November 28–30, 2019
Experimenter is pleased to announce the 9th edition of Experimenter Curators’ Hub on November 28-30, 2019 at Experimenter, 2/1 Hindustan Road, Kolkata 700029, India.
Founded in 2010 by Priyanka and Prateek Raja, Experimenter Curators’ Hub is a platform for developing and sustaining discourse on curatorial practice and exhibition-making through critical discussion and debate. Structured as a deeply intensive 3-day program, every year the hub invites ten of the foremost curators of the world to present their practice with reference to recent exhibitions curated by them. The audience at the Hub plays an active role in this exchange and contributes significantly to the conversations. The final day concludes with a moderated panel discussion with all the participating curators reflecting on the key aspects that emerged over the three days. Presentations and ensuing discussions at Experimenter Curators’ Hub are extensively video documented and archived as an online, freely accessible resource offered to fellow curators, researchers, scholars, artists and members of the public.
Experimenter Curators’ Hub 2019 is organised by Experimenter Learning Program Foundation in partnership with Motwani Jadeja Foundation and is supported by Australia Council for the Arts, U.S. Consulate General Kolkata, Goethe Institut, as well as TAKE magazine (media partner).
The participating curators at Experimenter Curators’ Hub 2019 are Anita Dube, artist, curator of the 2018 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India; Devika Singh, Curator of International Art at Tate Modern, London; Lydia Yee, Chief Curator at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Naomi Beckwith, Senior Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, Kathmandu-based artist, curator, activist, co-founder of Nepal Picture Library, Photo Kathmandu festival; Nora Razian, Head of Exhibitions at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai; Paz Guevara, curator, researcher and author, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin; Shaina Anand, artist, filmmaker and curator based in Mumbai, co-initiator of collaborative studio CAMP; Tarun Nagesh, Curator, Asian Art at Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia; Zoe Butt, co-curator of 2019 Sharjah Biennale and Artistic Director at Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City. The hub is moderated by Natasha Ginwala, writer and Associate Curator at Gropius Bau, Berlin, Co-Artistic Director of Gwanju Biennale, 2020, and Artistic Director, Colomboscope, Sri Lanka.
The Hub will be live streamed, breaking down traditional constraints of location and opening up the debate to people around the world. The online audience has the opportunity to question and interact with the curators in real time. In 2018, over 20,000 people connected to the Hub via live web streaming.
Prateek and Priyanka Raja, co-founders of Experimenter said, “The Experimenter Curators’ Hub is organised out of a crucial need to critically discuss and debate curatorial practices across the world, to learn, converse and thereby throw open possibilities of understanding what lies behind significant contemporary exhibition-making. The Hub is a unique setting that allows for intimacy, letting curators open up in ways that no other forum allows. Experimenter Curators’ Hub recognises the urgency of creating space for dialogue and dissent that root itself in conversation on curatorial practices. The intimateness of the conversations and the possibilities that emerge from some of the most fertile minds in the world of contemporary art is palpable. The energy in the room augments criticism and theory as a starting ground.”
Asha Jadeja Motwani of Motwani Jadeja Foundation, the principal partner of Experimenter Curators’ Hub 2019 said, “I am delighted to be partnering with the Experimenter team on deepening our conversations about matters that impact us all globally. Art is the most intuitively appealing medium to engage on difficult topics including politics, oppression, and freedom.”
Since its inception in 2011, the Hub has hosted 77 leading curators. All presentations are archived online and are offered as a free resource to enable audiences to use as part of research and also experience the event. Presentations from the previous editions may be viewed here: https://experimenter.in/ech-videos.html
The Experimenter Curators’ Hub is free to attend with prior registration only, on a first come, first served basis. Please email admin@experimenter.in to register or to request for further information.
About Experimenter
Experimenter was co-founded by Prateek & Priyanka Raja in 2009. With a multidisciplinary approach, the gallery is an incubator for an ambitious and challenging contemporary practice. The program represents some of the most critical contemporary artists worldwide. Considered to be a “pace-setter” for its region, the program extends from exhibition-making to knowledge creation through regular talks, performances, workshops and through its much acclaimed, annual curatorial intensive, Experimenter Curators’ Hub. Experimenter’s program is rooted in dialogue and dissent and much of its programming is affected by dialogue. In 2016, its artist-book publishing wing, Experimenter Books was launched. Its second space in Kolkata, Experimenter - Ballygunge Place, was launched in 2018. In 2019 Experimenter celebrated its 10th year with a year long programming of exhibitions, performances, talks and workshops. Also in 2019, Experimenter Outpost was established, which is an initiative that enables Experimenter’s program to temporarily inhabit unused, old and characterful spaces anywhere in the world, imagining a renewed life for these spaces.
About Experimenter Learning Program Foundation
The Experimenter Learning Program Foundation (ELPF), initiated in 2018, is envisioned as a long-term, sustainable and multifaceted learning and education program that keeps visual culture at its root to build discourse. ELPF is the kernel on which Experimenter expounds its continued interest in enabling dialogue, discussion and debate in fields of contemporary and performing arts, curatorship, film, writing, language and social culture. The program has a year-long schedule that includes the annual Experimenter Curators’ Hub, salon-style classrooms, symposia, lecture-performances and the Experimenter Juniors Program.
For further information on Experimenter and Experimenter Curators’ Hub 2019, please visit www.experimenter.in
