International visitor programme for curators of visual arts
The UFO Visitors Programme introduces international professionals to support and development formats for (young) artists in Flanders and Brussels. The programme aims to connect multiple players in this field, to exchange knowledge and experience, and to nourish an international network of references and opportunities. During each visitor’s programme we focus on two different UFO organisations. These organisations propose a programme with meetings with artists, visits of exhibitions, as well as professional social events for a group of international curators.
UFO VISITORS PROGRAMME #2
This second edition is initiated by VONK and MORPHO together with Z33 and Extra City, supported by Flanders Art Institute.
WHOM
Madeleine Planeix-Crocker – Associate Curator at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, France
Mikkel Elming – Director at Glasmuseet Ebeltoft and independent curator, Denmark
Katrine Elise Pedersen – Curator and Interim Director at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway
Katayoun Arian – Independent curator and Curator at TENT, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Guido Santandrea – Artistic Director at Almanac, London & Turin
Tim Roerig – Curator at Z33, Hasselt, Belgium
See full visitor profiles below
PROGRAMME
Tuesday 24 May – Hasselt
14:00 Arrival in Hasselt
16:00 Public reception with drinks and bites at VONK_Veldeman, Kempische Kaai 85a, 3500 Hasselt
18:00 Walk to Z33
18:30 UFO public programme at Z33, inscribe HERE! (more info below)
Wednesday 25 May – Hasselt
10:00 Studio visits with VONK artist
13:00 Lunch with the artists
16:00 Break time
17u30 Welcome reception and guided tour at Z33
20:00 Private networking dinner with guests at Z33
Thursday 26 May – Antwerp
Travel to Antwerp
12:00 Lunch prepared by MORPHO’s residents
14:00 Guided tour by former resident Aay Liparoto in their solo exhibition Fictional Ceramics for Failed Relationships at MORPHO’s project space
15:00 Studio visits with MORPHO’s current artists in residence
21:00 Antwerp Art Weekend opening reception at M HKA
Friday, 27 May 2022
12:00 Guided tour by artist Vedran Kopljar in his solo exhibition The Cloud of Unknowing at C A S S T L
13:00 Lunch
15:00 Guided tour by curators Vedran Kopljar, Nadia Bijl and Pepa De Maesschalck in the group show Exiting the Vampire Castle at Lichtekooi
16:00 Studio visit with artists from the collective toitoiDrome at MORPHO’s Zendelingenstraat Studios
18:00 Guided tour by curator Joachim Naudts in the group show Made in X at Kunsthal Extra City
19:30 Private dinner hosted by Kunsthal Extra City
PUBLIC PROGRAMME
For artists: public talk with international curators about support for artists in their country
Tuesday 24 May – UFO public programme at VONK and Z33
Join the conversation and learn about international support and opportunities for artists.
Inscribe HERE!
This evening we start at VONK for a tour at our studios, a reception and some small food. Afterwards we visit Z33 where all artists can dive into the knowledge and network of the international curators in smaller groups. In these groups we discuss items such as: what kind of support is present for artists in your country? How to approach a contact or network in your country? What kind of residency spaces or artist run spaces are available. Which organization show emerging international artists?
Bring an extra set of questions you can ask the curators and join the talk to start building a sustainable environment for your practice.
Programme
16:00 Public reception with drinks and bites at VONK_Veldeman, Kempische Kaai 85a, 3500 Hasselt
18:00 Walk to Z33
18:30 UFO public programme at Z33, Bonnefantenstraat 1, 3500 Hasselt
21:00 End
The conversation will continue in English
VISITOR PROFILES
Madeleine Planeix-Crocker
Associate Curator at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, France
I am a French-American research-practitioner, curator and educator. I grew up in Los Angeles, immersed in dance and theatre practices as of childhood. Currently, I am a PhD candidate in performance studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris ; my research focuses on the commons and contemporary performance in France. I am also Associate Curator at Lafayette Anticipations, a contemporary art centre also located in Paris. Furthermore, I co-chair the “Troubles, Dissidences et Esthétiques” department at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, teaching a course in art theory via the lens of queer and intersectional studies. Finally, I facilitate a bi-monthly theatre and creative writing workshop at Women Safe, a brave space for womxn-identified survivors of assault in the Yvelines (France).
What are you currently working on ?
Currently, I am collaborating with River Lin, a Taiwanese artist based in Paris, on his upcoming group performance My Body is a Queer History Museum that I’m curating at Lafayette Anticipations (May 21-22). This performance questions the “stuff” of museums — on what foundations they are built, through which collections, and with what purpose — via corporal interventions within an existing exhibit. Indeed, through shared experiences of migration and displacement, queer&non-binary storytelling, the five performers invited by River Lin will embody their own ephemeral museum, in dialogue with painter Xinyi Cheng’s solo show “seen through others”, currently on display at Lafayette Anticipations (curated by Christina Li). My Body is a Queer History Museum proposes a series of choreographic happenings and workshops that will translate daily rituals and offer tools for the deconstruction/unlearning of museum practices — from how we program to how we welcome visitors.
How would you define your practice & how would you see your relationship with artists?
Similarly to my approach to research, I envision artistic programming as one based in practice. I aim to invite artists with whom I can converse through a shared language of movement politics. This affinity and proximity allows me, I hope, to “stand with” artists (I’m conjuring here the great work of scholar and activist Kim TallBear). By this, I mean that I can improve my curatorial practice through an embodied understanding of their work-convictions. In my perspective, this provides the necessary grounds for a collaborative dialogue with artists throughout their creative process. I believe that curators are facilitators of experiences and mediators within institutions, in the service of artists and visitors. I’m specifically interested in experiences that question how bodies can co-exist in various environments (both hospitable and hostile) and provoke different relationalities (of critique, refusal, and/or resistance) within these spaces.
What do you expect from the UFO visitors programme?
I hope to meet colleagues from various cultural structures and to learn from their practices, as well from those of artists at the heart of Belgium’s vibrant art scene. I’m particularly interested in the different residency programs spearheading this gathering, in how they envision hosting and facilitating short-medium-term projects. And, in the spirit of my keen interest in the commons, I hope to share my own practices with the goal of cross-pollination. Much gratitude to all organizing teams.
Mikkel Elming
director of Glasmuseet Ebeltoft and independent curator, Denmark
I have recently been appointed as director of Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, a museum of international glass art in Denmark. For the last couple of years, I have been a curator of contemporary art at Kunsthal Aarhus. I have co-created and been the director of the organizations Regelbau 411 and the Association for Contemporary Art. Regelbau 411 is an international art centre for sound, light and video art in two WWII bunkers in rural Denmark. The Association for Contemporary Art is an open voluntary organization with over 130 members that serves as an experimental and project-driven platform for young artists and curators. Among my interest are collaborative creation, experimentation, site specificity, performativity, interdisciplinarity, and post humanity. I love to work with the curatorial possibilities of long-term institutional thinking and challenging conventional ways of curating. I hold a master’s degree in art history from Aarhus University.
What are you currently working on ?
I am setting a new course for the museum working with sustainability as a driver for radical institutional development. Also, we want to explore new ways of bringing the exhibiting artists into the core of the institutional praxis. Overall, we are working to create an experimental contemporary art institution focusing on glass as artistic material.
Besides the glass art museum, I currently curate a temporary “Institute of Coexsistence” at the Finnish art museum WAM together with the artist Gry Worre Hallberg and the organization Sisters Hope. The project is running for a year and presents artistic research into ways of coexistence.
I am also co-curating an exhibition titled “Minimalism-Maximalism-Mechanissmmm” which has been shown in Art Sonje Center, Seoul, and is heading to Kunsthal Aarhus this autumn.
How would you define your practice?
I consider myself an artist-curator, though I seldomly called myself that. I like working with curation and institutions as a form of experimental art.
How would you see your relationship with artists?
It depends a lot on the project. In general, I try to build lasting relations to artists I like. I love following and getting involved in the development of a practice. I like working with artists that see potential in having a partner to deal with the presentation of the work and who are not afraid to let go of the curation when they trust their curator. I find that the best relations with artists are built on friendship and giving space for collaborative creation – both ways.
What do you expect from the UFO visitors programma?
I hope to get more familiar with the Belgian art scene and to meet some interesting artists and art.
Katrine Elise Pedersen
curator and interim director at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway
Since 1 May 2022 I have been interim director at Kunsthall Trondheim, whereas my initial role at the Kunsthall is curator and producer. Kunsthall Trondheim is the largest international arena for contemporary art in the Trøndelag region of Norway. We produce exhibitions and programmes that reflect our globalised society, problematise normative gender roles and sexual identity, and highlight marginalised artistic positions and artists that have not yet been exhibited in Trøndelag. During the period of 2020-2025, we focus on knowledge production through interdisciplinary and artistic research, dialogue with science and technology, sustainability, health, and climate by contributing artistic perspectives to these fields.
What are you currently working on?
Recently, I have been working on the group show Unweaving the binary code – Hannah Ryggen Triennale, co-curated with Stefanie Hessler, which just opened for the public at the Kunsthall a month ago. Through the works of contemporary artists, the exhibition explores the legacies of the feminist textile artist Hannah Ryggen (1894–1970) and the Victorian mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) to dive into the binary systems of weaving and code, but also other societal binaries. Right now, I am for example working towards an upcoming solo exhibition with the artist Susanne M. Winterling which explores the cultural, biological and medical aspects of temperature which opens in September.
How would you define your practice?
My practice has been oriented towards themes of alternative, non-linear realities, spiritualities, and knowledge systems as well as minor histories which seemingly have not been included in the main strains of official (human) world narratives.
The capacity of artworks to for example question hegemonic forms of power structures through its sensual and affective aspects is key, both to my engagement with art and for the unique role and value the visual arts have in the society at large.
How would you see your relationship with artists?
I see my role as a part of a support structure for the artists I work with, where the structure is never fixed, always changing in relation to the artist’s specific needs and persona – often this support structure also goes both ways. As a curator and producer working in a public institution, I function as a sparring partner, collaborator, practical organizer and as a bridge between the artist and our audiences through contextualizing their work through texts, program and mediation, et cetera.
What do you expect from the UFO visitors program?
I look very much forward to exciting days with the UFO Visitors Programme, to knowing more about the art scenes of Hasselt and Antwerp and to explore Belgian-based artistic practices that I perhaps did not know from before, as well as meeting the other curators that are invited and the organizers of the UFO Visitors Programme.
Katayoun Arian
Independent curator and curator at TENT, Rotterdam, Netherlands
My name is Katayoun Arian, my preferred pronouns are she/her, and I am a curator from Amsterdam. Though my curatorial activities have developed out of a self-directed and independent practice, over the past three years, I’ve also worked as a curator at TENT in Rotterdam, a platform for contemporary art. TENT develops exhibitions, new commissions, educational projects, performances and events, mainly with artists from the Rotterdam context but also from elsewhere.
What are you currently working on?
Aside from two forthcoming exhibitions, I am now in the early stages of editing a publication that brings together some ideas and themes inherent in the last exhibition I curated at TENT, titled ‘Wo Wants to Live in a World Without Magic?’. Parallel to my creative interests and research surrounding this exhibition project, my intention is to commission other essays and artist contributions. At this moment, central to my thinking are the – to me – interrelated concepts of magic, materiality, sonic imaginaries, and archival work as an embodied, feminist, and decolonial practice.
How would you define your practice?
My approach to exhibition-making has often been immersive, poetic, and affective in language and spatial design. The exhibitions I have curated all have in common a revisionist-perspective on art history, historiography, and hegemonic discourses surrounding alterity and subjectivity, for example. In my ongoing exploration of affectively experiencing exhibitions, I move with the speculative, imaginary, and transformative potential of art works.
Beyond the medium of the exhibition, the abovementioned approach extends to other ways of working. Since 2017, I have spent a lot of time digging music from 20th century Iran and adjacent countries with a particular focus on – lesser known or forgotten – music that supports the repertoire of, particularly, female vocalists. My DJ archival work – available on my soundcloud page –, essentially, is a curatorial practice driven from a self-directed research in feminist, sonic imaginaries and meditations that travel beyond the notion of the nation state. Another aspect that I consider to be a part of my curatorial work, is the facilitation of exchange and dialogue in, for example, (semi-public) study groups, conversation circles, and discursive events. In other words, my practice envelops a range of different formats and mediums as far as the curatorial goes.
How do you see your relationship with artists?
I like to see my relationship with artists as one that is rooted in reciprocity. I appreciate working-relationships that are dialogical, allowing for meaningful conversations to develop over time. An artist-curator working relationship ideally builds on reflection, excitement, and mutual orientation that slowly but surely evolves into a shared commitment and responsibility that is a collaboration. It is evident to me that artists and curators need one another. It is at the intersection of both practices, where sense making, meaning making can happen in creative, interesting, and re-enchanting ways, even if those conversations and exchanges don’t necessarily coalesce into an actual project.
What do you expect from the UFO visitors programme?
While I don’t have any particular expectation, I am very eager to meet with artists based in Belgium through this opportunity. Even though The Netherlands and Belgium are neighbouring countries, I experience their respective cultural landscapes to be very different. I am excited at the prospect of engaging with artists from the Flemish context considering the different scope it will bring to my understanding of artistic and cultural production beyond the local context I am currently working in.
Guido Santandrea
artistic director of Almanac, London & Turin
I am working on a series of events which are part of the current exhibition by Chiara Camoni at Almanac in Turin. The project, curated by Caterina Avataneo, is shaped by the contribution of different participants and activated by a series of dinners which explore the state of intoxication from different perspectives and fields. I am also working on the production of a new video by Turin-based artist Cleo Fariselli and I am finalizing the participatory projects part of our current programme in London.
How would you define your practice?
By focusing on solo exhibitions and new commissions by emerging artists, Almanac aims to support artistic research and development, and to provide a deeper knowledge of these practices to the public through a complementary programme of participatory and educational projects. Almanac aims to facilitate dialogues and exchanges between different fields of research and publics as a way of opening up artistic practices to new registers of thought. This is done by engaging with ways art can become a part of the daily rhythms of life. Our programmes are informed by our commitment towards stimulating public engagement and inclusion, and by our interest in exploring the borders of curatorial agency and the potential of cultural change through creative collaborations.
How would you see your relationship with artists?
Working on new productions, I try to build a dialogue with the artist from an early stage of the projects providing both theoretical and practical support throughout the duration of the project. I try to align my research and curatorial practice to the artist’s vision and interests, working in relation with the context in which we choose or find ourselves operating.
What do you expect from the UFO visitors programma?
I am very grateful for this opportunity which I hope will give me an overview of the local scene and sow the seeds of future exchanges and collaborations.
Tim Roerig
Curator at Z33, Hasselt, Belgium
I am a curator at Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture in Hasselt, Belgium. My work at Z33 focuses on genre-bending artists who combine different artistic traditions and cultural registers. The exhibitions I have (co-)curated include “Sam Lewitt: CURE (the Work)” (2020), “Kamrooz Aram & Iman Issa: Lives of Forms” (with Silvia Franceschini, 2021), “Pejvak: If Need Be” (2021), “Mae-ling Lokko: Grounds for Return” (with Silvia Franceschini en Heleen van Loon, 2021), and the group exhibition, “In the Eye of the Storm” (2021).
What are you currently working on ?
I am currently working on “Art on the Meuse”, a series of large-scale public art commissions along the river Meuse. We are developing this project together with the locals. They are involved in the development of the artists’ briefs and discussions with artists. I am learning a lot from them. I am also working on future exhibitions at Z33, including one in conjunction with “Art on the Meuse”. It will explore artists’ relationships with rivers worldwide.
How would you define your practice?
I see my work as a collaborative endeavor with artists, publics and colleagues. My role is to bring everyone into the conversation so that new ideas can take shape. The exhibitions at Z33 grow from these conversations. Of course, I also bring my own research interests into the discussion. Currently, I am interested in the notion of the sacred in contemporary art, literature and music.
How would you see your relationship with artists?
I support artists in developing and realizing their ideas by acting as a sparring partner and as a producer. I also try to bring artworks into meaningful dialogue with each other and with the public.
What do you expect from the UFO visitors programma?
I mostly look forward to unexpected encounters with new people and ideas. In my opinion, the best thing about visitors’ programs is that they let you discover artists and ideas you didn’t know you were looking for!
PREVIOUS EDITIONS
#1 Cas-co and Level Five – March 2022