Experimenter Curators' Hub: 12th edition

Experimenter is pleased to announce the 12th edition of Experimenter Curators’ Hub on November 4–5, 2022 in Kolkata, India. 

Founded in 2011 by Priyanka and Prateek Raja, Experimenter Curators’ Hub (ECH) is a platform in developing and sustaining discourse on curatorial practice and exhibition-making through critical discussion and debate. Structured as a deeply intensive program, every year the hub invites some of the foremost curators of the world to present their practice with reference to recent exhibitions curated by them. The audience at Experimenter Curators' Hub plays an active role in this exchange and contributes significantly to the conversations. The final day ends with a keynote address by a guest speaker and a moderated panel discussion with all the participating curators reflecting on the key aspects that emerged over the hub. Presentations and ensuing discussions at the Hub are extensively video documented and archived as an online, freely accessible resource offered to fellow curators, researchers, scholars, artists and members of the public.

The participating curators at ECH 2022 are: Ade Darmawan, artist, curator and director of ruangrupa, co-artistic director of documenta 15; aqui Thami, artist & founder of Sister Library; Ashok Sukumaran, artist and co-founder of the group and studio CAMP; Brook Garru Andrew, Director of Reimagining Museums and Collections, and Enterprise Professor in Interdisciplinary Practice, University of Melbourne & artistic director of NIRIN, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney; Hit Man Gurung & Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Co-curators of the Kathmandu Triennale 2077 & Nepal Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2022; Kabelo Malatsie, Director of Kunsthalle Bern; Tanzim Wahab, Festival Director of Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography. The hub will be moderated by Natasha Ginwala, Associate Curator at Large at Gropius Bau, Berlin; Artistic Director of Colomboscope, Berlin / Colombo. Guest speaker Karuna Nundy, Advocate at The Supreme Court of India, and international human rights lawyer and guest performer Sabika Abbas Naqvi, performance poet and Founder of Sar-e-rahguzar: Poetry on the streets & Co-editor of the Bystander Anthology and Senior Editor of the SAAG Anthology.

Experimenter Curators' Hub 2022 is organised by Experimenter Learning Program Foundation and is supported by Australia Council for the Arts, Australian Consulate-General, Kolkata, Pro Helvetia, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata, ArtReview (Strategic Partner) and TAKE on Art (media partner).

The Hub will be live streamed on Experimenter and ArtReview's websites, breaking down traditional constraints of location and opening up the debate to people around the world. The online audience has the opportunity to question and interact with the curators in real time.

Prateek and Priyanka Raja, co-founders of Experimenter said, “As we return to the 12th edition of the Experimenter Curators’ Hub 2022, the first in-person iteration of the Hub after 2 years, we are increasingly aware of the importance of creating a physical space that allows for critical yet constructive conversation between curators, thinkers, writers, artists and the audience. All around us, we see a rapidly shrinking space for free debate and the emergence of hostile responses to ideas of plurality. The Hub attempts to build an environment for fearless and intimate discussions between some of the most forward thinking and influential curators, thinkers and practitioners of contemporary visual arts of our time, to build crucial interpersonal interactions and a space for discussion and sharing ensconced in nurture and care.”

Since its inception in 2011, the Hub has hosted 100 leading curators. All presentations are archived online and are offered as a free resource to enable audiences to use as part of research and also experience the event. Presentations from the previous editions may be viewed here.

The Experimenter Curators’ Hub is free to attend with prior registration only, on a first come, first served basis. Please email admin [​at​] experimenter.in to register or to request for further information.

About Experimenter
Experimenter was co-founded by Prateek & Priyanka Raja in 2009 in Kolkata, India. With a multidisciplinary approach, the gallery is an incubator for an ambitious and challenging contemporary practice. The program represents some of the most critical contemporary artists worldwide. The program, rooted in dialogue and dissent, is considered to be a pace-setter for its region, and extends from exhibition-making to knowledge creation, through regular talks, performances, workshops and through its much acclaimed, annual curatorial intensive – Experimenter Curators’ Hub. A second, more ambitious space was added in 2018, marking a deeper inquisition into the gallery’s realm of interest. Its third space Experimenter – Colaba, established in 2022, extends the commitment of its discursive programming to Mumbai, a city that in turn represents the diverse pluralities of the region. 

The gallery attempts to expand the scope of contemporary practice beyond the ambit of its expected role. In 2016, its artist-book publishing wing was launched followed by the Experimenter Learning Program in 2018 which enables learning in fields of contemporary and performing arts, curatorship, film, writing, language and social culture. In 2019, Experimenter Outpost, an iterative exhibitions program outside the physical gallery temporarily inhabiting disused, characterful spaces was formed. 2020 marked the beginning of Experimenter Labs, an inclusive, experimental and multi-dimensional vertical in addition to the onsite gallery programming.

About Experimenter Learning Program Foundation 
The Experimenter Learning Program Foundation (ELPF), initiated in 2018, is envisioned as a long-term, sustainable and multifaceted learning and education program that keeps visual culture at its root to build discourse. ELPF is the kernel on which Experimenter expounds its continued interest in enabling dialogue, discussion and debate in fields of contemporary and performing arts, curatorship, film, writing, language and social culture. The program has a year-long schedule that includes the annual Experimenter Curators’ Hub, salon-style classrooms, symposia, lecture-performances and the Experimenter Juniors Program.

For further information on Experimenter and Experimenter Curators' Hub 2022, please visit experimenter.in.