Margarita González Lorente completed her BA in Art History, Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Havana in 1985 and received her PhD in the same field from the School of Geography and History, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain in 1998. She worked as a specialist in the Department of Art and Design from the Ministry of Culture, Current Development Center of Visual Arts until 1999, when she was appointed as director, a position she held until 2005. She has been deputy director of the Center for Contemporary Art Wifredo Lam and has participated in the organization and development of different editions of the Havana Biennial. She has curated exhibitions such as 'Indoor’, on the occasion of the Fourth Biennial of Havana (Gallery Development Center of Visual Arts, 1991), 'drawing, do not forget’ (Centre for Development of Visual Arts, 1993, and Municipal Public Library Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain, 1998), 'Current Cuban Plastic’ (Photocentre Gallery, Union of Journalists of Russia, Moscow and in the Cuban Embassy in Beijing, China, 1996), 'Cuban Art: from canvas and paper’ (Hall Miro, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France, 2001), and ‘Latest trends of art in Cuba: 20 artists’ (III International Congress on Culture and Development, International Conference Center, 2003), among others.
Visitors 2011
Rebecca Mazzei is the Deputy Director and Special Projects at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, a five-year-old institution located in the heart of Detroit's Cultural Center neighbourhood. As Deputy Director, Mazzei manages the museum's operations and oversees special projects, including publications, events and offsite curatorial projects. She is the former Assistant Dean at the College for Creative Studies, a private art and design school, and also worked previously as the award-winning Arts and Culture Editor at Metro Times newspaper, Detroit's largest alternative newsweekly. She has written for ARTNews, Raw Vision, Under the Influence and several other publications, and is the author of "Devil's Night In Detroit," The Business of Holidays (The Monacelli Press, 2004). Mazzei is a co-founder of Signal-Return letterpress shop and Bohemian-in-exile, a performance art space, both located in the Eastern Market district, and serves as a Board member of INCA, a Detroit-based residency for Norwegian artists. She received her Master's degree in Modern Art History. Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ange Leccia is a former resident of Villa Medici in Roma and Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto, Ange Leccia’s career started in the 1980’s with his 'arrangements'. His works are constantly questioning different media, combining them, mixing them, even exhibiting them through a range of themes such as the sea (La Mer) and other atmospheric elements that are fascinating because of their rhythmic character. Between 2002 and 2009, he directed the film scenography for the shows of Christophe together with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. In 2010, he directed his first feature film Nuit Bleue, which was presented at Rotterdam International Film Festival. In 2001, he founded Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo’s creation lab, for which he is still the director. Ange Leccia is represented by Galerie Almine Rech in Paris.
Tristan Bera received an MA in philosophy and a BA in art history in 2009. He has a particular interest in decadent aesthetics and crossover exhibitions and has worked on mainstream exhibitions such as ‘Dada’ (2005/06) at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; ‘Richard Wagner: visions d’artistes’ (2005) and ‘Gainsbourg’ 2008 at Cité de la Musique, Paris. He has also worked for fashion sound designer Frédéric Sanchez (2008). Currently, Bera is curating a one-year project at Zürich Kunsthalle titled ‘Human Valley’ after Balzac and ending the editing of a short film based on Bunuel’s Belle de Jour both together with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Bera is currently working at Le Pavillon/Palais de Tokyo’s creative lab.
Roger Buergel was recently appointed the artistic director of the Busan Biennale 2012. He received his education from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and studied under the Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch for 3 years. He served as a guest curator for the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona and the artistic director of Documenta Ⅻ Kassel. He also curated exhibitions that won critical acclaim, such as ‘Barely Something. On Ai Weiwei’ (2010, Museum DKM, Duisburg, Germany), ‘The Government’ (2003–2005, University Art Gallery Luneburg, Germany; Museum d'Art Contemporary de Barcelona, Spain; Miami Art Central, Miami, FL, USA; Witte de with Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam Secession, Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and ‘The Subject and Power’ (2001, Central House of the Art). He taught in Luneburg University (2002–2005, Luneburg) and the Academy of Fine Arts (2007–2009, Karlsruhe, Germany), contributing significantly to the education of young artists.
In her joint position as Executive Director of Rhizome and Adjunct Curator at the New Museum, Cornell tracks developments in contemporary art. She oversees and develops Rhizome's programs, all of which are support the creation, presentation and preservation of emerging artistic practices engaged with technology. Cornell recently curated "Free," her first major exhibition for the New Museum which opened at the New Museum in October 2010. At the New Museum, she has co-curated exhibitions including "The Generational: Younger Than Jesus"; the Museum's inaugural exhibition "Unmonumental"; and has also curated a solo show of works by Young-Hae Change Heavy Industries. In addition to her curatorial work at the New Museum, Cornell organizes the monthly New Silent Series, featuring screenings, events and performances by emerging artists. And, in April 2010, she co-founded conference "Seven on Seven" which pairs artists with seven technologists around the creation of new work. Previously, Cornell worked as a curator and writer in London and New York. She worked in the Andy Warhol Film Project at the Whitney Museum and, from 2002-2004, she served as director of Ocularis, an organization dedicated to avant-garde cinema and experimental video. Her writing has been published in a range of international publications and she has organized events or exhibitions at venues including The Kitchen, Foxy Production, Participant Inc and The Institute of Contemporary Art in London.
Aram Moshayedi is assistant curator of the Gallery at REDCAT and a doctoral candidate in the department of art history at the University of Southern California. Since joining REDCAT in October 2010, he has organized the west coast premier of A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner’s Community Action Center and curated the first major installation in the United States by Vancouver-based artist Geoffrey Farmer. Between 2005 and 2010, Moshayedi was a curator at LAXART, where he produced exhibitions and public projects with such artists as William Leavitt, Uri Nir, Vishal Jugdeo, Susan Silton, and caraballo-farman. He has contributed texts to numerous exhibition catalogues and has written for Metropolis M, Art in America, Art Lies, Reading Room: A Journal of Art and Culture, Art Papers, Artforum.com, X-Tra Contemporary Art Quarterly, and Bidoun Magazine, for which he is also a contributing editor.
Charles Esche
Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Charles Esche is a curator and a writer. He is the Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and co-editor of Afterall Journal and Books, based at Central St.Martins College of Art and Design, London. He is also an advisor at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. In the last years, he curated major exhibitions including the 2nd and 3rd Riwaq Biennials, Palestine, 2007 and 2009; the 9th Istanbul Biennial 2005 with Vasif Kortun, Esra Sarigedik Öktem and November Paynter and the Gwangju Biennale 2002 in Korea with Hou Hanru and Song Wang Kyung. Before that he was co-curator of 'Intelligence – New British Art' at the Tate Gallery, London and 'Amateur – Variable Research Initiatives' at Konstmuseum and Konsthall, Göteborg, both in 2000.
From 2000–2004 he was Director of the Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, where he made solo exhibitions with Surasi Kusolwong, Nedko Solakov and Superflex a.o. and group shows including 'Baltic Babel' and 'Intentional Communities'. From 1998–2002 he organised the international art academic research project called 'protoacademy' at Edinburgh College of Art. From 1993–1997 he was Visual Arts Director at Tramway, Glasgow where he curated exhibitions by Elisabeth Ballet, Christine Borland, Roderick Buchanan Douglas Gordon, Jonathan Monk, Stephen Willats and Richard Wright as well as group shows such as Trust and The Unbelievable Truth.
A book of his selected writings, Modest Proposals, was published by Baglam Press, Istanbul in 2005. He has written for numerous catalogues and magazines including The Netherlands, for example (ed.), JP Ringier, 2007; Collective Creativity, Fredericianum, Kassel, 2006; Artur Zmijewski, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2005; Shifting Map, NAI, Rotterdam, 2004. He has written for art magazines such as Artforum, Frieze, Parkett and Art Monthly among others.
Eungie Joo spearheaded the Museum as Hub project at the New Museum, New York, NY, USA, a partnership of six international arts organizations that supports art activities and experimentation; explores artistic, curatorial, and institutional practice; and serves as an important resource for the public to learn about contemporary art from around the world. As part of the Museum as Hub, Joo commissioned the yearlong Night School project by Anton Vidokle; a 'Post Living Anti Action Theater' (PoLAAT) residency with My Barbarian; and launched the Propositions seminar series — a public forum that considers contemporary artists's ideas in early development; among other commissions. In 2009, she served as commissioner for the Korean Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, presenting the solo exhibition, 'Condensation: Haegue Yang'. Joo was previously Director and Curator of the Gallery at REDCAT, Los Angeles, from 2003 to 2007. She received the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement in 2006.