advisory board

Grazia Quaroni, Marco Scotini, Hou Hanru

ADVISORY BOARD

Charles Esche

Charles Esche has been the director of the Van Abbemuseum since 1 August 2004. In 2012, he established together with 6 other European museums the L'Internationale confederation that aims to establish a European modern and contemporary art institution by 2017. He is also professor of curating and contemporary art at the University of the Arts London and an advisor at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam.

Esche is a co-founder of the Afterall Journal and Afterall Books and has written many publications about art. A selection of these was published in 2005 with the title Modest Proposals. He has (co)curated a number of international contemporary art biennales and other events including Lost Museum, Kunsthalle Oslo, 2017 and Musée Égaré, Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse 2016; the 31st São Paulo Bienal in 2014, and the 2015 Jakarta Biennale.

In 2005 he was co-curator of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial with Vasif Kortun, Esra Saregidik and November Paynter, and in 2002 the co-curator with Hou Hanru and Song Wan Kyung of the Gwangju Biennale, Republic of Korea. In 2000, he co-curated Intelligence: Tate Triennial at Tate Britain, London with Virginia Button and Amateur: Variable Research Initiatives at Kunstmuseum, Göteborg, Sweden.

Between 2000 and 2004 he was the director of Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art in Malmo, Sweden. Before that he was at Tramway, Glasgow (1993–97), and founded the proto-academy in Edinburgh (1997–2001).

Hou Hanru

Born in Guangzhou, China is a critic and curator based in Paris and in San Francisco. He currently lives and works in Rome. Since December 2013 he has been the Artistic Director of MAXXI.

He worked at San Francisco Art Institute as Director of Exhibitions and Public Program and Chair of Exhibition and Museum Studies from 2006 to 2012. He has curated numerous exhibitions including Shanghai Biennale (2000), Gwangju Biennale (2002), Venice Biennale (French Pavilion, 1999, Z.O.U. -- Zone Of Urgency, 2003, Chinese Pavilion, 2007), the 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005), the 2nd Tirana Biennial (2005), the 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007), The 10th Lyon Biennale (2009), the 5th Auckland Triennial (New Zealand, 2013).

He has been consultant and advisor in many international institutions including Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Kumamoto Museum of Contemporary Art (Kumamoto, Japan), De Appel Foundation (Amsterdam), Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai), Times Museum (Guangzhou), Today Art Museum (Beijing), Power Station of Art (Shanghai), Deutsche Bank Collection (Frankfurt), Kadist Art Foundation (San Francisco/Paris), Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong), etc. and served in juries of many international awards including the Hugo Boss Prize (Guggenheim Museum), Chinese Contemporary Art Award (Beijing), Ars Fennica (Helsinki), Credit Suisse/Today Art Award (Today Art Museum, Beijing) and Hugo Boss Prize China (Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai).

He has also taught and lectured in various artistic and educational institutions including Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam), HISk (Antwerp /Ghent), and numerous universities, museums across the world.

Vasif Kortun

Born in 1958, is a Turkish curator, writer and teacher in the field of contemporary visual art, its institutions and exhibition practices. He was director of research and programs, SALT Istanbul, an institution that hosts some of the most important archives on Turkish contemporary and modern art, architecture and economy in the country. Kortun is part of the board for Foundation for Arts Initiatives. In 2011 Kortun served on the Tate Turner Prize selection committee. In 2013 he curated the FOCUS on Turkey section of the Arco Art Fair in Madrid.

Kortun was founding director of Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, which he initiated in 2001. He was also founding Director of Project 4L, Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art (2001–2003). Between 1994 and 1997 he worked as the founding Director of the Museum of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College and received the 9th annual award for Curatorial Excellence from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College in 2006.

Kortun has worked on a number of biennial projects such as: curator of the UAE Pavilion for the Venice Biennale, 2001; co-curator of the Taipei Biennial along with ManRay Hsu in 2008; Chief Curator and Director of the 3rd International Istanbul Biennial (1992) and Co-Director with Charles Esche of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial (2005); one of the curators of the Tirana Biennial, and 2nd Ceramics Biennial in Albisola, 2003. He curated the Turkish pavilions for the 1994 and 1998 São Paulo Biennial, and the 2007 Venice Bienniale for which he worked with artist Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin on an installation titled Don’t Complain.

Grazia Quaroni

Art critic and museum curator, Grazia Quaroni is an italian art historian based in Paris since 1991, when she joins the curatorial staff of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and she is today Director of Collections for this institution. She collaborated for about 40 exhibition projects with the Fondation Cartier. Among the most recent ones, solo shows of Lee Bul, Tabaimo, William Eggleston, Gary Hill, Mœbius, Ron Mueck, Bruce Nauman. She is in charge of showing the collection around the world. The most recent exhibitions of the collection have been in Seoul South Korea and Buenos Aires, Argentina, both in 2017, and Shanghai, China, in 2018.

She has given contributions in the artistic programs of various public and private institutions in France and abroad, such as Cité de la Musique, Paris, or Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain.

Grazia Quaroni was also Associate Professor at Sorbonne-University of Paris, being a teacher and Project Director in the Master of Curatorial training dedicated to Contemporary Art and its exhibition from 2009 to 2012. She currently teaches Curatorial Studies at Sorbonne – Abu Dhabi and at Political Sciences, Paris.

Enea Righi

Enea Righi, a collector and businessman in Bologna, served as adviser to the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in that city. His collection gathers painting, scultrures, photographies and video and the major themes are identity and socio-political engagement. He collaborates actively with international museums and institutions, loaning out his works and supporting the development of new projects. A number of shows have been dedicated to his collection. These include a show at MUSEION, Bolzano, in 2010, where 100 works remain on permanent loan; La disparition des lucioles, at the Collection Lambert, Avignon, in 2014; Quand fondra la neige, où ira le blanc, at Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, in 2016, curated by Eric Mézil and Lorenzo Paini; and Maledetto Romantico, at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, in 2017.