The National Culture and Arts Foundation and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum will co-organize the Curators’ Intensive Taipei 19 this year. Programmed by TheCube Project Space, the CIT19 will proceed in a two-pronged fashion—international conference and workshops, insofar as to echo the diversification of contemporary curatorial approaches and forge a platform for international dialogue and exchange. To maximize the CIT19’s potential, the organizers will collaborate closely with art museums, galleries, academies and curators in Taiwan, providing young curators with great opportunities by means of resource pooling and on the basis of pioneers’ expertise and extensive experience.

The international conference will be preceded by a concatenation of curators’ workshops scheduled in May and June 2019. Art practitioners/curators par excellence (incl. institutional curators, independent curators and researchers from performing arts, visual arts, commercial galleries and non-profit independent spaces) from Taiwan and abroad are invited to lead these workshops, in which the participants can learn, cogitate and put their ideas into practice through the group interaction and pluralistic dialogue that these workshops afford. We positively welcome applications from all young people who aspire to be a professional curator of contemporary art. The workshops will be hosted by the Museum of National Taipei University of Education and co-programmed by the Master’s Program in Critical and Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art, National Taipei University of Education.

Titled Contemporary Curating Rethink: In the Context of Asia and Beyond, the three-day international conference will take place from 11 to 13 October 2019. Details about the events and contents will be released at a later date.

Objectives of the CIT19

As a platform established by the ARTWAVE─Taiwan International Arts Network (an active agent for the National Culture and Arts Foundation), the Curators’ Intensive Taipei 19: International Conference and Workshops (CIT19) accentuates the profession of curating contemporary art, seeking to encourage international dialogue and build up a strong network of art practitioners from the four corners of the world, so as to get the curatorial education into a state of greater profoundness.

In the 20 years’ root-taking and thriving development of the curatorial studies in Taiwan, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum has been a bellwether of curatorial experimentation and incubation. The museum’s endeavor to construct Taiwan’s history of curating and the system of curatorial knowledge has manifested itself in many major events and projects it orchestrated, such as the Taipei Biennial since 1998, the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the experimental collection exhibitions in recent years, and the open call for curatorial proposals.

Centering on Taiwan’s cultural heritage, geographical location and historical background, the CIT19 will not only explore the history and methodology of curating as well as the role and responsibility of a curator within the Asian context, but also stimulate reflections on how “curating,” while simultaneously in researchful, exhibitional and pedagogical roles, can lay out brand new contexts as effective as creative in face of the trends towards cross-cultural fusion and exhibition-based educational turn.

Emerging Curators’ Workshops

[Lecturers]
The six workshops feature a total of twelve lecturers from Taiwan and abroad. Each workshop will be led by two lecturers and last for four hours. The participants of these workshops will bring up their views about the studies and practice of contemporary curating for in-depth discussion in experimental ways.

  • 18 May: Merv ESPINA (Philippines), YAP Sau-Bin (Malaysia)
  • 25 May: Alexander LAU (Hong Kong/New York), Freya CHOU (Hong Kong/Taiwan)
  • 1 June: TANG Fu-Kuen (Singapore/Taiwan), YUEN Chee-Wai (Singapore)
  • 8 June: HSU Fang-Tze (Taiwan/Singapore), Vipash PURICHANONT (Thailand)
  • 10 and 14 October: TBC

>> Lecturers and Workshop Introductions

[Number of Places]
The number of places available for the workshops is 25 (15 recommended by art academies and institutions; 10 admitted through selection).

[Language]
These workshops will be conducted in English. Fluency in English is required.

[Eligibility]

  • Aged twenty or over (born before 16 April 1999).
  • At least two years’ experience of curating or relevant expertise (please enumerate your work experience in the application form.)
  • Good communication skills in English

[Charge]
These workshops do not charge for the participants, but the cost of individual transportation, accommodation and insurance shall be covered by the participants at their own expense.

[Venue]
All the workshops will be held at MoNTUE’s auditorium on the ground floor, except the last one (14 Oct.) at TFAM’s Art Library in the basement (the workshops will be held on these dates and at these venues until further notice).

Application

[Deadline]
15 April 2019, before 23:59

[Submission]
All applications should be made online. Those by post will be rejected.
Please complete the application form on the following website :
https://thecube.tw/cit19form

[Documents]
Required:

  • Profile
  • Proposal: The proposal should contain the applicant’s motive of participation and opinion on curating (incl. the focus/subject/scope of the applicant’s past curatorial practice); maximum 500 words in English AND 1,000 words in Chinese.
  • Résumé: Maximum a one-page (A4) in English AND Chinese
  • Attendance: Please simply check the boxes on the application form. Those who are able to partake in all the six workshops will be given top priority in the selection.

Optional:

  • A (hypothetical) curatorial proposal containing the exhibition title, curatorial philosophy, names of participating artists and installation design; maximum 500 words in English
  • Letters of recommendation or other relevant documents

* The result of selection will be announced on the official website at the end of this April, and the selected applicants will be given notice respectively.

Point of Contact

cit19@thecube.tw 
coordinator: LAI Hsiao-Ying