CONTOUR 8

CONTOUR, A Moving Image Biennale is pleased to announce that Natasha Ginwala has been appointed as the curator for CONTOUR 8 taking place in Spring 2017 across several venues in the city of Mechelen, Belgium.

On her appointment to work towards the next edition of the CONTOUR Biennale, Natasha Ginwala says, “I’m very pleased to engage with this platform that has launched an experimental treatment of the moving image and expanded the means of its representation. In closely considering the historic role of Mechelen as a legal stronghold for medieval Europe, I intend to work on the locally as well as globally resonant subject of justice and its implements in society, both from an aesthetic as well as ethical perspective.” The director of CONTOUR, Steven Op de Beeck commented, “We are delighted to work with Natasha Ginwala, who has a substantial experience in working with different biennale formats and research-based programming. We are confident that her engagement with artists from South Asia, Middle East and North Africa will provide additional relevance to the largely Euroamerican focus reflected in the artist selection of the Biennale thus far.”

Natasha Ginwala is an independent curator, researcher, and writer. Recent projects include My East is Your West featuring Shilpa Gupta and Rashid Rana at the 56th Venice Biennale, Mind Moves Matter at L'appartment 22, Rabat, and Corruption...Everybody Knows as part of e-flux journal issue 65, SUPERCOMMUNITY. She was a member of the artistic team in the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (with Juan A. Gaitán) and curated The Museum of Rhythm at Taipei Biennial 2012 (with Anselm Franke). From 2013–15 she led the multi-part curatorial project Landings presented at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, David Roberts Art Foundation, NGBK (as part of the Tagore, Pedagogy and Contemporary Visual Cultures Network), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and other partner organizations (with Vivian Ziherl). Ginwala trained in Visual Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU in New Delhi and participated in de Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam (2010–11). She has written on contemporary art and culture in journals such as The Exhibitionist, e-flux journal, Ibraaz, Afterall, and has contributed to numerous publications.

CONTOUR is a Moving Image Biennale organised in the city of Mechelen (Belgium) since 2003. The Biennale presents film, video, installation art and performance at significant historic and contemporary locations in the city of Mechelen. Each edition questions and expands the notion of moving image within the field of contemporary art. It focuses on visually engaging and intellectually stimulating art, aiming to reach a wide as well as specialist international public. CONTOUR is organized by the non-profit organization Contour Mechelen, which will merge with Mechelen Arts Centre NONA in 2017. Each edition of CONTOUR invites a different curator to provide the Biennale with a new framework, vision and dynamic. Previous curators include Etienne Van den Bergh (2003), Cis Bierinckx (2005), Nav Haq (2007), Katerina Gregos (2009), Anthony Kiendl (2011), Jacob Fabricius (2013) and Nicola Setari (2015). 

CONTOUR 7, the current edition of the Biennale is curated by Nicola Setari and continues until November 8, 2015. The Biennale is dedicated to the humanist and statesman Thomas More, who died a martyr and was the author of the still-controversial book, Utopia. The public program of CONTOUR 7, Utopia and Europa Salon, opens on October 7, 2015 with the first of three debates organized also in the framework of the European Union's New Narrative For Europe. These salons tackle questions at the heart of Utopia and reflect on the role of artists, writers and thinkers in Europe today. The following dates are October 14 and October 28. Speakers include Fabrice Hyber, Patricia Falguières, Chiara Fumai, Chus Martìnez, Ingo Niermann, Nedko Solakov, Luuk Van Middelaar, Philippe Van Parijs and Hilde Van Gelder. To register and attend, click here.

The catalog of CONTOUR 7 is also available starting October, designed by Studio Luc Derycke and published by MER Paper Kunsthalle. More info and pre-order available at: shop.merpaperkunsthalle.org/fooling-utopia.html

Press contact: Hannes Dereere, hannes@contourmechelen.be