International Curator Competition 2013:
Franz Thalmair
Akbank Sanat
Istiklal Cad. No. 8
Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey
T +90 212 252 3500
Akbank Sanat is pleased to announce the winner of the Akbank Sanat International Curator Competition 2013—Franz Thalmair (Vienna).
In its second year, a large number of curators submitted applications for the competition from various countries including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, France, Germany, Republic of Guatemala, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Macedonia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and USA.
Franz Thalmair was chosen as winner of the International Curator Competition 2013 for his outstanding proposal, by a jury comprising Anne Barlow (Director of Art in General, New York; and Co-Curator of the Latvian Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale), Christine Tohme (Director of Ashkal Alwan, Beirut), and Branko Franceschi (Curator of the Croatian Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale; Co-Curator of the Project Biennial D-0 ARK Underground, Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Director of the Virtual Museum of the Avant-Garde Art).
This year, the competition also added a supplementary aspect to the evaluation process of the jury by working with three reviewers: Duygu Demir (Programmer at SALT, Istanbul), H.G. Masters, (Almanac Editor & Editor at Large for ArtAsiaPacific Magazine), and Leonardo Bigazzi, (independent curator and Festival Producer Lo Schermo Dell’arte, Florence). Detailed reports by these reviewers were also taken into consideration by the jury.
The winning proposal was selected based on its conceptual rigor, on the clarity of its curatorial premise and on its in-depth research of the proposed subject. The jury believes that the Akbank Sanat International Curator Competition will present strong and diverse models of curatorial practice for future young professionals in the field. The prize gives the winning curator a fantastic opportunity to expand his practice internationally, and to engage with art organizations and artists in Istanbul.
Developed and coordinated by Basak Senova, the competition is intended to provide support for emerging curators, reinforce interest in curatorial practices, and encourage new projects in the field of contemporary art. In view of that, Franz Thalmair’s proposal will be realized as an exhibition that will run from March 4 to May 17, 2014 at Akbank Art Centre, Istanbul, accompanied with an exhibition catalogue and a program of activities.
Franz Thalmair (1976) studied in Salzburg, Paris, and Barcelona and holds a doctorate in Romance Philology/Linguistics from the University of Salzburg. As a curator, his main fields of interest cover all forms of post-conceptual art practices with a stringent formal agenda and the intersections of visual art and language, as well as the demands of our networked society. Franz Thalmair is the general manager and curator of the Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession, and he is in charge of exhibitions and publications by artists such as Maria Bussmann (Long Beach – NY, 2010), Wade Guyton (Drawings For A Small Room, 2011), Attila Csörgő (Clockwork, 2011–2012), and Slavs and Tatars (Not Moscow Not Mecca, 2012). He contributes to art magazines such as springerin – Hefte für Gegenwartskunst and Kunstforum International, Artforum.com, Frieze d/e, Eikon, derStandard.at, Der Standard and Wiener Zeitung, as well as to numerous art books and exhibition catalogues. In 2006, he co-founded the curatorial and editorial collective CONT3XT.NET, which he co-directed until 2012 in collaboration with Sabine Hochrieser, Michael Kargl, and Birgit Rinagl. Since 2012, he has been visiting lecturer at the University of Art and Design Linz and at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
For further inquiries, please email icc [at] akbank.com.
