November 4–30, 2019

Application deadline: September 5

Hosted by SAFA (Shanghai Academy of Fine Art, Shanghai University) and Shanghai International Art City Research Institute, in collaboration with Shanghai Biennale (Power Station of Art), Shanghai Curators Lab (SCL) is a dynamic and challenging curatorial platform for early career curators focusing on experimental and critical discussion of the ecology of curatorial practice. SCL is also an artistic agency to intervene in and interpret the meaning of artistic and cultural production in a period of transforming knowledge, information, systems and values. Since curatorial practice has become an open-ended, catalytic cultural agency for shifting perspectives on artistic, socio-political, environmental, urban and various industrial showcases, a wide range of intersectional meeting points for research and practice is essential.

The Lab consists of talks by 20 invited art professionals, thinkers, activists, architects, filmmakers, and cultural readers on a variety of subjects. The topics and programs of the Shanghai Curators Lab include multidisciplinary exhibition-making, the ecosystem of disciplines and expertises, technological advancement and its responses, the Anthropocene, the regeneration and revitalization of industrial heritage, and new exits for perennial artistic events.

SCL is a rare and extensive participatory program which since it’s initiation has been jointly organized by a university, a museum, a biennale and an art city. Participating curators will present their artistic projects at the end of the program, and the strongest proposal will be selected to be realized at an art institution in Shanghai the following year. The presentation will be open to the public and art institution officials in Shanghai in the form of a symposium.

Led by professor Yongwoo Lee and curator-duo Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, founders of curatorial collective Art Reoriented, participants will experience and explore the hybridized, multi-layered art community of Shanghai and more broadly China during their time in the Lab. SCL serves to bridge art and educational institutions across China and beyond, having already created a remarkable impact in its first year launch led by two lead professors Carolyn Christov Bakargiev (Director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art) and Yongwoo Lee, with the participation of 21 curators from 12 countries. It works to facilitate theoretical and practical implications not only in the area of visual arts, but also in the context of knowledge production.

Applicants interested in participating should email their self-introduction letter, resume, and motivation to the specified email address below by September 5. The applications will be juried by lead professors and representatives of relevant institutions. Applications will only be accepted via email, with a final selection of 22 curators under the age of 33. SCL will provide free tuition and accommodations for the selected curators. Participants will be responsible for their own round-trip air tickets to and from Shanghai as well as their meals during their stay.

Lead professors

Dr. Yongwoo Lee is the artistic director of SIAC Research Institute and professor of SAFA of Shanghai University. He was the executive director of the Shanghai Himalayas Museum and the president of the International Biennial Association. He was the founding director of the Gwangju Biennale in 1995 and served as the president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation. He has curated numerous exhibitions that include Nam June Paik Retrospective (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Museum, Korea), Dansaekhwa (Palazzo Contarini Polignac Venice, collateral event for the 56th Venice Biennale), International Film and Video since the 1980s (Shanghai Himalayas Museum), Shanghai Project (co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist), and The Challenging Souls (Power Station of Art, Shanghai, co-curated with Gong Yan), among others.

Drs. Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath are Founders of the multidisciplinary curatorial platform Art Reoriented in Munich and New York. They are Chairmen of the Montblanc Cultural Foundation in Hamburg, and Affiliate Curators at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. Internationally recognized independent curators and award winning authors, they are renowned for their rigorous intertemporal, transcultural, and cross-disciplinary approach. They have taught at various universities, including the London School of Economics and New York University. Their exhibitions, which include Ways of Seeing, Surrealism in Egypt, Dansaekhwa, Staging Film, and Tea with Nefertiti have been shown in institutions such as Centre Pompidou in Paris, Villa Empain in Brussels, Kunstsammlung K20 in Dusseldorf, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Gwangju and Busan Museums of Art in South Korea, Tate Liverpool, ARTER in Istanbul and Reina Sofia in Madrid. In 2016 they were curatorial attachés to the 20th Biennale of Sydney. At the Venice Biennale, they were curators of the Lebanese Pavilion in 2013 and the Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates in 2019.

Contact: info [​at​] curatorslab.cn