Born out of Experimenter’s identity of — in gallery co-founder Priyanka Raja’s words — “a thinking organism”, the 11-year-old Experimenter Curator’s Hub has swiftly become an important fixture on the global art calendar. Buoyed by the gallery’s broad perspective on the arts, its urgent desire for propagating a culture of thinking and its eagerness in acting as an incubator for the same, the gallery has put forth editions of the Curator’s Hub, year after year, with relevant discussions that mirror the contemporary times. During these strange times we are inhabiting where art and curatorial practices are a microcosm of our lived realities, the Curator’s Hub this year has an interesting line-up of speakers who have been invited to be propositional instead of retrospective to take into account both a world of possibilities and challenges. Moderated by Natasha Ginwala, whom the Rajas fondly regard as a co-conspirator of the Curator’s Hub, the latest edition of this robust platform for the exchange of ideas begins on November 9 and will continue till November 14. This virtual exchange of ideas can be viewed by registering on https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QMgV3_AwTgeu8QiFguqYug. In a t2 chat, Priyanka and Prateek Raja, co-founders, Experimenter, tell us more:
How was it curating for the Experimenter Curator’s Hub?
Priyanka Raja: Last year was the first time we did the Curator’s Hub (the Hub) online due to the pandemic and this is a time that’s on the global art calendar and everyone looks forward to coming from across the world. When we were going to be on an online platform last year, we asked ourselves about what would be a relevant way to think about this time and we decided to go back and invite 10 curators — one from each of the past years — and we asked them to think about what time did to their practice. So last year, we were looking back.
But this year, we are looking forward and we have invited five curators and five of them have invited people from outside. So we wrote to the curators — typically, it’s always a prompt from Prateek and me to invite them and it’s never a thematic or panel-based discussion but essentially, it’s a deep dive into each individual’s thinking and agenda and those choices are made in very specific ways.
This year, we were thinking about what it means to go outside the construct of what we consider to be our world or the arts or what constitutes thinking within our practice. And we have realised there are many individuals whose works influence us so deeply or we possibly also play a role outside and it’s not necessarily visual arts alone. There is so much happening so then how can we merge these boundaries? That’s how invitations such as Rana Ayyub or Dar Jacir (Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research, Bethlehem) by Emily Jacir that has been doing stellar work, have come about.
So we invited five curators and asked each of them to invite one individual who could be an artist or from outside the artworld, for them to then think about what influences their work. This person could be a close collaborator or co-thinker within this curator’s life or even someone who they are inspired by and have always wanted to work with and what they do is think about a propositional idea. It’s not necessary that they will have to have a collective idea — it could be that the curator has a proposed project and the collaborator has another one but it’s this whole seven days of propositions and maybe, any of these people who register or watch these in the archives, there could be someone who would be interested in an idea and would want to do it Japan or Amsterdam or Calcutta! So we have really pushed the boundaries this year to think about what it all means.
As gallerists, why is it important to you to bring forth the idea of curators as well?
Priyanka: The gallery is in its 13th year and the Hub is in its 11th so we were a very young gallery when we started this. From that time to now, not much has changed even though we would have liked for it to be a different environment. There is very, very weak infrastructure for curatorial thinking, practices and processes to share and learn in our country. Our curriculum is extremely dated and there is abysmal infrastructure around arts and art education. The two of us get to see so many exhibitions all over the world that it informs our thinking of how we present our work and write about our work. Somehow we feel that it is really stratified and it’s not easy to access. So then how can we create the idea of a shared learning space and sustainably continue it? That’s how the idea of the Hub started 11 years ago and sadly nothing much has changed since then. So we invite leading practitioners who can come and share and people can learn and re-apply. When the physical Hub existed until a year ago, relations and friendships were formed and so many projects have taken shape as a result of these visits. So the Hub becomes a facilitator of dialogues and possibilities so it’s important that this model exists and we hope that more such things exist – but we can only do what we can do in our limited capacities.
We live in strange times when the political environment is extremely sensitive. Meanwhile, art can be both very personal as well as interrogative, political and provocative. So how have the last few years and the present times influenced your curation for the Hub?
Prateek Raja: It is very important for us individually and as an organisation to be reflective of the times we are in and that is why we are a reflection of our contemporary times. And without living in oblivion to what is happening to our society, our judicial system and the fabric of our country or our being have really changed very quickly. At the same time, why have someone like Rana (Ayyub) in a Curator’s Hub conversation is because this year is especially about the future – it’s about what opportunities or possibilities the future may have along with the challenges we may face. It is about how we can capture the time now that is like a bed where we can sow ideas that can be reaped in the future. So Rana is a really important person to include in the conversation.
Priyanka: We have to look at the Hub in a wider way. This year, invitations such as Rana, Marc (Marc Goldenfein, Creative entrepreneur and co-founder of ArtsPay, Sydney), Dar Jacir and Osei Bonsu, (curator of International Art, Tate Modern, London) are all very important political voices — both in the process of exhibition-making and what they have done in their life so far. You are more familiar with Rana’s works because she works in our context, she is someone we are all worried about and we admire her courage and stand for the position she takes and this stands for many of us or at least I know, for the both of us and we understand what that means. But each of these people and their histories fascinate us. We are honored that each of them is coming together to speak. So it is at a global level and not just about the political environment of our country and what does it mean for a contemporary gallery to show the work that is relevant to our times and speak about what is important to think about. We understand that a wide range of people, including young people, see and read what we do. Experimenter is a thinking organism and it has always been. So it is very important then that even through the choice of the Hub, we reflect these concerns. Some things are deeply personal and politics is also deeply personal, but the inclusion of these people this year, evermore, is very important. In fact, each of the years, we have been thinking about what is most relevant to learn for or stand for.
The Hub is presented by the Experimenter Learning Programme Foundation, which is our year-long commitment to learning. Each of these people will be invited individually to engage with smaller groups in the city and then whoever wants to come from wherever in the world, which we will announce throughout the year via the various modules that we do. So the Hub is propositional and we stand for what they do but we see this as a long term engagement with each of these individuals for deeper engagement with our audiences and we think there are a lot of possibilities from that exchange.
Picture: Courtesy of Experimenter
The participating curators and collaborators:
• Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona; collaborating with Lily Hall, curator at The Showroom, London
• Mikala Tai, curator, head of Visual Arts at Australia Council for the Arts, previously the director of the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney; collaborating with Marc Goldenfein, creative entrepreneur and co-founder of ArtsPay, Sydney
• Osei Bonsu, curator of international art, Tate Modern, London; collaborating with Ndidi Dike, Nigerian artist and sculptor, Lagos
• Rattanamol Singh Johal, art historian and curator, New York; collaborating with Emily Jacir and Aline Khoury, Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research, Bethlehem
• Stephanie Rosenthal, curator and director of Gropius Bau, Berlin; collaborating with Grace Ndiritu, British-Kenyan artist and filmmaker, London
• Closing Speaker: Rana Ayyub
The hub will be moderated by Natasha Ginwala, associate curator at Gropius Bau; Artistic Director of Colomboscope, Berlin/Colombo
