Curators Clelia Coussonnet, Annie Jael Kwan and Tereza Jindrová have been selected for one-month curatorial residencies in Helsinki. The application round was held in October 2018, with a total of 90 applications received.
The application jury contained Sepideh Rahaa (independent artist and researcher), Jussi Koitela (Head of Programme at Frame Contemporary Finland) and Juha Huuskonen (Director at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme).
“The selection process was intensive yet satisfactory and multiple factors was taken into consideration. The selected curators’ work and research revolve around the multifaceted socio-political topics of our time including investigation of power structures in relation to environmental issues, migration, feminism and politics of borders and identities.” says member of the jury Sepideh Rahaa.
The Helsinki International Curatorial Programme HICP provides curators with an opportunity to carry out research and work on international curatorial projects while building contacts with art practitioners and cultural organisations in Finland and internationally. Curatorial residencies are co-organised by Frame Contemporary Art Finland and the HIAP Helsinki International Artist Programme.
HIAP and Frame will both offer practical assistance, networking support and a critical context for the residents’ curatorial research and projects. Curators are offered possibility to contribute into Frame’s public programming during September 2019.
Bios
Clelia Coussonnet (b. 1989) is an independent curator, art editor and writer based Aix-en-Provence. Coussonnet is interested in how visual cultures tackle political, social and spiritual issues in different, or complementary, ways than other disciplines. She also likes to create interdisciplinary projects outside of traditional art circuits, particularly in contexts linked to craft or heritage and in spaces previously unused for cultural projects.
Lately, her research has been revolving around botanical politics and power structures, resulting in the exhibitions Botany under Influence, apexart, New York, USA (autumn 2016) and Leave No Stone Unturned [Remuer la terre], Le Cube – independent art room, Rabat, Morocco (autumn 2019). She also contributed an essay looking at artistic and curatorial practices focusing on botanical politics for the publication Theatrum Botanicum edited by Uriel Orlow and Shela Sheikh (Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2018).
Recently, she curated Alter Me, Alter You [Промени ме, променям те] at the Goethe-Institut Sofia, Bulgaria (summer 2018); Olympic Stadium at Le Patio Paris, France (spring 2018); Au loin les signaux, al lou’lou’, exhibition, performance and night screening, in the dockyards of L’Anse du Pharo Marseilles, France (autumn 2017).
As an editor, she collaborated with Clément Faydit and Alexandros Simopoulos to publish driftongue (2018), an editorial object stemming from Hors Pistes’ 2017 residency in Nuuk, Greenland between international designers and local craftsmen. She also co-developed the editorial project In/Visible Voices of Women, together with Missla Libsekal, an artist book about Safâa Erruas, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Nicène Kossentini, Amina Menia and Zineb Sedira (early 2019).
HICP residency in May 2019.
Annie Jael Kwan (b. 1973) is an independent curator, researcher and educator based in London. She has worked on numerous art projects in the UK and internationally since 2005, working with major arts and cultural institutions including the Southbank Centre, Geffrye Museum, Barbican Centre, and the Live Art Development Agency.
She founded the curatorial partnership, Something Human, in 2012, to focus on her interests in the critical ideas and explorations surrounding movement across borders. In 2017, Something Human launched the M.A.P. (Movement x Archive x Performance) project at the Diaspora Pavilion in Venice; and in London, the pioneering Southeast Asian Performance Collection at the Live Art Development Agency that would offer researchers, artists and curators access to performance art materials from Southeast Asia.
She was selected for the International Curators Forum’s curatorial programme, Beyond the Frame, and for Outset and Arts Council England’s development programme for emerging curators for which she curated the colloquium Curating Radical Futures that took place at Tate Modern in November 2017. In 2018, she curated UnAuthorised Medium, at Framer Framed, Amsterdam, and she is the founding core member of Asia-Art-Activism, which is currently in residence at Raven Row till June 2019.
She holds a BA Honours in Drama and Theatre Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a MA (Distinction) in History of Art and/or Archaeology from SOAS, University of London. She is a contributor to Art Asia Pacific, and teaches at Central St Martins and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
HICP residency in September 2019.
Tereza Jindrová (b. 1988) is an art critic and curator based in Prague. Currently, she works as the Curator and Manager of Public Programs for the Jindrich Chalupecky Society. On a long term basis, she cooperates with the Educational Department of the National Gallery in Prague, with online platform Artyčok.TV and with the Czech Radio. Since 2014, she has been the co-curator of the Entrance Gallery in Prague and has been a board member of Skutek, a Czech association connecting artists and other cultural producers with a focus on institutional politics and the conditions of artistic production. Her previous experiences include working as the Fine Arts editor at A2 magazine, working for Flash Art magazine Czech and Slovak Edition, the Prague Biennale and Meetfactory – Centre of Contemporary Art in Prague.
She studied History of Art at the Charles University and Theory and History of Design and New Media at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. She was awarded with Věra Jirousová’s Award (2013) for art criticism for young authors.
In the past two years, she curated/co-curated Alexandra Pirici’s performative project Delicate Instruments of Enagagement at National Gallery, Prague; Healing at Czech Centre Berlin; performance project of Barbora Kleinhamplová at Art in General, New York; Hanky Panky at Fotopub Festival, Novo Mesto; Apparatus for a Utopian Image at EFA Project Space, New York; Monument – A School of Gestures at CCC Gallery, Beijing; and GIRLFRIEND at National Gallery, Prague.
HICP residency in May 2019.