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Pedagogies of Transition MARCH 2 I 2023 Join us for an online discussion series with Dr Frances C. Koya Vaka’uta, Larys Frogier, Elvira Espejo Ayca, Manuela Moscoso, Zena Cumpston and Vanessa Machado de Oliveira. The series is initiated by Biljana Ciric, Madeleine Collie and Susie Quillinan (Study Pattern Collective) and co-facilitated by: Deniz Kırkalı, Ka Yuet Lau and Iris Long and organised by Monash University and Goldsmiths, University of London . March to April 2023 For so long, we have been implicated in ongoing systemic and institutional crises. We understand these crises as political, economical, epistemological and ecological. As cultural workers we recognize a need to move towards structural change. In this series of gatherings we will share possibilities for epistemic shifts—some speculative, others involving very practical and concrete steps—towards undoing institutional working rituals. We share these conversations as a process of continuously composting knowledge that will contribute to our collective struggle. In these public moments we have invited people who have had an intimate impact on us and our way of thinking and doing, and in whose work we glimpse possibilities for breathing, imagining and instituting otherwise. We are a study group of three cultural workers, curators and artists—Biljana Ciric (What Could Should Curating Do), Madeleine Collie (initator of Food Art Research Network) and Susie Quillinan (Hawapi)—who are currently all undertaking a PhD in Curatorial Practice at Monash University, and who share an interest in imagining and practising different modes of instituting within the arts. Since 2021 our gatherings have been composed of invisible and visible encounters as a need to learn with each other, and also from peers in intersecting fields who share the same concerns. What are the ‘pedagogies of transition’ (Rolando Vazquez, 2021) towards different modes of instituting? For us, instituting is closely connected to the curatorial, which we understand as a gesture of caring with others that can collectively lead us to more sustainable working methodologies. I. Discussion Oceanic visions – 29 March Larys Frogier – Artist at Ocean & Wavz with Alfie Chua, researcher, advisory member and previous director of the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. Dr Frances C. Koya Vaka’uta Team Leader, Culture for Development, Pacific Community (SPC) · UK (Goldsmiths) – 9am (BST) · Melbourne (MADA) – 7pm (AEDT) · Lima – 3am (PET) · Paris – 10am (CEST) · Fiji – 8pm (FJT) II. Discussion – Crianza Mutua12 April Elvira Espejo Ayca – director of the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz Manuela Moscoso – CARA Director, New York · La Paz -8.30am (BOT) · NYC – 8.30am (EDT) · UK (Goldsmiths) – 1.30pm (BST) · Melbourne (MADA) – 10.30pm (AEST) · Lima – 7.30am (PET) III. Discussion Metabolisms – 26 April Zena Cumpston – Curator Emu Sky and CoAuthor of Plants: Past Present and Future Vanessa Machado de Oliveira – Professor and author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing humanity’s wrongs and implications for social activism · Melbourne (MADA) – 10am (AEST) · UK (Goldsmiths) – 1am (BST) · Vancouver – 5pm (PDT 25 April) · Lima – 7pm (PET 25 April) Note that the first event is in Melbourne (AEDT) time and the second and third dates are in Melbourne (AEST) time. There is also an issue with EventBrite’s “save to calendar” function. Please ensure that you have noted the correct time of this event

Open Call | The Unlearning Curriculum 2024 Application deadline: June 20, 2024 Inform of selected participants: July 10-15, 2024 Intensive dates: August 17-23, 2024 The Unlearning Curriculum in 2024 is a five-day intensive conceived for cultural workers, artists, curators, writers and researchers who share interest in practicing different methodologies of working within art and culture. It aims at exploring methodologies based on decolonial principles, and ways of knowing that engage not only mind but also our whole body and a variety of senses. It is a process of co-learning and un-learning, and of challenging the divide of culture, nature and human. By “staying with the trouble”, as Donna Haraway states, we may recuperate alternative literacy, tools and relations to cultivate an ecology oriented to the future. We will spend days and nights together by sharing common space and time through learning, reflecting, making, listening led mentors but also all the participants. During these five days we will decentralize our position as urban dwellers, and address the eco-social crisis from the perspectives of practical hope, to recover the collective input of local community and knowledge. The intensive is situated in an old village nearby Taishan in Guangdong province of China. The building has been renovated and sustained by Huan Jiajun, who is an activist of conserving the local culture. Taishan is historically home for a lot of overseas Chinese, who emigrated to north America to work as indentured workers in plantations, mines and railways in late 19th century and early 20th century. The architecture of the village preserves such diasporic history in its synthetic style. * The intensive is conceived and initiated by Biljana Ciric and Nikita Yingqian Cai; organized by Guangdong Times Museum and “What Should/Could Curating do?”; and generously supported by De Ying Foundation. This intensive is a greate opportunity, if you are: Interested in learning from others and from nature, and generous in sharing; Willing to engage in disciplines and conversations beyond your educational or academic training; Willing to share your insights and specialties with others, including but not restricted to yoga, knowledge of nature, craft-making, cooking etc. Requirements: A short bio including your educational background and recent experiences in cultural or social projects; A short intention letter (less than 500 words) which states what you would like to learn and unlearn with others; Your contact info including email, mobile and social media account. Fee: 3800 RMB or 490 EUR (The fee includes meals and accommodation of the five days; transportation from your city of residence to Taishan/China is not included） Please be noted: The Unearning Curriculum is open for local and international participants; The intensive will take place at Tosen’s Garden, Paobu Village, Taishan City, Guangdong, P.R. of China ; The working language is English; All participants are expected to arrive no later than August 17th and to commit to the whole duration; Further information about international or domestic travel will be provided after your enrollment is confirmed; Detailed information on day-by-day activities will be notified once all participants are confirmed. Tasks for preparations will be shared and discussed by zoom meeting in July; After the intensive in Taishan, additional visits to independent spaces, studios and institutions in Guangzhou will be organized in the following 2 days. The visits are not part of the curriculum, and you need to plan your stay and cover your own expences in Guangzhou. Please apply by submitting the following materials to contact@timesmuseum.org by June 20, 2024 and visit www.timesmuseum.org for further information. About mentors Amelie Aranguren (she/her) has been a member of Inland since 2011. Campo Adentro/Inland is an association and collaborative project that approaches rural issues from an artistic perspective while addressing significant social issues and advocating for the reconnection between rural areas and cities as a basis for sustainable development strategies. She is currently the director of the Center for the Approach to the Rural, a space in Madrid where creators, curators, researchers, and rural agents can engage in production and investigative residencies, and experiment with art forms linked to social contexts and ecological perspectives. Aranguren, along with a team of nine other collaborators, has recently initiated a new association, Paisanaje Project , which explores the capacity of artistic practices in order to address the eco-social crises and inequalities generated from these issues. Aranguren has worked before in institutions as Museo Reina Sofía Madrid, Federico García Lorca Foundation, Madrid and Jeu de Paume, Paris. Nikita Yingqian Cai lives and works in Guangzhou, where she is Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Guangdong Times Museum. She has curated such exhibitions as Times Heterotopia Trilogy (2011, 2014, 2017), Jiang Zhi: If This is a Man (2012), Roman Ondák: Storyboard (2015), Big Tail Elephants: One Hour, No Room, Five Shows (2016) , Pan Yuliang: A Journey to Silence (Villa Vassilieff in Paris and Guangdong Times Museum, 2017), Omer Fast: The Invisible Hand (2018), Neither Black/Red/Yellow Nor Woman (Times Art Center Belin, 2019), Zhou Tao: The Ridge in the Bronze Mirror (2019) and Candice Lin: Pigs and Poison (2021). She initiated the para-curatorial series in 2012 as a paratactic mode of thinking and working, which connects the curated contents of art and culture with pop-up modules of critical inquiry and field curriculum. She has maintained and expanded the research network of “All the Way South” and is the co-editor of On Our Times. She was the participant of de Appel Curatorial Programme (2009-2010) and was awarded the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship in 2019. Her writings have been published by Bard College and the MIT Press, Sternberg Press, Black Dog Publishing, Yishu, Artforum and e-flux. She is the co-editor of Active Withdrawals: Life and Death of Institutional Critique and No Ground Underneath; Curating on the Nexus of Changes. Biljana Ciric is an interdependent curator. She is curator of the Pavilion of Republic of Serbia at 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 presenting with Walking with Water Solo exhibition of Vladimir Nikolic. She is conceiving inquiry for first Trans- Southeast Asian Triennial in Guangzhou Repetition as a Gesture Towards Deep Listening (2021/2022). She was the co-curator of the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennale for Contemporary Art (Yekaterinburg, 2015), curator in residency at Kadist Art Foundation (Paris, 2015), and a research fellow at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Høvikodden, 2016). Her recent exhibitions include An Inquiry: Modes of Encounter presented by Times Museum, Guangzhou (2019); When the Other Meets the Other Other presented by Cultural Center Belgrade (2017); Proposals for Surrender presented by McAM in Shanghai (2016/2017); and This exhibition Will Tell You Everything About FY Art Foundations in FY Art Foundation space in Shenzhen (2017). In 2013, Ciric initiated the seminar platform From a History of Exhibitions Towards a Future of Exhibition Making with focus on China and Southeast Asia. The assembly platform was hosted by St Paul St Gallery, AUT, New Zealand (2013), Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2018), Times Museum, Guangzhou (2019). The book with the same name was published by Sternberg Press in 2019 and was awarded best art publication in China in 2020. Her research on artists organized exhibitions in Shanghai was published in the book History in Making; Shanghai: 1979-2006 published by CFCCA; and Life and Deaths of Institutional Critique , co-edited by Nikita Yingqian Cai and published by Black Dog Publishing, among others. In 2018 she established the educational platform What Could/Should Curating Do? where different formats of instituting are tested and imagined through collective processes. Since 2023 WCSCD entered transition merging rural and urban taking over custodianship of the piece of land in rural Serbia. She was nominated for the ICI Independent Vision Curatorial Award (2012). Ciric initiated a long-term project reflecting on China’s Belt and Road Initiative titled As you go . . . the roads under your feet, towards a new future . She is undertaking practice based PhD in Curatorial Practice at Monash University, Melbourne. She is currently developing retrospective of Vietnamese artist Tran Luong that will open in Jameel Art Center, Dubai in 2024 and tour to AGWA(Perth), Govett Brewster Art Gallery (New Plymouth, NZ), Guang Zhou Fine Arts Academy Contemporary Art Museum among others. About Tosen's Garden The project is located in Taishan City, Guangdong Province, which is known as the hometown of overseas Chinese. This is an ancient historical village built a hundred years ago by overseas Chinese in Myanmar. There are woods behind the village and fish ponds in front of the village, which preserves good natural ecology. There are seven residential houses built by overseas Chinese in the village, all of which are well preserved. In the first phase of the project, a 400-square-meter historic property was restored. Visitors can stay in the historic house and experience the local life more than a hundred years ago. There is an organic vegetable garden and orchard which provide local specialties. About De Ying Foundation De Ying Foundation (DYF) is a charitable organisation that supports contemporary art in China and internationally. We believe that contemporary art has an essential place in today’s China, and are committed to widening access to the highest standards of arts programming. We take a patient, long-term approach that is collaborative and open-minded, supporting and learning from other organisations that share our aims and values, as well as launching our own initiatives when we feel there is a need. Arts education is especially important to us, since we believe both in its inherent value and in its potential for transformative impact. While our core focus as a foundation is on greater China, we also work with international partners whose work inspires us, and hope to engender and to be part of a genuine artistic dialogue between China and the rest of the world. De Ying Foundation has provided long-term sponsorship for the De Ying Associate Curator, Visual Arts, at M+. The foundation is Founding Patron of the Shanghai Centre of Photography and a key sponsor of the Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art at China Academy of Art. De Ying was a sponsor of the Beijing-based artist Cao Fei’s first major solo exhibition in China, “Staging the Era”, 2021, presented at UCCA, Beijing, as well as, the UCCA leg of “Who is He?”, the historical retrospective of Geng Jianyi, one of China’s pioneering conceptual artists in 2023. De Ying is the main supporter for Glen Ligon’s first UK solo exhibition “All Over the Place”, 2024, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. In 2018, we were also particularly excited to be early supporters of Steve McQueen’s Year 3 Project at Tate Britain. De Ying Foundation also provided support in 2019 for the production of the catalogue accompanying Cecily Brown's acclaimed survey exhibition “Where, When, How Often and With Whom” at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. Village in Taishan, Guangdong Province of China.

Mentors Mentors of WCSCD program so far included: Dorothea von Hantelmann (Bard College, Berlin); Antariksa (co-founding member of KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Yogyakarta, Indonesia); the Flash Art Magazine editorial team (Flash Art is a bimonthly magazine focused on contemporary art, based in Milan); Elena Filipović (director of Kunsthalle Basel);Tara McDowell (director of curatorial practice at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia); Maria Lind (director of Tensta konsthall, Stockholm); Matt Packer (director of EVA International); Hou Hanru (artistic director of MAXXI Rome, Italy); and What, How & for Whom (a curatorial collective formed in 1999 and based in Zagreb, Croatia), Branislav Dimitrijevic ( art historian based in Belgrade), Ares Shporta ( Lumbardhi Foundation, Kosovo), Zdenka Badovinac ( Moderna Galeria Ljubljana), Nikita Yingqian Cai ( Times Museum, Guang Zhou), Charles Esche ( Van Abbe Museum), Sinisa Ilic (artist based in Belgrade), Ekaterina Degot (Director and Chief Curator of steirischer herbst), Lisa Rosendahl (Associate Professor of Exhibition Studies at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and Curator of GIBCA—the Gothenburg biennial in 2019 & 2021), Luca Lo Pinto (director of MACRO in Rome), Suzana Milevska (curator and a visual culture theorist), Lejla Hodzic (cultural worker) , Xiang Zairong ( scholar), Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez (independent curator, editor and writer), and ruangrupa ( artistic directors of Documenta 15), Lejla Hodzic ( art practitioner, Sarajevo), Jelica Jovanovic ( architect), Skart Collective ( Belgrade), Katalin Szekely ( OFF Biennale, Budapest), Massimilliano Mollona ( Institute for Radical Immagination), Manuel Borja Villel ( Museo National Renia Sofia), Amelie Aranguren ( INLAND), Aslihan Demirtas ( architect). < How to Apply Educational Program Events >

Alumni 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 Tonight we invite you to encounter a collective archive of the 2022 What could/should curating do educational programme, which took place in Belgrade and other locations around the Post-Yugoslav region, between September and December this year. The departure point for this archive is a proposal by Biljana Ćirić, program curator and facilitator, to consider the means by which the discussions, events, inquiries and relationships developed during this time might be recorded or documented. Archiving is never neutral. Determinations are always made—by individuals, by collectives, by collecting institutions—about what knowledge is worth saving, the means by which knowledge is indexed, housed and cared for, who has access and on what terms. Within the framework of an alternative educational platform—with a loose and evolving curriculum, and no formalised method of assessment or grading—this exercise presents an opportunity to consider what alternative measures we might allow ourselves for the production of knowledge when freed from institutional modes of transmission and circulation. As such, these archives—both individually and collectively—do not simply record a series of shared (and at times differing) experiences. They include questions around how the embodied, linguistic, political, intimate, relational nature of experience and remembering, ranging in scope from the personal, to the national. Each contribution is informed by the “baggage” we carried with us, as a group of individuals from many different geographic and cultural contexts, many of whom had little relationship with Belgrade, Serbia or the Balkan region prior to this course. This “baggage” includes our different relationships to contemporary art’s infrastructures; our different fields of knowledge and networks of relationships; cultural and linguistic differences; differing relations to histories of colonialism, resource extraction and capitalist exploitation; and varying habits of thought, modes of making, inhabiting and formulating questions about the world. Through differing strategies of presentation and circulation, we hope to open up questions about what we have in common, as well as what separates us; what of ourselves is dispersed, and what is withheld. But the physical “archive” we share with you tonight is only a part of a wider set of relationships, experiences, idea exchanges, occasional encounters, gossip and experimenting. Tonight we celebrate the beauty and fragility of these moments. Be our guests at the two tables. Read silently. Read aloud. Whisper. Describe what you see. Share what you feel. Eat. Drink. Embrace. This archive is staged as something living, developing and transformational, ever evolving as our moments with you. Thank you for sharing this journey with us. We hope it’s not the end, but only a stop on the way. WC/SCD 2022 Adelina, Anastasia, Ginevra, Giuglia, Jelena, Karly, Lera, Sabine, Simon < Participants Educational Program Programs >

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Lumbung | WCSCD 2020/21 Annual Lecture Series The curatorial program What Could/Should Curating Do is proud to be continued in 2021 with public program through lecture series The seventh talk in the 2020/21 series is titled: Lumbung by farid rakun Date: March 16, 2021 Time: 12:00 pm Belgrade / 10:00 pm Melbourne / 07:00 pm Shanghai / 6:00 am New York Venue: zoom link Meeting ID: 985 237 3109 Live stream/Facebook link ruangrupa, photo Gudskul/Jin Panji ruangrupa , a Jakarta-based artists’ collective, is in the middle of launching lumbung—a planetary network initiated to put particular values into practice, such as sharing, humour, generosity, independence and locally-anchored, to name a few. This process is also largely made possible by the collective’s mandate as the artistic directors of documenta fifteen (Kassel, DE, 2022), for which ruangrupa’s approach can be considered as finding ways to exercise our way of institutional practice—as opposed to mere critique. This session is a relaxed one (as much as a platform like Zoom would allow) where (at least) a member of ruangrupa, farid rakun , will be present and explain more about the processes described above. Hopefully, you will not only be able and interested to attend, but also take something out of the session and realised the possibility of practicing those very values in your own ways under your particular conditions afterwards. farid rakun, photo Gudskul/Jin Panji About Speaker Trained as an architect (B.Arch from Universitas Indonesia and M.Arch from Cranbrook Academy of Art), farid rakun wears different hats, dependent on who is asking. A visiting lecturer in the Architecture Department of Universitas Indonesia, he is also a part of the artists’ collective ruangrupa, with whom he co-curated TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016 in Arnhem, NL. As an instigator, he has permeated various global institutions such as Centre Pompidou, La Biennale di Venezia, MMCA Seoul, Sharjah Biennial, Bienal de Sao Paulo, Harun Farocki Institut, Dutch Art Institute (DAI), Creative Time, Haute école d’art et de design (HEAD) Genève, and basis voor actuele kunst (BAK). He has worked for Jakarta Biennale in different capacities since 2013 and currently serves as its advisor. ruangrupa is a Jakarta-based collective established in 2000. It is a non-profit organization that strives to support the idea of art within urban and cultural context by involving artists and other disciplines such as social sciences, politics, technology, media, etc, to give critical observation and views towards Indonesian urban contemporary issues. ruangrupa also produce collaborative works in the form of art projects such as exhibition, festival, art lab, workshop, research, as well as book, magazine and online-journal publication. As an artists’ collective, ruangrupa has been involved in many collaborative and exchange projects, including participating in big exhibitions such as Gwangju Biennale (2002 & 2018), Istanbul Biennial (2005), Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Brisbane, 2012), Singapore Biennale (2011), São Paulo Biennial (2014), Aichi Triennale (Nagoya, 2016) and Cosmopolis at Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2017). In 2016, ruangrupa curated TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016 in Arnhem, NL. From 2015-18, ruangrupa co-developed a cultural platform Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem together with several artists’ collectives in Jakarta, located at Gudang Sarinah warehouse, Pancoran, South Jakarta. It is a cross-disciplinary space that aims to maintain, cultivate and establish an integrated support system for creative talents, diverse communities, and various institutions. It also aspires to be able to make connections and collaborate, to share knowledge and ideas, as well as to encourage critical thinking, creativity, and innovations. The results of these joint collaborations are open for public access—and presented with various exhibitions, festivals, workshops, discussions, film screenings, music concerts, and publications of journals. In 2018, learning from their experience establishing Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem and together with Serrum and Grafis Huru Hara, ruangrupa co-initiated GUDSKUL: contemporary art collective and ecosystem studies (or Gudskul, in short, pronounced similarly like “good school” in English). It is a public learning space established to practice an expanded understanding of collective values, such as equality, sharing, solidarity, friendship and togetherness. WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) was initiated and funded in 2018 in Belgrade as an educational platform around notions of curatorial. From 2020 WCSCD started to initiate its own curatorial inquiries and projects that should unpack above -mentioned complexities keeping educational component as a core to the WCSCD. The WCSCD curatorial program and series of public lectures have been initiated and organized by Biljana Ciric. WCSCD 2020/2021 public program series has been done in collaboration with Division of Arts and Humanities, Duke Kunshan University and they co-stream all public lectures. Strategic media collaboration is done with Seecult and they will co-host all public lecture series. Project Partners Media Partner For more information about the program, please refer to www.wcscd.com Project contacts: what.could.curating.do@gmail.com Follow us: FB: @whatcscdo Instagram: @whatcouldshouldcuratingdo < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

< Back The Landscape of Unknown Idil Bozkurt I closed my eyes and saw the vision field. I listened to my breath. again and again, nothing but this very moment. I was here. Now, I open my eyes and see my vision field. Light and Shadow, almost seeing the particles in the air. here I go again. İdil Bozkurt, The Landscape of an Unknown, 2020 “Disturbance realigns possibilities for transformative encounters.” Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World I woke up this morning and remembered the dream I had, which, unlike others that slip away moments after waking, came back to me suddenly: I was walking around the city. There was no one outside but me. I ambled through the streets secretly enjoying the quietness. Empty streets, bare gardens and barren shops. While I was wandering in the streets of this ghost town, I suddenly spotted a huge billboard on the side of the building. There, I realized that the words on the sign gave a proclamation of good news:‘From the 20th of April, we will be elevating the recent restrictions about your social life. You will be able to go out and socialise as normal. We are working very hard on it. Everything will get back to normal.’ When I awoke, I had a strong sense of the emotion that was left with me after having read the sign within my dream. The initial feeling I had was disappointment, which was followed by a state of panic and anxiety. ‘Is that it? We haven’t changed anything yet!’, I thought to myself. And, here I am writing this piece with all those feelings in my mind vividly, distinctively. Is there something wrong with me that deep down I secretly wish this crisis to continue until it reaches its meaningful end? Meaningful end? What does ‘meaningful end’ even mean? What do I expect this crisis to turn into? I wonder if I’m thinking like Winston Churchill who believes the rule- ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’? True or not, this expression is now commonly applied to economic or diplomatic crises that can be exploited to advance political agendas. To support this argument, frighteningly, there seems to be many recent examples of it- an opportunity for authoritarian power grabs in Hungary, Israel, China, the Philippines and the US, with more to follow undoubtedly. This advice, of course, can be read as each crisis brings its own opportunity for a creative response. The matter of letting crises be wasted or not fills me with a sense of urgency. This urgency is followed by the fog of the unknown lingering in the air and it is hard to see what’s on the horizon, or even what’s in front of us. Although, staying put is hard especially while viewing digital totalitarian regimes rapidly take place, while healthcare professionals work in precarious conditions and society at large coping with social distancing during the COVID-19 outbreak. Millions of people have lost their jobs during this turbulence. In addition to this, I am also worried about the state of arts and culture, and especially art professionals who work independently with freelance or zero-hours contracts. For instance, in the city of Brighton, where I live, 40% of its revenue comes from festivals and cultural events across the year. The month of May is one of the best times to be in Brighton. There are four different festivals that are run throughout May. Of course, with the recent events, many of them are cancelled or postponed. Some festivals fund themselves through their ticket sales, and the cancellation of these festivals are not only affecting their ability for future participation, but also hitting the staff who intended to work with them. I count myself as one of those affected. I had two exhibitions cancelled along with many months of freelance jobs. I have not only realised the precariousness of my working conditions but I have found that I have started to reconsider the value of these works—what is the value of an exhibition? What does it mean to ‘go-online’ and continue producing content on digital platforms? What does it feel like to be in a virtual gallery? How does it affect our relationship with space, art and spectatorship? What is the role of the curator, here and now? How should we value public spaces now that we can no longer access them? How is this uncertain time going to affect artists? Galleries and museums may well be the last places to be reopened to the public—then, will things go back to normal ? It’s important to see the reaction of many galleries and museums during the COVID-19 crisis. As many of us whose independent projects and works were cancelled, we joined with the rest of our friends and families at home, who are not only locked down in their households, but also locked to their screens. Right after the lockdowns a number of museums, art organisations and galleries responded to this moment of crisis by ‘going-online’ where they have continued to produce and disseminate their content through platforms such as Zoom, Instagram, Jitsi and many others with which they can broadcast talks, live chats, workshops, virtual gallery tours and even virtual studio visits. They are still striving to keep us connected. We are quite grateful for this wide range of content being put in front of us while others are struggling to stay connected 24/7 and have started to suffer from digital ‘burn out’. Relevantly, for the last couple of years, there has been a rising debate on ‘ burn out culture ’, especially amongst freelance gig workers. I regularly hear from many colleagues and friends who are in a constant battle with this experience and struggle with burnout. As the majority of people all experience this endless exhaustion where work becomes an identity, capitalism becomes a religion and productivity manifests the way we measure human value. Here we are again, while everything has paused, we are still experiencing the digital side of burnout. I wonder what would happen if the whole art world stopped and went silent for a bit. If there were no arts content, what would it look like? If this is not a great time to slow down and reflect on the values of spaces that are dedicated to exhibiting art and the importance of our relationship with it, then when is it going to be? The Landscape of an Unknown, 2020 Let me explain myself here. My intention is neither to throw a stone at the art institutions, museums or galleries nor do I desire to see the arts and creative sector crumbling down. They are not the essence of the problem but they are the part of the globalised production systems. For instance, contemporary biennials are a way of signalling a city’s headway to enter the globalizing world of trade and culture through the use of art to encourage tourism, cultural ‘growth’ and international media. Hito Steyerl puts this very clearly in her essay Duty Free Art where she says, “…contemporary art is made possible by neoliberal capital plus the internet, biennials, art fairs, parallel pop-up histories, growing income inequality. Let’s add asymmetric warfare -… real estate speculation, tax evasion, money laundering and deregulated financial markets to this list.” I’m not talking about the creation of arts but rather the roles of museums and art institutions in the context of the globalised system of production. The consequences of the globalised production systems in contemporary arts can be seen today in the growth of a certain form of art that is now supposed to be seen everywhere at biennials, also in a marked decrease in the ‘specificity’ of regional cultural output. We are facing the increasingly blurred and confused role of art in contemporary culture. In the last few years, the ideas of transformative change, placemaking, the role of artists and audience, funding and diversity have been the subjects that are widely discussed in art institutions, in public art spaces and galleries. It seems to me that we all go around these subject matters, making mind maps, discussing and sharing stories but not feeling brave enough to delve into the essential questions about what the problem is with the state of art institutions in the contemporary art scene. How can we think of art institutions in an age of globalised production, growing inequality, climate emergency and digital technology? It’s important to rethink and reimagine many subjects like sustainability, diversity, equality and legacy here. Perhaps the answer lies not only in the act of looking to the past, but also in the construction of new conversations about public spaces, the formation of collective culture, and the future of art. Referring to Bruno Latour’s questions here, what are some suspended activities that you would like not to see coming back as an arts professional and/or an artist? It might be useful to visit the concept of curare here. To take care of. Curators are assigned to the job of caring in the art world. Over the years, various forms of caretaking have evolved from this root word, but contemporary curator’s work remains similar to the curare of growing, developing and seeking to help the art of people, their meaning, interpretation and commonalities flourish. Now, the desk of many curators is empty – at least for the time being. Creating art is not always a question of the moment, and neither is its exhibition; curating follows art. So where do we start the conversation now? What sort of time and space is required for the manifestation of contemporary art? The Landscape of an Unknown, 2020 “This machine is a master at collecting goods and people from around the world. It has the characteristics of an assemblage, yet it also has characteristics of a machine, a mechanism that is limited to the sum of its parts. This machine is not a total institution” as Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing puts it, we live and spend our lives inside of it. In my mind, I’m imagining the red button and the nice steel handle mentioned by Bruno Latour, and how the states, one after the other, can pull it to stop the engine. Here we are. Now.The engine has stopped, along with the noise it produced; the machine is not working -for now. We can start to hear things, other things that we could not hear or did not pay attention to before. As we all feel the somnolence that comes through adapting to our new routines, we should not lose the impetus for action. I have been thinking about my answers to questions posed by Bruno Latour*, below. Perhaps, now, we can all think and share some thoughts. So let’s not waste this crisis, instead think and ask ourselves some questions. — *Here are the questions posed by Bruno Latour in his article called What protective measures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model? (translated from French by Stephen Muecke) (This article appeared in AOC on 29th March 2020: https://aoc.media/opinion/2020/03/29/imaginerles-gestes-barrieres-contre-le-retour-a-la-production-davant-crise/ ) Question 1: What are some suspended activities that you would like to see not coming back ? Question 2: Describe why this activity seems to you to be noxious/superfluous/dangerous/incoherent and how its disappearance/putting on hold/substitution might render other activities that you prefer easier/more coherent. (Write a separate paragraph for each of the activities listed under 1). Question 3: What kinds of measures do you advocate so that workers/employees/agents/entrepreneurs, who can no longer continue in the activities that you have eliminated, are able to facilitate the transition to other activities ? Question 4: What are the activities, now suspended, that you hope might develop/begin again, or even be created from scratch? Question 5: Describe how this activity appears to be positive to you, and how it makes other activities easier/more harmonious/coherent that you prefer and can fight against those that you judge to be inappropriate. (Write a separate paragraph for each of the activities listed under 4). Question 6: What kinds of measures do you advocate to help workers/employees/agents/entrepreneurs to acquire capacities/means/finances/instruments allowing for restarting/development/creation of this activity ? (Now find a way to compare your description with that of other participants. By tabling and then superimposing the answers, you should start to build up a picture composed of conflicting lines, alliances, controversies and oppositions.) Idil Bozkurt (1990) is a lens-based media producer and an independent curator. Previous Next

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Celebrating Resilience and Solidarity Moba Produkcija image by Luigi Coppola 2024 Culminating event date: June 23, 2024 Location: Gornja Gorevnica Participants: Asida Butba, Anna Ilchenko, Andrey Parshikov (curators of WCSCD 2023/24 educational program), Bojana Popović, Luigi Coppola, Petra Pavleka, and Gornja Gorevnica community members. Coordinators: Sofija Bošković and Cheng Xiangmin. Organized by WCSCD and the local community of Gornja Gorevnica. Project supported by the Italian Cultural Institute and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. WCSCD 2023/24 program participants, together with mentor and artist Luigi Coppola, artist Bojana Popović, and cultural worker Petra Pavleka, invite you to a community action in the village of Gornja Gorevnica to celebrate and foster communal life, resilience, and local knowledge in agricultural production. Since 2023, WCSCD has established a pedagogical center in Gornja Gorevnica and initiated various encounters and meetings to engage with local communities. Through this engagement, we are encouraged to think and practice culture beyond the dualisms of rural/urban, culture/nature, and man/woman, embracing more entangled and interdependent ways of being. This effort is also our attempt to decentralize the production of knowledge and culture as city dwellers. The series of upcoming gatherings on June 23 aims to rethink the production of culture and knowledge through actions in rural areas. This approach seeks to explore different solutions for building more resilient communities. During the culminating event day, we invite you to experience a number of artistic projects presented in Gornja Gorevnica. These projects represent long-term commitments to rethinking ways of working with communities and fostering a more resilient society. What you can experience during the culminating days: Italian artist and activist Luigi Coppola has been collaborating with village families for over six months to launch the long-term project Unity as Strength through Moba Production. This initiative draws inspiration from the ritualistic aspects of collective labor, focusing on the gathering and transformation of local fruits. In our capitalist and extractivist society, individualism is often promoted, driven by the myth of relentless productivity. But is this truly the only viable model of production? Should we reject collaborative and relational models, favoring solitude and sacrifice over collective effort? In rural areas, there remains a poetic sense of working together—songs and celebrations tied to the harvest and its transformation. We invite you to rekindle this spirit through acts that blend labor and festivity. As the climate crisis exacerbates the already challenging economic conditions for those who choose to farm, coming together becomes even more crucial. The Moba Production , with artistic input from Luigi Coppola, will feature two main components. The first includes workshops that share practical knowledge on fruit processing, culminating in a communal dinner prepared by the village, followed by celebratory music and dance. On June 23, as part of Moba Production, a Knowledge Assembly will be held, focusing on climate change and strategies for building strong community support structures. This event will foster vital discussions among community members. Bojana Popović , a young artist residing in the village, has crafted a performative walk. This walk offers a unique mapping of Gornja Gorevnica from a feminist perspective, blending walking and storytelling into a rich, experiential tapestry. Through this journey, participants will uncover marginalized histories, such as the ancient tree's legacy, poignant love stories, and other narratives that reside outside the mainstream historical discourse. Another important aspect of Celebrating Resilience and Solidarity is food. The stomach holds profound significance for us, serving as a central element in our system. Esteemed artists and scholars, such as Vanessa Machado de Oliveira and Trinh T. Minh-ha, state that the stomach is the core through which neural changes and chemistry occur, influencing the heart's will and directly affecting the mind. This concept proposes an engagement with embodied knowledge that transcends mere visual experience. In collaboration with the women of the Gornja Gorevnica village, we have gathered ancestral recipes to craft a menu for our guests, offering a rich, sensory connection to our shared heritage and traditions. Further exploring the practices of food-making, Petra Pavleka , a distinguished cultural worker from Zagreb, will be sharing traditional bread-making techniques. This workshop, in collaboration with a historic, functioning mill within the village, will provide a unique blend of cultural heritage and artisanal craftsmanship. June 23, culminating event schedule: 12:30 pm – arrival to Gornja Gorevnica 1:00 pm – refreshments/ snacks and welcoming ritual 1:30 - 4:00 pm – launch of Moba Production through series of workshops with community elders and bread-making workshop with Petra Pavleka 4:00 - 5:30 pm – a performative walk with young artist Bojana Popović around Gornja Gorevnica 5:30 - 6:30 pm – dinner 6:30 - 8:00 pm – Knowledge assembly moderated by Luigi Coppola 8:30 pm – departure from Gornja Gorevnica to Belgrade Admission fee This public, family-friendly event embraces intergenerational learning and joy. All workshops are free of charge. Refreshments and snacks upon arrival, along with a dinner, are available for 1,500 dinars per person (coffee and soft drinks included). Children up to 12 years old can attend for half price at 750 dinars, and children under 5 years old attend for free. Registration is essential. Please email us at what.could.curating.do@gmail.com or message us on Instagram @whatcouldshouldcuratingdo to secure your spot. How to get to Gornja Gorevnica village: You can arrive by car on your own. Free parking is available. Instructions on how to reach us will be sent after registration. You can also hop on an organized bus from Belgrade on the morning of June 23rd, returning the same evening. The round trip price is 1,500 dinars. Limited capacity; pre-booking is essential. If you have camping gear and want to stay a few days with us, we have free space for your tent. Please contact us to arrange this. Bios of WCSCD program contributors: Petra Pavleka is project manager of the Community seed bank and food program at ZMAG As a student, this landscape architect traveled Europe with Erasmus and Grundtvig projects in search for green knowledge and good sustainable practices. She learned her trade by collaborating with several architectural firms, and in recent years has been intensely interested in the production of her own food and the growing potential of public areas. Since 2020, she has been a member of ZMAG’s Social Seed Bank, and currently works at ZMAG as the project manager of that project and the manager of the food program. Luigi Coppola is an Italian artist and activist, member of Casa Della Agricultura, a community founded in the south of Italy in Castiglione d'Otranto, which aims to revive abandoned land and repopulate villages, generate an economy based on solidarity, and strengthening community ties through new cultural, social and economic models of common life based on agriculture. About WCSCD: The WCSCD is a civic association, established in 2018, and its fundamental activity is an educational program for artists, curators, researchers and cultural workers with focus on different ways of learning and working in the arts. In 2022 WCSCD started working within the rural area in Sumadija (Serbia) and taking custodianship of the piece of land with long-term commitment. For all further information on this and all WCSCD projects, please contact: Biljana Ćirić what.could.curating.do@gmail.com https://www.wcscd.com/ < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

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WCSCD emergency grant announces grant recipients We are honored that we can give a symbolic contribution to colleagues and peers in the region through emergency grant. Participants of the program have selected three grants recipients: Sasa Rakic cartoonist based in Pancevo (Serbia), creating comics under the pseudonym of Aleksandar Zograf. www.aleksandarzograf.com Adela Jusic artist based in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), cofounder Association for Culture and Art Crvena, one of the creators of Online archive of Antifascist struggle of women of B&H and Yugoslavia (adelajusic.wordpress.com www.afzarhiv.org ) Agata Lucic artist based in Zagreb (Croatia) (https://www.behance.net/agatalucic ) We would like to thank all applicants for reaching to us. WCSCD will continue finding ways supporting community so please stay in touch with us. About Grant: In light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the art community, the What Could Should Curating Do has created 3 grants of 450 euros for artists, curator, art practitioners working on visual arts whose work and livelihood has been affected due to impacted by the economic fallout from postponed or canceled exhibitions and projects. Colleagues in former Yugoslav Region are eligible to apply. Emergency grant has been supported through the online curatorial program Post-Pandemic Condition with mentors Natasa Petresin Bachelez, Maria Lind and Biljana Ciric. Online program participants: Louise Hobson, Ainsle Roddick, Kirsty Màiri Robertson, Aglaya Zhdanova, Julia Gelezova, Ariana Kalliga, Cushla Donaldson, Teodora Jeremic, Sophie Davis, Dunja Rmandic, Agata Szymanek, Amal Al Ali, Yin Shuai.