Call for Applications: Shanghai Curators Lab

Shanghai Curators Lab: November 5–December 5, 2018
Monday–Friday 10am–6pm

Hosted by SAFA (Shanghai Academy of Fine Art, Shanghai University)
In collaboration with: 
Shanghai Biennale (hosted by Power Station of Art)
Shanghai International Art City Research Institute  

Shanghai Curators Lab (SCL) is an intensive and challenging residence program for young curators. The SCL aims to be an open forum for experimental, critical and discursive discussion on the ecology of curatorial practices and intercultural platforms in the period of radical transformation of the social framework. 

The SCL (Principal, Wang Dawei) is a very rare and extensive participatory program jointly organized by a university, museum, biennale and art city. The subjects and programs of the SCL include exhibition-making of contemporary hybrid culture and art, the ecosystem of disciplines and expertise, technological advancement and its countermove, climate change and social environment, decolonizing architecture, regeneration and revitalization of industrial heritages, new exits and alternatives for biennales, art and industries, studio visits, etc. 

The SCL will also look at a tremendous potential for expanding the role of curators within the culture of multidisciplinary boundaries of art, industry, big data, new forms of media and politics.

The participating curators will be divided into four different research groups to present imaginative projects, either as exhibitions or diversified performative events, at the end of the program. The outcome and researched short-term projects produced by the participants during their stay in SCL will be open to the public and the arts community in Shanghai and China.

The curators will also experience the unique production processes of the 12th Shanghai Biennale with its curators and participating artists during the preparation period. 

The lead professors for the SCL are Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the Director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, and Yongwoo Lee, professor of SAFA at Shanghai University.

Applicants wishing to participate should email their self-introduction letter, resume, and motivation to the specified email address below by September 16. The application is accepted through email only, and a maximum of 22 curators will be selected. The screening committee will be composed of lead professors and representatives of collaborative institutions of the SCL. Qualified applicants will be informed of the final results by early October. Tuition is granted and accommodations for the selected curators will be provided by the host. Participants will be responsible for their round-trip air tickets from/to their locations and meals during their stay in Shanghai. 

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is the Director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art. She was the Artistic Director of dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel in 2012 and curator of Sydney Biennale in 2008 and Istanbul Biennial in 2015. In 2012, ArtReview magazine named her number one in their annual Power 100 list of the most influential figures in contemporary art. Additionally, Christov-Bakargiev is a Distinguished Professor at Northwestern University.

Yongwoo Lee is the professor at SAFA at Shanghai University and artistic director of SIAC (Shanghai International Art City) Research Institute. Lee was the president of International Biennial Association (2013-2017) and the executive director of Shanghai Himalayas Museum. He was the artistic director of Gwangju Biennale and served as the president of Gwangju Biennale Foundation (2008-2014). He published numerous books on audience studies and new media arts.

SAFA is a name of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts at Shanghai University, one of the leading arts schools in China. Over 90 professors are affiliated with SAFA, including internationally renowned guest professors, Frances Morris (Director, Tate Modern), Jean De Loisy (Director, Palais de Tokyo), Eva Franch i Gilabert (Director, AA School of Architecture), Italo Rota (Academic Director of Domus and NABA), Andrew Brewerton (Principal, Plymouth School of Art), and Daniel Moquay (Coordinator, Yves Klein Archive). 

Shanghai Biennale, launched in 1996, is one of the leading international contemporary art platforms hosted by Power Station of Art, the first state-run museum dedicated to contemporary art in China. Shanghai Biennale tries to create a platform to meet and exchange ideas about works, projects, inspirations and experiences of artists, and offers the chance to reunite curators, writers and art supporters from all over the world in order to create a space for dialogue in the international art community. 

SIAC Research Institute, co-founded by the Baowu Steel Group, the world’s second largest state-run steel company, and SAFA, is a major research institute in charge of research, city planning, programming and practice to suggest the future direction of the Shanghai International Art City. The city will have essential facilities such as art and architecture schools, an art street, studios, museums, and film-related industries, so that the history of refurbished indistrial heritages and the new present may breathe together.

Contact
wangliyin [​at​] shu.edu.cn / T 86 177 2132 8348, 86 21 6613 2818