2014 Speakers

Adam Szymczyk (born 1970 in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland) is Artistic Director of documenta 14 and until the end of this year Director and Chief Curator at Kunsthalle Basel. He was a co-founder of the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw, at which he worked as Curator from 1997 till 2003, when he assumed his new post in Basel. At Kunsthalle Basel, he organized exhibitions including Piotr Uklanski: Earth, Wind and Fire (2004); Tomma Abts (2005); Gustav Metzger: In Memoriam and Lee Lozano: Win First Don't Last Win Last Don't Care (both 2006); Micol Assaël: Chizhevsky Lessons (2007); Danh Vo: Where the Lions Are (2009); Moyra Davey: Speaker Receiver (2010); Sung Hwan Kim: Line Wall (2011); Paul Sietsema and Adriana Lara: S.S.O.R. (both 2012), as well as group shows including Strange Comfort (Afforded by the Profession) (with Salvatore Lacagnina, 2010), How to Work/How to Work (More for) Less (both in 2011). In 2008 he co-curated with Elena Filipovic the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art under the title When Things Cast No Shadow and in 2012 he curated Olinka, or Where Movement Is Created at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City. He is a Member of the Board of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. In 2011, he was recipient of the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement at the Menil Foundation in Houston.

Alexander Koch studied visual arts in Dresden and Leipzig (1994–99) and taught at the Leipzig art academy until 2005. He has worked as a curator and editor on various exhibitions and publications. Koch is a frequent lecturer and author - the dropping out of art, the economic and institutional transformations within the art world, and the societal significance of artistic practices have been main concerns in his theoretic writings. In 2003 he co-founded the Galerie Jocelyn Wolff in Paris, and in 2008 he co-founded KOW, a Berlin based gallery specialised on socially oriented art, representing international artists like Santiago Sierra, Franz Erhard Walther, Alice Creischer, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Chto Delat? and others. Since 2008 he is co-initiator and chairman of the NEW PATRONS program in Germany, which he also initiates in Africa since 2013: in Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa. More countries will follow in 2014 and 2015.

Eungie Joo is curator of the forthcoming “Sharjah Biennial 12: The past, the present, the possible” (5 March-5 June 2015) in the United Arab Emirates. From 2012 – 2014, Joo was Director of Art and Cultural Programs at Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brasil. She was Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs at the New Museum from 2007-2012,where Joo spearheaded the Museum as Hub program; commissioned the monthly seminar Night School by Anton Vidokle(2008-9); edited the volume Rethinking Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education(2009); and published the Art Spaces Directory (2012), a guide to over 400 independent art spaces from over ninety-six countries. Joo was curator of the “2012 New Museum Triennial: The Ungovernables” and served as commissioner of the Korean Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, where she presented “Condensation: Haegue Yang.” Joo was founding Director and Curator of the Gallery at REDCAT, Los Angeles, from 2003 to 2007, where she developed residencies and exhibitions by SUPERFLEX, Damián Ortega, Sora Kim, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Kara Walker, and others.

Grant Watson works as a freelance curator, writer and researcher internationally and (part time) as Senior Curator at the Institute of International Visual Arts in London. Recent projects include theresearch collaboration International Practice with Iaspis (Sweden) Casco (Holland) and Raw Material (Senegal) looking at experimental structures developed by artists to connect internationally, Tagore Pedagogy and Contemporary Visual Cultures with Goldsmiths College (London)the touring exhibition Social Fabric investigating links through textiles between Britain and India, and the Exhibition Keywords: Art Culture and Society in 1980s Britain at Tate Liverpool. As curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) 2006 – 2010 his projects included the exhibitions Santhal Family Positions Around an Indian Sculpture, Cornelius Cardew and Textiles Art and the Social Fabric. He was previously the Curator of Visual Arts at Project in Dublin between 2001 and 2006 where he focused on solo commissions from contemporary artists. Watson has worked with Indian art since the mid 1990s researching this subject for Documenta 12. Watson studied Curating and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College London where he is currently a PhD candidate, he is „Researcher in Performance‟ with If I Can‟t Dance (Amsterdam) developing the two-year interview project How We Behaveand is Visiting Professor at the Dutch Art Institute (Arnhem).

Magdalena Ziółkowska holds a PhD in Art History, is a curator and graduate of the Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw, School for Social Research in Warsaw, and Curatorial Training Programme (de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam, 2006/07). Between 2006–10 she worked as guest curator in Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven where she realised such projects as Notes From the Future of Art. Selected Writings of Jerzy Ludwiński (2007) and Andrzej Wróblewski. To the Margin and Back (2010), both accompanied by publications. Since 2008 she worked in Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz where she initiated and curated a number of projects and publications, among them international platform for researching Central- and Eastern European practices Art Always Has Its Consequences (2008–10), Working Title: Archive (2008–09), individual show by Sanja Iveković. Practice Makes the Master (2009), Eyes Looking for a Head to Inhabit (co-curator, 2011), Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin. Facts, Incidents, Accidents, Circumstances, Situations (co-curator, 2013–14). In 2013 she was the editor of the anthology of texts by the artist Zbigniew Dłubak Teoria Sztuki Zbigniewa Dłubaka. In 2012 she co-founded Andrzej Wróblewski Foundation (www.andrzejwroblewski.pl) – a NGO devoted to develop and popularise the knowledge about life and work of one of the most inspiring and remarkable post-war Polish artist. Beyond the solo show Andrzej Wróblewski. Constantly Looking Ahead (National Museum, Krakow 2012–13), the Foundation copublished recently with Adam Mickiewicz Institute a bilingual monography Avoiding Intermediary States. Andrzej Wróblewski (1927–1957), worldwide distributed by Hatje Cantz. Her research and writing focus on history of exhibitions and display, artists' writing and postwar museology.

Pooja Sood is a founding member and Director of Khoj International Artists Association and an independent curator, she was appointed Artistic Director and curator of 48C and lives in New Delhi. Sood has Masters in Art History and Business Management. She is a Chevening scholar [on the Clore Leadership programme, UK 2009-2011].From 2000-2010, she was the Regional Coordinator of the global Triangle Arts Trust, UK, where she researched and facilitated the establishment of independent not for profit visual art organizations in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal called SANA( South Asian Network for the Arts). She was appointed Artistic Director and curator of 48C. Public Art. Ecology , a public art project across 10 public sites in New Delhi commissioned by the Goethe Insitut and GIZ New Delhi in December 2008. She was Curator of the Apeejay Media Gallery , the first dedicated space for new media in India from 2002-2007 and of the Eicher Gallery from 1994-1998. She is also the Director of the programme. (www.arthinksouthasia.org). She curated KHOJ LIVE08, a week long live arts Festival in March 2008. She has co curated the exhibition “Have we met?” with curators from Indonesia, Japan and Thailand for the Japan Foundation in 2004. She was invited to curate a video art exhibition for the Musee D‟ Ethnographie in Geneva in 2004 and was a guest curator for InteractiveA03 , a video art festival in Mexico in 2003 and the Freewaves Media Festival in Los Angeles, USA., 2004.

Ranjit Hoskote is a cultural theorist, curator and poet. With Nancy Adajania, Hoskote is coauthor of The Dialogues Series (Popular, 2011), an unfolding programme of conversations with artists. With Maria Hlavajova, he is editor of Insurgent Publics: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art (BAK, forthcoming 2014). Since 1993, Hoskote has curated or co-curated 30 exhibitions of contemporary art, including two monographic surveys of Atul Dodiya, a lifetime retrospective of Jehangir Sabavala (National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay and New Delhi, 2005-2006), a historical survey of Indian abstraction, Nothing is Absolute (with Mehlli Gobhai; CSMVS/ The Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, 2013), and a contextualisation of 150 years of art by Parsi artists within the narrative of an emergent Indian modernism, No Parsi is an Island (with Nancy Adajania). Hoskote co-curated the 7th Gwangju Biennale (Korea, 2008) and was curator of India‟s first stand-alone national pavilion at the Venice Biennale (54th edition, 2011). Hoskote was also co-convenor, with Maria Hlavajova, Boris Groys and Kathrin Rhomberg, of the exhibitionconference platform Former West Congress: Documents, Constellations, Prospects (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2013). Hoskote has been a Fellow of the International Writing Program, University of Iowa (1995), an Associate Fellow at Sarai/ CSDS, New Delhi (2006-2007), and writer-in-residence at Villa Waldberta, Munich (2003), Theater der Welt, Essen/ Mülheim (2010) and the Polish Institute, Berlin (2010). Jointly with Nancy Adajania, he has held a research residency at BAK/ basis vooractuelekunst, Utrecht (2010; 2013). Hoskote sits on the academic advisory board of the Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong); the international advisory board of the 1st Bergen Triennial (Norway); the advisory board of the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (Bombay); and the programme advisory board of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin).

Riyas Komu is a multi-media artist and an activist working towards developing the art infrastructure in India. His critically acclaimed political works have been exhibited extensively in India and abroad, which include several key works that focus specially on the political and cultural history of Kerala. His works are part of the larger narrative of the making and unmaking of artistic influences and also reflects the current issues in global context. In 2007 he was one of two artists from India to be selected by curator Robert Storr for the 52nd Venice Biennale. Have participated in Jogja Biennale, Indonesia. Exhibitions include shows at the GEM Museum for Contemporary Art (The Hague, The Netherlands, 2009), The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Oslo, Norway, 2009), the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (Shanghai, China, 2009) and the Gwangju Emerging Asian Artists Exhibition (Gwangju, Korea, 2010). Solo exhibition, „Safe to Light‟ in Iran (Azad Art Gallery, 2010). Significant works focusing on football include “Mark Him”, with the Indian National Football Team and “Left Legs” with the Iraqi National Football Team (2008/2010). His works were recently showed at Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, as part of their “Paris-Delhi-Bombay” exhibition. Solo shows include, Ambulance 2002, Faith Accompli 2004 - 2005, Systematic Citizen 2007, Related List, 2008. Subrato to Cesar 2010.

Shuddhabrata Sengupta is an artist and curator with the Raqs Media Collective and an independent writer. The hybrid practice of the Raqs Media Collective (formed in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta) sets itself apart through its insistence on occupying a ground that is as expressively poetic as it is rigorously analytical. Raqs follows its self declared imperative of 'kinetic contemplation' to produce a trajectory that is restless in terms of the forms and methods (sound, image, video, text, object, gesture) that it deploys even as it achieves a consistency of speculative procedures. Raqs enjoy playing a plurality of roles, often appearing as artists, occasionally as curators, sometimes as philosophical agent provocateurs. Their work has been shown at - Documenta, the Venice, Istanbul, Taipei, Liverpool, Sydney and Sao Paulo Biennales, amongst others. Centre Pompidou (Paris), Tate Britain (London), Art Unlimited (Basel), Mori Museum (Tokyo), SALT (Istanbul) and at the Hayward and Serpentine Galleries (London), amongst others. They curated 'The Rest of Now' for the 7th edition of Manifesta in 2008, Sarai Reader 09: The Exhibition at the Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon in 2013 and INSERT 2014 at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi in 2014.

Yuko Hasegawa is Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT) and Professor of the Department of Art Science, Tama Art University in Tokyo.Since 2008, Yuko has been a member of the Asian Art Council at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York). She is Artistic Director of Inujima Art House Project (2011-present) and Curator forArt Basel in Hong Kong Encountersto be held in May 2014.Her recent projects includeBUNNY SMACH– design to touch the world (2013),ARCHITECTURAL ENVIRONMENTS for TOMMORROW (2011)at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and Trans Cool Tokyo(2010- 11) at Singapore Art Museum. At the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa where she was appointed as Founding Artistic Director, she curated Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint (2005). She was Curator of 11th Sharjah Biennial (2013), Artistic Advisor of 12thVenice Architectural Biennale (2010), Co-Curator of 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010), Commissioner of Japanese Pavilion of 50th Venice Biennale (2003), Co-Curator of the 4th Shanghai Biennale (2002) and Artistic Director of the 7th International Istanbul Biennial (2001). Her publications include „Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art,‟ Museum of Modern Art, 2010, pp334-351 and „Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa: SANAA,‟ Phaidon Press, 2006.