Frame Contemporary Art Finland and HIAP (Helsinki International Artist Programme) have announced their selection of four curators to participate in the Helsinki International Curatorial Programme (HICP) in 2017.
Curators Gina Buenfeld, Kris Dittel, Blanca Victoria López and Carolina Ongaro have been selected for one-month curatorial residencies in Helsinki. The application round was held in October 2016, with a total of 134 applications received.
The number of applicants has increased every year. “We are very delighted about the high standard of the applications, which is a sign that the HICP has achieved excellent recognition among international art professionals,” says Anna Vihma, Frame’s Head of Programme.
The Helsinki International Curatorial Programme 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. 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
Gina Buenfeld (residency at HIAP Cable Factory in June 2017) is a curator at Camden Arts Centre (CAC), London where she has worked with artists including Bonnie Camplin, Simon Starling, Jeremy Deller, Joao Maria Gusmao & Pedro Paiva, Nathalie Djurberg and Karl Holmqvist, as well as with the estates of 20th Century artists such as Pino Pascali, Hanne Darboven and Dieter Roth. She has successfully delivered a series of new commissions including ambitious film projects by Joachim Koester (in collaboration with August Orts) and Simon Martin (with Film London / FLAMIN).
From February to August 2017 Gina will be on sabbatical from CAC to pursue research into the aural cultures that preserve knowledge of specific landscapes in the Peruvian Amazon, Finland’s boreal forests, and Cornwall’s coastal regions and to produce an ambitious new film by Hannah Collins, which will be shot in the Colombian Amazon.
In 2014–2015 Gina was curator-in-residence with Arts Initiative Tokyo during which time she curated At the Still Point of the Turning World, which reflected on the distinct theatrical atmospheres of Noh and Butoh.
Gina has an MA in History of Art (20th Century) from Goldsmiths College (2004) and was previously Director at Alison Jacques Gallery, London. Gina has written essays for artists’ publications and was visiting curator at Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice from 2012–2013. She has been a mentor for the Siobhan Davies Dance Artist and Curator mentoring scheme and the Standpoint Gallery residency programme.
Kris Dittel (residency at HIAP Suomenlinna in November 2017) is an independent curator and editor living and working in the Netherlands. She is associate curator at the Onomatopee project space in Eindhoven and is also an art book publisher and member of the research duo The Translation Trip, who investigate translation as practice, philosophical notion and curatorial device. Currently she is undertaking a study on the use of voice as material in artistic practices and on contemporary art’s relationship to value.
Prior to studying Art and Heritage at Maastricht University, she earned a degree in Economics and Social Sciences at the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. In 2013–2014 Dittel participated in the de Appel Curatorial Programme in Amsterdam followed by a curatorial fellowship in 2015 at Pool Projects in Zürich.
Blanca Victoria López (residency at HIAP Cable Factory in June 2017) from Havana, Cuba graduated with honors from Havana University, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from the Faculty of Arts and Philology. She is a researcher and curator at the Contemporary Art Center Wifredo Lam, and since 2011, she has been a member of the curatorial board of the Havana Biennial.
She is also general coordinator of the “Proyecto Reconciliaciones” (Reconciliations Project), a space of art and pedagogy at the University of Havana that promotes contemporary artistic practices developed in peripheral areas far from the international mainstream.
Carolina Ongaro (residency at HIAP Suomenlinna in November 2017) is an independent curator based in London. She holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is co-founder and co-director of Jupiter Woods, an exhibition space, residency programme and research and studio facility established in 2014 in in South-East London. She has here been initiating artists’ residencies, exhibitions and long-term projects, collectively and individually. She works both collaboratively and independently in London and internationally.
Recent projects include: that a body knows regardless with Jupiter Woods at Interstate Projects, New York, July 2016; Mystic Business, solo project by Jenny Moore at Jupiter Woods, London, June 2016; Dream Divider, solo exhibition by Nick Jeffrey at Horse and Pony Fine Arts, Berlin, June 2016; Unveiling (you embrace me, as I am) co-curated with Hanna Laura Kaljo at Jupiter Woods, London, May 2016; Resident / Longshore Drift with Jupiter Woods at Sorbus, Helsinki, April 2016; this place is really nowhere, Jupiter Woods, London, May 2015; Exquisite Collapse, blip blip blip, Leeds, February 2015.
Image: Visualization of the most common key words submitted by the applicants of the Helsinki International Curatorial Programme in 2017.