The ICF (The International Curators Forum)

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Image:  © Julia Waugh 

The ICF  (The International Curators Forum)
Is The Curator An Agent Or Double Agent Of Cultural Identity?
The Asian Culture Center
Gwangju

In celebration of the inauguration of the new ACC (Asia Culture Centre) in Gwangju this symposium aimed to explore the role of curatorial practice and art institutions of South Korea in questioning the very notion of (collective) identity and creating a critical space for cultural cross-pollination and encounters within the current georaphic contex.

This programme investigated how emergent cultural diasporas have impacted the curatorship of contemporary visual arts specifically and how new models of contemporary curating have developed as a consequence of these effects. The project demonstrated how curatorial practice has been radically transformed by the diaspora of people, intellectuals, artists, and cultural workers.

Issues of cultural identity and representation are highly debated topics at the moment. In the current geopolitical and economic circumstances the world is increasingly facing the rise of ‘nationalism’ as a dominant discourse, often justified as a sense of self-protection of ‘the people’ under an assumed homogenous collective identity against the heterogeneous "otherness". There is growing concern in the international artistic community about censorship and the closing down of public opportunities to engage internationally despite increasing globalisation of cultural flows and practices, facilitated by the advent of digital technologies, social media platforms and the increasing circulation of products and populations.

SPEAKERS: Sheikha Hoor Bint Sultan Al Qasimi (President and Director, Sharjah Art Foundation), Jeonhwan Cho (Research Fellow of Asia Culture Center), Graeme Mortimer Evelyn (Artist; Independent Curator), Melanie Keen (Director, Iniva), Namsoo Kim (Art Critic; Former Curator, Nam June Paik Art Center), Giuseppe Moscatello (Director, Maraya Art Centre), Yongsung Paik (Philosopher; Artistic director of 2016 AASN project), Kyong Park (Professor, UCSD; Director of Imagining New Eurasia), Sara Raza (Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, Middle East & North Africa for the New York museum), Judith Greer (International Programmes Director, Sharjah Art Foundation), JW Stella (Director of JAC; International Associate Curator of Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art), Jessica Taylor (Independent Curator), Mark Waugh (Program Director, ICF; Head of Research and Innovation, DACS), Jian Jun Xi (Artist; Director, UKCAA)

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Image: © Julia Waugh