production, exhibitions and publishing projects and directs Gallery Nova in Zagreb. Since its first exhibition titled What, How & for Whom, on the occasion of 152nd anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, that took place in Zagreb in 2000, WHW curated numerous international projects, among which are Collective Creativity, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, 2005; 11th Istanbul Biennial What Keeps Mankind Alive?, Istanbul, 2009; One Needs to Live Self-Confidently…Watching, Croatian pavilion at 54th Venice Biennial, 2011. Recent projects by WHW include exhibition Really Useful Knowledge, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2014, My Sweet Little Lamb, (everything we see can also be otherwise), (co-curated with Kathrin Rhomberg), various locations in Zagreb, 2016/2017; Shadow Citizens, retrospective of Želimir Žilnik at Edith-Russ-Hausfür Medienkunst, Oldenburg, 2018, and On the Shoulders of Fallen Giants, The 2nd Industrial Art Biennial that took place this summer in Labin, Raša, Rijeka, Pula, Vodnjan. In fall 2018, WHW has started non-formal international educational program for young artists in Zagreb, called WHW Akademija. 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 >

Art and the Post-Pandemic Condition – an online curatorial program and support grant for art practitioners Open call: May 15th 2020 End of the open call June 15th 2020 Start of the program July 15th 2020 Practical information related to the program: Fee for the workshop is 450 euros Maximum number of applicants 20 WCSCD is launching a one-month online program from July 15th to August 15th reflecting on the post-pandemic condition that we are slowly entering into. This one month program hopes to provoke thinking, reflection and solidarity but also to serve as a collective annotation for our new reality. Through a series of workshops, the curatorial program will open discussions on how our work as artists and curators will be affected. What are some of the fundamental changes that we could address at this very moment to initiate that change? We are hoping to learn from Indigenous knowledge, small scale institutions, different species, notions of care and ways of staying connected from the past, the present and the future, finding gaps from where new relationships and encounters could emerge. While economic pressure forces nation-states to re-open we would like to pose urgent questions addressing the modes of working within the sphere of art that is deeply informed by neoliberal mechanisms. Amid fear of others, suffering and loss of lives, the pandemic has made us pause and to rethink our place in the world and our relationship to other human beings and species. We are hoping to initiate a series of workshops on how to facilitate different modes of working within the sphere of art from individual standpoints but also from a sense of belonging to a community. How can we organize ourselves and discuss different values publicly? How do we deal with the digitalized world imposed on us? Where is it still possible to find cracks for touch and proximity within a highly sanitized world? Many cultural producers are already familiar with different forms of insecurity and precarity. We will look at existing ways of working which are characterized by agility and resilience. A case in question is how small-scale visual arts organisations across the planet have developed methodologies which made it possible to keep running under the neoliberal economic regime. Another case is artists who have developed and maintained a practice without reverting to high production value. This is a good moment to explore unconventional sites and infrastructure that is in place and how they can be activated concerning art, from beaches and forests to libraries and schools. We see the post-pandemic condition as the beginning of a new struggle. It is a common struggle traversing the borders of nation-states, involving practitioners working with contemporary art having a variety of backgrounds. As online program practitioners from all geographies are welcome to apply. The mentors leading the program are Maria Lind, Natasa Petresin Bachelez and Biljana Ciric. Practical information related to the program: Fee for the workshop is 450 euros Maximum number of applicants 20 Application procedure Please send your bio or CV and a short reflection or statement related to the post-pandemic conditions from your perspective. The online sessions will be organized through Zoom and will require preparation, including the readings and different forms of exercises, both physical (what does that imply) and conceptual. There will be approximately three workshops led by the mentors per week and the duration of each session will be two hours. Besides fees for the mentors, part of the budget of the program will be distributed as a grant for three artists as a form of community support. Artists will be reached through the open call while selection panel will consist of program participants and mentors for grant Artists based in any former Yugoslav country are eligible to apply Support fund for artists is 500 euros. what.could.curating.do@gmail.com

About educational program Introduction of program 2018-2022 Due to the lack of formal education related to curatorial and artistic work in the Balkan region (while in the former West there has been a proliferation of MA and PhD programmes in curating and artistic research), WCSCD was initiated with the goal of fostering the new generation of curators and artists as well as to raise awareness of the importance of curatorial and artistic knowledge and positions when thinking of art institutions and their role within the larger social context. The intention is to bring together key international and local figures engaged in decolonizing curatorial and artistic discourse, who are specifically able to offer diverse knowledges to the program participants. Through the program, we invite mentors from non-western contexts, local practitioners and also colleagues from the former West. In the last three years our participants were young practitioners from different parts of the world including the Balkans, EU, Asia, Central Asia, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America making it a unique program in Europe. Due to very limited funding structures for the arts within Serbia, funding of the program was dependent on the support of cultural institutions. The program has also charged a participation fee in line with the monthly salary of the country from which the participants is a passport holder. This was an attempt to generate more equal access to participation for everyone who applied. We also offer special grants for colleagues in need and in 2022 we have granted program access to the colleagues from Russia. Furthermore, in collaboration with Kadist Foundation in 2022 we have enable grant for practitioners from the region in order to participate in the program. The program is intensive, with daily programs of workshops, writing sessions, studio visits, and research trips in the region. Some of the research trips we have done so far include: Kosovo, Bosnia, Romania, Slovenia and Austria. Every year the program would accept up to 15 participants. Besides closed-door workshops for participants, all invited mentors would present public lectures to the larger cultural sector, sharing their ways of working and instituting. From 2023 educational program will be biennial and spread across two years in order to facilitate deeper and longer research of program participants. < Educational Program Participants >

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Lecture by Antariksa / KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Cross-disciplinary encounters Saša Tkačenko, Flags from the WCSCD series, 2018 * Cover photo: courtesy of Leiden University Libraries THE CURATORIAL COURSE WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? IS GLAD TO ANNOUNCE A PUBLIC TALK BY ANTARIKSA KUNCI CULTURAL STUDIES CENTER Cross-disciplinary encounters MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART BELGRADE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018, AT 6 PM In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, the third lecture within the series of public programs organized by WCSCD will be presented by Antariksa—a historian and co-founding member of KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The series is designed to offer new and different perspectives on the theories and practices of exhibition-making, as well as to discuss the existing disciplinary boundaries and ways to expand them. Antariksa will present on his research collective in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Since its founding in 1999, KUNCI has been deeply preoccupied with critical knowledge production and the sharing of this knowledge through the means of media publication, cross-disciplinary encounters, action-research, artistic interventions, and vernacular forms of education within and across community spaces. Antariksa will also address the precarious position that KUNCI inhabits, belonging to neither this nor that within the existing disciplinary boundaries while simultaneously attempting to expand them. The collective’s membership is open and voluntary, and is based on an affinity to creative experimentation and speculative inquiry with a focus on the intersections between theory and practice. ABOUT THE LECTURER: Antariksa is a historian and co-founding member of KUNCI Cultural Studies Center. He is the author of Tuan Tanah KawinMuda: HubunganSeniRupa-LEKRA 1950–1965 (The Relation Between Art and the Institute of People’s Culture in Indonesia 1950–1965) (2005). Antariksa is the 2017 laureate of Global South(s) du Collèged’étudesmondiales/FondationMaison des sciences de l’homme fellowship. His primary research is on art and the mobility of ideas in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia. His upcoming book is 日本占領期のインドネシアにおけるアート集団主義 (Art collectivism in Japanese-occupied Indonesia) (Kyushu University Press, 2018). http://kunci.or.id 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 >

Past Programs 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2021 Program Archive WCSCD 2020/21 Open Call February 5, 2020

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Lecture by Hou Hanru / Reengaging a contemporary art institution with civic society Saša Tkačenko, Flags from the WCSCD series, 2018. Photo by Ivan Zupanc THE CURATORIAL COURSE WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE A PUBLIC TALK BY: Hou Hanru REENGAGING A CONTEMPORARY ART INSTITUTION WITH CIVIC SOCIETY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART BELGRADE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018 AT 6 PM In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, the fifth lecture within the series of public programs organized by WCSCD will be presented by Hou Hanru (Artistic Director of MAXXI – National Museum for 21st Century Art and National Museum of Architecture, Rome, Italy). Following the recent lectures describing new and different perspectives on the theories and practices of exhibition-making, Hou Hanru’s presentation will outline certain aspects of the program developed by Hou at MAXXI, detailing his vision-strategies for the reengagement of a contemporary art institution with civic society in this time of “global crisis.” As part of this, he will also discuss some of the challenges of running a XXI century institution, its complexity, reality, and actions. As Hou explains: “I think that society needs institutions or organizations that can preserve those elements that are supposed to be experimental, complicated, and controversial, while playing a very important part of the knowledge production of today. It’s also very important for museums to be able to provide the conditions that allow intellectually complicated projects to exist. Otherwise we follow the path of the entertainment industry.” ABOUT THE LECTURER: Hou Hanru is a prolific writer and curator based in Rome, Paris, and San Francisco. He is currently the Artistic Director of MAXXI (National Museum for 21st Century Art and National Museum of Architecture), Rome, Italy. Hou Hanru has curated and co- curated over 100 exhibitions in the last two decades across the world. Some notable examples include: China/Avant-Garde (National Museum of Art of China, Beijing, 1989); Cities On The Move (1997–2000); the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial (Hong Kong, etc.) (1997); the Shanghai Biennale (2000); the Gwangju Biennale (2002); the Venice Biennale (French Pavilion, 1999; Z.O.U.—Zone Of Urgency, 2003; and Chinese Pavilion, 2007); the 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005); the exhibition and public program of the San Francisco Art Institute (2006–2012); the 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007); Trans(cient)City (Luxembourg 2007); the 10th Biennale de Lyon (2009); the 5th Auckland Triennial (Auckland, New Zealand, 2013); Open Museum Open City (MAXXI, Rome, 2014); Transformers: Choi Jeong-hwa, Didier Fuiza Faustino, Martino Gamper, Pedro Reyes (MAXXI, Rome, 2015–2016); Istanbul, Passion, Joy, Fury (MAXXI, Rome, 2015–2016); Please Come Back, the world as prison? (MAXXI, Rome, 2017); Piere Giraldi (MAXXI, Rome, 2017); Home Beirut (MAXXI, 2017–18); Growing in Difference, the 7th Shenzhen Hong Kong Bi-City Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture (UABB 2017–2018), among others. He is also a consulting curator of Chinese art for the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and co-curator of Tales of Our Time (2016), Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World (2017–18), and One Hand Clapping (2018). He is an advisor for numerous cultural institutions, and frequently contributes to various journals on contemporary art and culture, lectures, and teaches in numerous international institutions. His books include Hou Hanru, Utopia@Asialink, and School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne (2014); Paradigm Shifts, Walter and McBean Galleries Exhibitions and Public Programs, San Francisco Art Institute (2011); On the Mid-Ground (English version published in 2002 by Timezone 8, Hong Kong, and Chinese version published in 2013, by Gold Wall Press, Beijing); Curatorial Challenges (conversations between Hou Hanru and Hans Ulrich Obrist, in Art-It magazine as “curators on the move,” Japan, 2006–2012, Chinese version, Gold Wall Press, Beijing, 2013); among others. 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 Reimagining the museum | WCSCD 2020/21 Annual Lecture Series The curatorial program What Could/Should Curating Do 2020 is proud to continue in 2020 with public program through lecture series The first talk in the 2020 series is titled: Reimagining the museum By Luca Lo Pinto Date: November 10, 2020 Time: 12:00 pm Belgrade/10:00 pm Melbourne /6:00 am New York Venue: zoom invitation link (ID: 985 237 3109) Live stream/Facebook event link “The museum is a medium that should constantly be able to be questioned. It cannot be anymore intended as a space of mere contemplation but rather as a social space based on freedom of experimentation and on the desire to realise artists’ visions. In a historical moment in which the concept of museum and its identity are constantly challenged by social and economic changes as well as by the language of art itself, it’s essential to experiment with alternative models. In occasion of the talk, I would discuss the program I’m developing at MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome where I’m turning the museum into an exhibition intended as a form and place of production. A container which becomes content – aiming to reduce the distance between the dichotomies of museum-actor and public-spectator”. Portrait by Giovanna Silva About Speaker Born in 1981, Luca Lo Pinto is the artistic director of MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. From 2014 till 2019 he worked as curator of Kunsthalle Wien. He is co-founder of the magazine and publishing house NERO. At Kunsthalle Wien he organized solo exhibitions of Nathalie du Pasquier, Camille Henrot, Gelatin&Liam Gillick, Olaf Nicolai, Pierre Bismuth, Babette Mangolte, Charlemagne Palestine and the group exhibitions Time is Thirsty; Publishing as an artistic toolbox: 1989-2017; More than just words; One, No One and One Hundred Thousand; Individual Stories and Function Follows Vision, Vision Follows Reality. Other curatorial projects include Io, Luca Vitone (PAC, Milan),16th Art Quadriennale (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome), Le Regole del Gioco (Achille Castiglioni Studio-Museum, Milan); Trapped in the closet (Carnegie Library/FRAC Champagne Ardenne, Reims), Antigrazioso (Palais de Tokyo, Paris); Luigi Ontani (H.C. Andersen Museum, Rome); D’après Giorgio (Giorgio de Chirico Foundation, Rome); Olaf Nicolai-Conversation Pieces (Mario Praz Museum, Rome). He has written for many catalogues and international magazines. He edited the book “Documenta 1955-2012. The endless story of two lovers” and artist books by Olaf Nicolai, Luigi Ontani, Emilio Prini, Alexandre Singh, Mario Garcia Torres and Mario Diacono. In 2014 he published a time capsule publication titled 2014. WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) was initiated and funded in 2018 in Belgrade as an educational platform around notions of curatorial. 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. The WCSCD curatorial program and series of public lectures have been initiated and organized by Biljana Ciric. WCSCD 2020/2021 public program series has been done in collaboration with Division of Arts and Humanities, Duke Kunshan University and they co-stream all public lectures. Strategic media collaboration is done with Seecult and they will co-host all public lecture series. Project Partners Media Partner For more information about the program, please refer to www.wcscd.com Project contacts: what.could.curating.do@gmail.com Follow us: FB: @whatcscdo Instagram: @whatcouldshouldcuratingdo < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >