19 September 2023
Four reflections from OCA’s curator residency at ISCP, New York
Since its inception, OCA’s curator residency at ISCP has been an opportunity for Norwegian and Norway based curators to expand their networks and develop their practices in one of the global hubs of the world-wide contemporary art scene.
This year, OCA is once again looking forward to receiving applications for the 3-month ISCP curator residency at ISCP that runs from 1. September – 30. November, 2024. The opportunity includes an individual working studio/office at ISCP and minimum three meetings with guest critics from the New York art community. Application deadline for the 2024 curator residency is 1. October, 2023.
Find out how to apply here
Amongst the curators previously nominated by OCA, we asked four how this opportunity has furthered their research and career.
Hilde Methi
Freelance Curator
ISCP curator resident in 2013
In addition to organising programmes of exhibition-visits that all of us residents could attend, the ISCP team also put me in contact with initiatives that responded to my interests within the art field. A project that I worked on at the time, related to the Russian Market in Kirkenes, went on to be presented as part of a larger publication project focused on informal markets around the globe, this connection was introduced through ISCP.
I got to know the work of artists staying at ISCP at the same time, and when I curated LIAF in 2019, it was an opportunity to collaborate with one of these artists through the commissioning a new work from her. Such stays and new professional acquaintances will always have a meaning, provide new knowledge and collaborations in the short and long term. It is great to have the possibility to visit New York through OCA, due to the role the city has played and continues to play in our contemporary arts lives.
Photo: Oleg Khadartsev
Elisabeth Byre
Artistic and Managing Director of Oslo Kunstforening
ISCP curator resident in 2010
I benefited greatly from my residency as curator at ISCP. In particular, getting to know my fellow art residents was rewarding - and I have worked with several of them later. And of course, the access to New York's vibrant art scene in general was a huge inspiration.
Photo:Frida Nordli
Geir Haraldseth
Curator at the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design
ISCP curator resident in 2005
As an emerging curator, ISCP gave me a platform to form my own practice as a curator, often in conversation with artists from around the world. ISCP provided me with a network in New York City and beyond, and it has proved tremendously important to my career. After the residency period was over, I have continued to benefit from ISCP, and met artists there who I have collaborated with including Sven Sachsalber who I collaborated with on a residency and a publication, Ingo Mittelstaedt, who I contributed writing for, and Melanie Bonajo, who I worked with on exhibitions and residencies, including the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022 and a retrospective exhibition at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastrict in 2018.
Photo: Frode Larsen © National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design
Eivind Furnesvik
Director of STANDARD (OSLO)
ISCP curator resident in 2004
I had the good fortune of spending three months as part of the ISCP residency program in New York in 2004. Being a curator, my time was primarily spent seeing exhibitions and talking to the people who made them. It was a time that proved itself extremely valuable to me. It provided me with in depth knowledge of one of the most significant art metropoles in the world. However, most importantly: it made me aware and made me appreciate a level of ambition and a degree of calibration when it came to putting together exhibitions that I had not experienced before. I am still friends and working with artists, curators, writers and fellow gallery owners that I got to know during my time there.
Photo: Eivind Furnesvik
