Lecture by Nikita Choi
INHABITING THE ABSENCE OF MEDIATION: ON INSTITUTIONAL PRACTICE IN CHINA

Tuesday February 14 at 4 pm
EV 3.760
1515 Ste-Catherine West
Guy-Concordia Metro Station
FREE ADMISSION, in English

This talk will outline several modalities of institutional practice in light of both the ongoing social, political and economic changes occurring in China and the history of Chinese contemporary art. The Chinese government is gradually realizing the representational potential of museums in relation to the display of power and national image. As cultural producers and institutional practitioners, how do we transform the power and capital that have accumulated in these museums into public social and cultural resources? Faced with the rapid growth of state-owned and private museums, some artists’ initiatives with defined goals and political agendas have moved toward welcoming a more general public, however, the ephemeral nature of their approaches has marginalized them and restricted their visibility in the art world. Individual practitioners, such as independent curators and critics, have initiated their own “institutions” with research-based, process-based, and archive-based programming, thus offering alternative imaginations of institutions. Without a publicly funded system of art and culture as well as consensus about mediation and representation, none of these can claim institutional status.

This lecture is presented in collaboration with the Department of Art History.

Nikita Choi is the curator at the Times Museum, Guangzhou, China, and the co-founder of Ping Pong Space, an independent and self-managed art space also located in Guangzhou. She participated in the curatorial programme at de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam during 2009-2010, where she co-curated I’m Not Here. An Exhibition Without Francis Alÿs. She has lectured at Casa Asia in Barcelona and is a regular contributor to The Independent Critique, LEAP, and www.artforum.com.cn. In 2011 she curated the exhibition A Museum That is Not at the Times Museum. Also in 2011, she initiated, along with Carol Yinghua Lu, Issues on Curating, a monthly discussion platform focussing on critical writing, context-responsive curating, and curatorial practice in China.