2026

Xiaoyu Weng is a Shanghai born and New York based writer and curator. She is currently the curator of documenta 16, opening in June 2027 in Kassel, Germany. She also runs the independent space Art in General in New York.

Weng's curatorial practice focuses on the impact of globalisation, the convergence of art, science, and technology, and emerging ecological and environmental transformations through the lens of feminism, identity, and decolonisation. From institutional positions to independent projects, Weng has worked with over 300 artists and practitioners, collaborated with over 50 organisations to organise exhibitions and programs across all continents, and written and published numerous essays on contemporary art, visual culture, and curatorial practice.

Most recently, Weng held the position of Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and head of the department at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, Canada. Previously, she was The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. At the Guggenheim, Weng curated highly acclaimed exhibitions Tales of Our Time (2016–17) and One Hand Clapping (2018). Featuring newly commissioned artworks by thirteen artists and artist collectives, the exhibitions challenge myths of identity and nation-state constructions. She also curated artist Christian Nyampeta’s first solo museum presentation in North America Christian Nyampeta: Sometimes It Was Beautiful in 2021. In 2018-2019, Weng served as the curator of the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The biennial was awarded the “Best Exhibition of the Year” by the Art Newspaper Russia.

Cinthya García Leyva is a researcher and cultural manager born in Mexico City. Since 2020, she is the General and Artistic Director of Casa del Lago UNAM, where she promotes interdisciplinary and intermedia practices. She has been the Artistic Director of Poesía en Voz Alta Festival at that institution for six years. She holds a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature from UNAM and is a doctoral candidate. She has curated projects and lectured at institutions in the Americas and Europe; her research, focused on sound and experimental poetics, is published in national and international journals. She co-founded the Art, Science, and Technology Program (ACT), directed the radio series Islas Resonantes on Radio UNAM, and is a guest editor and author of the prologue to La materia del sonido (Gris Tormenta).

Cynthia was also part of Oslo Art Weekends' pro-programme from 28-31 May.

Photo: Mara Arteaga

Emma Enderby is director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin since 15 May 2024 and a curator, writer, and lecturer of modern and contemporary art. For KW, she has curated exhibitions featuring Matt Copson, Sung Tieu, Miloš Trakilović and JessicaEkomane, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, Kazuko Miyamoto, and Klara Lidén.

Previously, she was the Head of Programs and Research/Chief Curator at Haus der Kunst, Munich, in 2021–2024. Since starting at Haus der Kunst, she curated Liliane Lijn. Arise Alive, Tony Cokes: Fragments, or just Moments, and a decentralized exhibition with Rirkrit Tiravanija. Previously, as Chief Curator at The Shed, New York, the British curator worked on founding the new institution, the overall multidisciplinary program, and curated the retrospective exhibition Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates, as well as Tomás Saraceno: Particular Matters, Ian Cheng: Life after BOB and exhibitions and commissions with Trisha Donnelly, Tony Cokes, Oscar Murillo, Lynn Hershman Leeson,and Carrie Mae Weems. Emma Enderby held positions in various institutions like Public Art Fund, where she curated the group exhibitions Commercial Break and The Language of Things, as well as Tauba Auerbach: Flow Separation, among others. As exhibitions curator at the Serpentine Galleries, London, she organized numerous projects and exhibitions including with Hilma af Klint, Rachel Rose, Trisha Donnelly, and Adrián Villa Rojas. The curator further works as a visiting lecturer, critic, and speaker at a number of universities and institutions, as well as an editor and writer for multiple publications and catalogues. She holds degrees from University College London and the University of Oxford.

Photo: Frank Sperling

Lucía Sanromán is co-curator of the Liverpool Biennial 2027 (with Aimee Harrison), She has been Chief Curator at Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC). From 2019 to 2024 she was director of the Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, the premier experimental kunsthalle in Mexico City where since joining in March 2018 she has implemented a program that balances experimentation with social commitment to local social ecologies and dynamics through programs and exhibitions, including the recent Escucha profunda: prácticas hacia el mundo al revés {Yutsil, María Sosa, Naomi Rincón Gallardo y Fernando Palma Rodríguez} (10/16/2021 to 02/13/2022). Escucha profunda: prácticas hacia el mundo al revés {Yutsil, María Sosa, Naomi Rincón Gallardo y Fernando Palma Rodríguez} (10/16/2021 to 02/13/2022); Amor Rojo: Dora García (24/09/2022 to 26/03/2023); Helen Escobedo: Ambientes Totales (summer 2023), and Pedro Lasch: Entre Líneas / Between the Lines (winter 2023). Previous to this she joined Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, as director of visual arts in October 2015, and became YBCA curator at large in September 2018. Under the program title Changing the Ratio she organized at YBCA a series of survey exhibitions of key women artists who are also pioneers of socially-engaged practice: Tania Bruguera: Talking to Power / Hablándole al Poder (2017, co-curated with Susie Kantor), Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place (2018), and Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here (2019, co-organized with SFMOMA curators Rudolf Frieling and Dominic Willsdon). In addition, she curated a series of exhibitions titled The City Initiative featuring architects, designers, planners, and artists creating provocative work in the urban environment responding to civic urgencies.

Photo by Yvonne Venegs.

As part of OCA’s International Visitor Programme, we had the honour of hosting the National Center for Art Research, Japan (NCAR) in Norway as part of their Nordic research trip. They then travelled on to Sweden (IASPIS) and Finland (Frame) for further research in the region.

The group included:

Kameyama Yusuke,  Curator, Toyota Muncipial Miseum of Art Achi Modern and contemporart Western
Nakae Kana, Curator Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Tokyo Western Art History, Japanese Modern
Nishida Shin,Curator, Toyama Glass Art Museum, Toyama 19th Century European glass, Nordic glass art
Nozawa Hiroki, Curator, Gunma Miseum of Art Japanese Modern art and design history
Ono Shinji, Curator National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto Modern Western Art (central and Easter European)
Onodera Natsu, Curator, The National Art Center, Tokyo Contemporay Art and Design
Tanake Rei, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo Exhibition coordination and Registration
Yachita Mio, National Ainu Museum, Hokkaido Researcher; Contemporary Ainu artisitc experession and cultural policy
Yamaguchi Sakumi, National Museum, Tokyo International Exhibtons, applied aestetics
Yamamoto Hanami, The Museum of Kyoto Film archivist and curator, Film and Media studies
Masumi Kaoru, NCAR
Saito Chie, NCAR

Seolhui Lee is a South Korean curator based in Denmark. She is interested in curatorial methodology, particularly how curators sustain their work within institutional systems while extending cultural diversity, spatial contextualization, and contemporaneity by engaging with intersections across different parts of the world. Her curatorial practice focuses on the uncertain condition of being in-between: subject and object, consciousness and unconsciousness, the physical and visible with the psychological and invisible, history and the digital age. Within this tension, Lee places the human body at the center, exploring its resonance and capacity to generate immersive, multisensory experiences.

She co-directed the Korean Pavilion of the 2024 Venice Biennale with Jacob Fabricius, served as curator and chief curator of Kunsthal Aarhus (2023-2025), Malmö Konsthall associate curator (2024), head of the Busan Biennale 2020 exhibition team, and curator for the Seoul Museum of Art (2018-2019), among others. She has also been invited to the ‘Expo Chicago Curatorial Exchange’ (2025), ‘Tate Modern Intensive Course’ (2019), and ‘Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course’ (2016). Furthermore, Lee serves on the permanent collection acquisition committee for MMCA, Korea (2024-), a panel for mentoring ‘Danish Visual Artists’ (2024-), and as an advisor for Frieze Seoul’s Focus Section (2025-).

Photo credit: Chae Dae Han

This visit was hosted and organised in collaboration with Rafiki Arts Initiative.

Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung is a curator, author and biotechnologist, currently serving as director and chief curator of Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) Berlin, Germany, and chief curator of the 36th São Paulo Biennale. He is the founder and was artistic director of SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin, as well as the artistic director of sonsbeek20–24, a quadrennial contemporary art exhibition in Arnhem, the Netherlands. He also worked as curator-at-large for Adam Szymczyk’s Documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany in 2017 and was guest curator of the Dak’Art biennale in Dakar, Senegal, in 2018. Additionally, he served as the artistic director for the 12th and 13th editions of the Bamako Encounters photography biennial in Mali, taking on this role in 2019 and 2022. Together with the Miracle Workers Collective, he curated the Finland Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019. Prof. Dr. Ndikung was a guest professor in curatorial studies and sound art at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, and he is currently a professor and head of the faculty of Spatial Strategies Master’s program at the Weissensee Academy of Art in Berlin. He was the recipient of the first OCAD University International Curators Residency fellowship in Toronto in 2020. His published works include, inter alia, The Delusions of Care (2021), An Ongoing-Offcoming Tale: Ruminations on Art, Culture, Politics and Us/Others (2022) and Pidginization as Curatorial Method (2023).