Round Table
IKT Lab’
18 November 2014
Frac Bretagne - auditorium
PLAY TIME, 4th edition of Les Ateliers de Rennes – contemporary art biennale
Independent curators invited to create biennales or large exhibitions are often described (somewhat pejoratively) as having been “parachuted” into a project. What is the impact of this practice on the local art scene, on the exhibitions they create, and on their curatorial practice?
Six international curators—working in institutions and as freelancers—are invited to Rennes on the occasion of Les Ateliers de Rennes – contemporary art biennale, to discuss together this profession that is simultaneously delocalized and rooted in a specific territory.
Panel discussion 1 (in French)
“Guest curators – traveling with their shells on their back”
In Dutch there is an expression that guests, like fish, stay but three days fresh. What is the “best before date” for guest curators? How long are they welcome in the institutions that host them? Looking at the interaction between these hosts and guests, this panel discussion explores the dynamics of the invited curator and the different formats that such an invitation can take.
- participants: Laurence Gateau (director, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou), Florence Ostende (independent curator & adjunct curator at Dallas Contemporary), Émilie Renard (director, La Galerie, Noisy-le-Sec)
- moderator: Sophie Kaplan, director, La Criée centre d’art contemporain
Panel discussion 2 (in English)
“Curators from near or far?”
Many biennales adopt the model of inviting a different curator for each edition. What is the reasoning behind this approach and what are its implications? Bringing together curators with experience of being the invitee and the inviter for such a situation, this panel discussion looks at possible alternatives to parachuting “international” curators into “local” biennales.
- participants: Nav Haq (curator, MuHKA, Antwerp), Xenia Kalpaktsoglou (co-director of the Athens Biennale), Ralph Rugoff (director, Hayward Gallery, London and curator of the Lyon Biennale 2015)
- Moderator: Zoë Gray, curator of PLAY TIME, 4th edition of Les Ateliers de Rennes – contemporary art biennale
