International Inspiration #2: Vasif Kortun

Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia and Department of Visual Culture and Art History of Estonian Academy of Arts present:

Lecture series “International Inspiration” 2017/2018

Vasif Kortun ““Jesus Christ, what happened?”
Nov 22 10:15 workshop  (Suur-Kloostri 11, S-104)
Nov 23 18:00 lecture (Kohtu tn 6) 

Vasif Kortun (Ayvalık, Turkey) is a well-known curator, former director of SALT art center, he has curated and directed the third Istanbul biennaal, he was the founding director of the Museum of the Centre of Curatorial Studies at Bard College from 1994-1997.Furthermore, he curated the Turkish pavilions for the 1994 and 1998 iterations of the São Paolo Bienal, as well as the 2007 Venice Biennale. 

From the end of 1990s to early 2000s, catchy labels like the Nordic or Balkan miracles signalled high expectations of integration in a new art context and even its markets. Modest initiatives gave way in time to gargantuan projects like the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim and it became obvious that this was not normalization. In his talk Kortun hopes to address what changed in the last decade with a focus on Turkey.

The lecture is accompanied by seminar, on 22nd of November at 10AM at Department of Visual Culture and Art History (Suur-Kloostri 11). 

All lectures and seminars are free of charge and in English. The lectures are recorded and shared on Estonian Academy of Arts’ Vimeo page. 

The lecture series hosts internationally recognized curators and critics who are introducing their practice, work methods and are consulting students in seminars. The series is part of opening programme of new curatorial field of study at the Master’s programme of Visual Culture Department. 

The list of lecturers in 2017 and 2018 includes curator Vincent Honoré (09.11.2017), curator Vasif Kortun (23.11), curator Martha Kirszenbaum (December), documenta14 curator Dieter Roelstraete (January), poet and art critic Quinn Latimer (February), curator Lumi Tan (March), art critic Andrew Berardini (April), feminist curator Maura Reilly (May), curator and critic Antonia Alampi (May).

The series is supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Baltic-American Freedom Foundation, Estonian Academy of Science