Today, Tuesday, October 8th, Ivet Ćurlin and Nataša Ilić, members of the curator collective What, How & for Whom / WHW, were introduced as guest lecturers at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Rector Johan Hartle welcomes the collective: “WHW is an internationally outstanding collective that I value very much and with which we have already worked well together. After the impressive work at the Istanbul Biennale 2009 and of course in the Kunsthalle Wien, we are pleased to now employ WHW at the academy.” Nataša Ilić and Ivet Ćurlin will realize exhibition projects with students over the next two years with the support of the Kontakt Collection.
With the project “The secret is that there is no secret,” WHW wants to discuss curating as a collaborative effort with students from the academy. “The curatorial training system aims to professionalize the activity. It often reduces curation to a management function within an institutional framework. In response, we want to focus on the relationship between power, politics and curatorial means,” said Ivet Ćurlin and Nataša Ilić from WHW.
As part of their teaching assignment, Ilić and Ćurlin will specifically address institutions in Vienna and Austria that have shown artistic practices from Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CEE): “We will go beyond the ideological framework of a West-East division and us “Focus on the effects of colonial and imperialist relationships as well as connections between different geographies.” Curatorial projects, developed together with students and realized in the form of exhibitions or other formats, will make previously little-researched levels of exhibition practice visible and provide an analysis of their political effects .
The two-year teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, supported by the ERSTE Foundation, promotes educational programs that make knowledge about the theory and practice of art in the former Eastern Europe accessible. The support of the ERSTE Foundation is on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the contact collection.
Über What, How & for Whom / WHW
What, How & for Whom / WHW is a curator collective founded in Zagreb in 1999 and whose members are the curators Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović as well as the designer Dejan Kršić. WHW’s characteristic methodology combines exhibition practice, historical research and innovative discursive and media formats. Between 2019 and 2024, three members of the collective – Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović – directed the Kunsthalle Wien. During this time, Ana Dević was responsible for the WHW program in Zagreb. In August 2024, Ćurlin, Ilić and Sabolović were appointed artistic directors of the Sculpture Projects 2027 in Münster. WHW continues to operate in Zagreb. www.whw.hr
About the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is one of the most renowned and influential art universities in the world. It is firmly established in the fabric of the regional and international cultural landscape as well as in urban society and can look back on over 330 years of history. The various institutes with their artistic and scientific focuses as well as the outstanding art collections also contribute to its international reputation. www.akbild.ac.at
About the contact collection
The Kontakt Collection is an independent, non-profit organization that promotes Central, Eastern and Southeast European art. She is committed to making experimental educational concepts of the Eastern European neo-avant-garde accessible. Through an open learning process and direct contact with artists and art theorists, students should become familiar with new approaches to Eastern European art and art creation outside of established contexts and traditional academic structures. www.kontakt-collection.org
OTS ORIGINAL TEXT PRESS RELEASE UNDER THE EXCLUSIVE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SENDER FOR CONTENT – WWW.OTS.AT | AKB