Conversations | Navigating Multipolarity Institutional Practice in a World with Many Centers

Conversations | Navigating Multipolarity Institutional Practice in a World with Many Centers
Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, March 23

What does it mean to operate as an international arts institution today in a multipolar world, where the idea of art as a global, homogenous culture is being replaced with the particularities of time and place? Institutional leaders discuss the challenges of engaging with global art and its international debates and discourses while managing the nuances of local, national, and regional contexts, cultures, and politics.

‣ Philip Tinari, Director and Chief Executive, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art
‣ Mami Kataoka, Director, Mori Art Museum
‣ Nikita Yingqian Cai, Associate Director and Chief Curator, Times Museum
‣ Aaron Cezar, Founding Director, Delfina Foundation
‣ Aya Al-Bakree, CEO, Diriyah Biennale Foundation
‣ Moderator: Christopher K. Ho, Executive Director, Asia Art Archive

‣ Philip Tinari is Director and Chief Executive of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. Since joining 2011, he has led its evolution into China’s leading contemporary art institution, with locations in Beijing, Shanghai, and Beidaihe. He was co-curator of the Guggenheim exhibition “Art and China after 1989” (2017) and artistic director of the First Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (2021).

‣ Mami Kataoka joined the Mori Art Museum in 2003, taking on the role of Director in 2020. Beyond Tokyo, Kataoka has held positions at the Hayward Gallery in London, where from 2007 to 2009 she was the institution’s first International Curator; she has also acted as Co-Artistic Director for the 9th Gwangju Biennale (2012), Artistic Director for the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018) and Artistic Director for the Aichi Triennale 2022. Kataoka served as a Board Member (2014-2020) and the President (2020-2022) of CIMAM [International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art].

‣ Nikita Yingqian Cai is the Deputy Director and Chief Curator at Times Museum. She also runs the Para-curatorial series and research network of “All the Way South”, and is the co-editor of On Our Times and the podcast host of “Rolling Congee”.

‣ Aaron Cezar is a curator, producer, and the founding Director of Delfina Foundation in London. He oversees and develops Delfina’s interrelated programme of residencies, exhibitions and public events. Cezar has curated external exhibitions and performances at Hayward Gallery Project Space, SongEun Artspace, and as part of the official public programme of the 58th Venice Art Biennale.

‣ Aya Al-Bakree is a contemporary culture specialist with more than a decade’s experience in the arts sector in Europe and Saudi Arabia. She has served as the CEO of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation since its initiation in 2020. Under her leadership, the Foundation presented the first Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale in 2021, and recently inaugurated the Islamic Arts Biennale which runs January to April 2023.

‣ Christopher K. Ho is Executive Director of Asia Art Archive, a Hong Kong-based independent non-profit dedicated to making accessible materials on recent art in Asia, with satellite sites in Delhi and New York. Prior to joining AAA in 2021, he taught, wrote about, and made art in the US.

This talk was conducted in English, with simultaneous interpretation available in Cantonese and Mandarin.

The Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 Conversations program is curated by Stephanie Bailey.
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