Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, one of many world’s most influential curators and museum administrators whose quirky exhibitions are much-loved by many, will retire on the finish of this yr.
Her retirement was introduced by the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Up to date Artwork, the Turin establishment the place Christov-Bakargiev has labored for over 20 years and which she has led since 2016. The museum promised a seek for a brand new director that might start on January 1, 2024.
Christov-Bakargiev is a big of the worldwide artwork scene, having organized an array of celebrated biennials. Her venturesome, offbeat sensibility has made her an affect for plenty of curators working at present.
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As she as soon as put it in a New York Occasions profile, “I’m that individual within the artwork world who says, ‘The sphere of artwork doesn’t exist anymore,’ in the best way somebody may need stated, ‘The Roman Empire doesn’t exist anymore, Mr. Charlemagne.’”
Her greatest curatorial endeavor was Documenta 13, the 2012 version of the famed exhibition that takes place as soon as each 5 years in Kassel, Germany. Her version, the second-ever Documenta curated by a girl, additionally set components of the present in far-flung locales like Alexandria and Banff—a mode that was later repeated in Documenta 14, which was partially staged in Athens—and in addition concerned a parallel exhibition in Kabul.
The present, in line with Documenta, “brought about confusion within the press previous to the exhibition together with her ‘non-concept,’ eco-feminism, canine calendars, an absurd title that nobody might keep in mind (The dance was frenetic, animated, clattering, twisted, and lasted a very long time).”
Her 2015 version of the Istanbul Biennial, titled “SALTWATER: A Idea of Thought Varieties,” likewise spun what might have been simply one other huge worldwide present in ever stranger instructions. She sprinkled the present throughout close by islands and addressed the Armenian genocide and salt.
“There are usually not so many works which might be about salt, as a result of the artists don’t must do issues about salt,” she informed ARTnews on the time. “For me salt is likely one of the codes. It’s about what’s underneath the floor of issues. Salt—you consider it as one thing you may’t eat an excessive amount of of, or you may’t drink salt water since you would die.”
In her capability as director and curator at varied establishments, together with the Villa Medici in Rome and MoMA PS1, Christov-Bakargiev undertook the standard actions anticipated of 1 in her job. She curated acclaimed exhibits and gained the assist of many artists. However she additionally demonstrated {that a} museum director needn’t be boring so as to thrive.
Her lengthy historical past with the Castello di Rivoli dates again to 2002, when she was employed as chief curator, and has since then, with just a few gaps when she was not on the museum, continued an array of off-kilter exhibitions.
In 2017, she organized a 400-work present about colours and feelings that was so huge, it additionally appeared on the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin, the place she was additionally director from 2016 to 2018. It featured items starting from historical Tantra drawings to movies by Hito Steyerl. A present in 2019 purported to feature a piece which will have been the precise Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, and newer years have introduced a sustained sequence of dialog with Beeple, with whom she cast ties lengthy earlier than some other artwork establishment did. Underneath her management, the Castello di Rivoli helped a refugee escape Afghanistan and was was a Covid vaccination website.
Her actions on the Castello di Rivoli might sometimes tackle a extra conventional really feel, as they did when, in 2017, she facilitated the museum’s acquisition of the $570 million Cerruti assortment, which incorporates several important works by Giorgio de Chirico. A grouping of exhibitions on the Castello di Rivoli have since showcased gems from the gathering.
Different exhibits by Christov-Bakargiev included the 2008 Biennale of Sydney and the 2000 version of Larger New York, the recurring present she based at MoMA PS1 that spotlights artists energetic within the metropolis.
True to kind, Christov-Bakargiev will stay energetic, even throughout her retirement. She is going to lead what a launch known as “a significant multi-year analysis and publication venture on her archive and nearly forty-year follow,” in addition to an exhibition concerning the Arte Povera motion that can open in Paris subsequent yr and the catalogues raisonnés of Fabio Mauri and Michelangelo Pistoletto.
“I’d particularly like to increase my heartfelt due to all of the artists I’ve had the privilege to work with for his or her unwavering dedication and generosity throughout my tenure,” she stated in an announcement. “Lastly, I stay up for returning to this magical and distinctive place as a member of the viewers.”