The partners of the Nordic-Baltic Curatorial Research Programme (NBC) announce the participants of the exhibition assistant exchange programme 2020: Tal Gilad, Vera Kavaleuskaya, Alen Ksoll and Essi Vesala who will work for 1 – 2 months at Tallinn Art Hall (Estonia), Luleå biennial (Sweden) or Frame Contemporary Art (Finland). The participants were selected via an open call that received 46 applications.
The Exhibition Assistant Exchange Programme is an opportunity for emerging curators and art professionals to gain work experience and be part of preparing and producing a major art event. The programme offers paid internship opportunities for young art professionals and promotes co-operation between the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Participants of the programme in 2020/2021:
Tal Gilad is a Stockholm-based independent curator. Her education includes a BFA in fine arts from Bezalel, Jerusalem, and postgraduate in the curatorial studies program of the Kibbutzim College of Education and CCA Tel-Aviv. Tal Gilad is a recent CuratorLab 2019/2020 at Konstfack University alumna and worked in and with institutions such as The Digital Art Lab (Holon), The Center for Contemporary Art (Tel-Aviv), Tensta Konsthall, The Nordic art association/NKF(Stockholm) and The Visible. “My choice was The Luleå Biennial out of interest in the particular rural region in the North of Sweden and motivation for supporting Mint in creating yet another intriguing Biennial,” explains Tal Gilad.
Vera Kavaleuskaya is a curator and editor based in Helsinki, who is concentrating her research and practice on institutional critique with a focus on ethical and ideological questions of curatorial praxis, leisure and labor in capitalist and post-capitalist society, and mental health under the conditions of neoliberalism. Vera chose Luleå Biennial because of its aim at de-centralization and active involvement with the local community: “I am interested in practically learning the strategies of working at the margins rather than the “periphery”, and ways of engaging with the local environment, publics, and historical and natural landscapes.”
Alen Ksoll is a curator and researcher based in Stockholm. He studied social anthropology and curatorial studies. He is running School in Common — a self-organized school for studying, learning and being in common, together with curator and translator Rosa Paardenkooper. His research interests concerns artistic knowledge production, collective research and civic participation. “I am interested in the Frame’s public program “Researching Hospitalities”,” explains Ksoll, “because it looks at the notion of hospitality beyond the logics of inherent knowledges and allowing for experiments and new approaches to public programming in arts.”
Essi Vesala is an independent curator, writer and organiser based in Helsinki. They graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Turku Arts Academy and finished their Master’s degree in curating at Stockholm university. They are inspired by experimental practices, speculative ecology and queer feminist utopias. “I chose to apply to Tallinn Art Hall, because I was very impressed by their current exhibition program’s focus on feminisms and feminist matters. I’m also very excited to delve into Tallinn’s art scene more deeply,” says Vesala.
The NBC partners are the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, and CRIS, The Nordic Art Association, Sweden. The programme’s duration is three years, past participants include Keiu Krikmann, Aleksandra Kiskonen, Ellen Vene, Saskia Suominen, Lucie Gottlieb and Reetta Turtiainen. The programme is supported by Nordic Culture Point.
