The Curator as Mediator
Deadline: September 15, 2025
Shanghai
China
The Shanghai Curators Lab (SCL) is a forum for emerging curators to discuss the expanding role of curators, evolving from narrative-builders in art to mediators of social communities. Until now, curators have been recognized as storytellers who narrate and interpret visual art through exhibitions. However, what is demanded of curators by today's expanded social community, which encompasses art, architecture, urban planning, climate crisis, and technological revolutions, is a multifaceted practice in an expanded field.
Curating has moved beyond the niche of high culture and into the realm of everyday life, to the extent that the term is increasingly recognized as simply “making choices.” Rather than implementing "exclusive choices for a minority" in institutional contexts such as museums or biennials, the Shanghai Curators Lab respects methodologies and discursive processes from diverse research areas while questioning the act of curation as the process of selection.
The Shanghai Curators Lab (Principal Li Xiangning, Vice President of Tongji University) was founded by renowned curator Yongwoo Lee in 2018 as an idea platform for emerging curators under the age of 30. It defines a wide range of programmers, including not only art exhibition makers but also big data researchers who diagnose and contextualize the era of technological revolutions, as well as those who respect and understand crisis-stricken communities which are buried under the waves of modernity and individuality.
Its transdisciplinary research encompasses discourses that emerge from various fields, ranging from the aesthetic implications of visual arts to architecture, urban planning, poetry, film, fashion, food, and health. It also discusses and proposes ideas regarding the technologically deterministic thinking arising surrounding artificial intelligence. Curators have to reinvent their role as interpreters connecting artworks and audiences, as well as media that lead discussions on the rapid changes of today.
Shanghai Curators Lab 4 (SCL4) is organized by the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) at Tongji University, co-organized by Tongji Architectural Design (Group), in collaboration with Shanghai Biennale (Power Station of Art, Shanghai), SUSAS (Shanghai Urban Space Art Season), TANK Shanghai, and supported by HOU Art House. The lead professors of the SCL4 are two renowned curators who have long been involved in various projects across diverse fields such as contemporary art, architecture, urbanism, design, and aesthetic discourse.
Nikolaus Hirsch is currently the director of the Centre for International Visual Arts in Brussels (CIVA) and has served as the director of Städelschule in Frankfurt and Portikus. Professor Yongwoo Lee of Tongji University, an art historian and curator, has held positions as the director of the Shanghai Himalayas Museum, the artistic director of the Gwangju Biennale, and the president of the International Biennial Association.
Period: November 3 to 30, 2025
Theme: The Curator as Mediator
Any young curators under the age of 30 are eligible to apply, particularly those with writing and exhibition-making experience in the fields of visual arts, architecture, urban planning, performance, philosophy, or aesthetics. Applicants must submit via email a self-introduction letter, proposal, and CV before 11pm (GMT+8), September 15, 2025. The submitted documents will be jointly reviewed and selected by the two lead professors and representatives from SCL's partner organizations.
Enrolled curators will be provided with accommodation by CAUP, Tongji University, the organizing institution of SCL, and tuition fees will be waived, provided that the participating curators are fully engaged in the full-time, in-person courses and collaborative work. Round-trip airfare to Shanghai from their home countries, food expenses, and daily costs will be borne by the participants. For those requiring a visa to China, relevant documents can be issued.
Application/Enquiry：shanghaicuratorslab@gmail.com
Lead professors
Nikolaus Hirsch
Nikolaus Hirsch is a curator, architect, editor, and educator. He is the artistic director of the architecture museum CIVA in Brussels where he co-curated exhibitions such as Marcel Broodthaers – The Architect is Absent, Pre-Architectures, Style Congo (with Sammy Baloji), and Sick Architecture (with Beatriz Colomina). Previously he was the director of Städelschule and Portikus in Frankfurt and has taught at the Architectural Association in London and the Institute for Applied Theater Studies at Giessen University. His work includes Bockenheimer Depot Theater (with William Forsythe), unitednationsplaza (with Anton Vidokle), Cybermohalla Hub (New-Delhi, with Raqs Media Collective), Do We Dream Under The Same Sky (with Rirkrit Tiravanija, Art Basel / LUMA), and Don´t Follow The Wind in the contaminated zone of Fukushima. Hirsch has curated Gwangju Folly for the Gwangju Biennale (2013), Housing Question at the HKW in Berlin (2015) and the German Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale in Venice (2021). He is the editor of the Critical Spatial Practice series at Sternberg Press and founder of e-flux architecture.
Yongwoo Lee
Lee founded the Shanghai Project in 2016, a platform for multidisciplinary research on the urgent discourses facing us under the theme "The Future of Humanity in 100 Years." Previously he was the artistic director of the Gwangju Biennale and president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation. His curated exhibitions include Dansaekhwa and Times Reimagined, which were collateral events for the Venice Biennale in 2015 and 2022, solo exhibitions of Yves Klein, Nam June Paik, Ding Yi, Huang Rui, and group exhibitions Challenging Souls (Power Station of Art, Shanghai), Electronic Maple (New York Center for Media Art), Recycling and Creation (Daejeon Expo), Information and Reality (Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh), Tigers Tail (Palazzo Vendramin, Venice), among others. He is the author of books Nam June Paik, His Fierce Art-Life, On Video Art, and Information and Reality.
About the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP), Tongji University
The College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University boasts a broad and profound historical foundation. It was established in 1952 through the nationwide restructure of the higher education system. It is now one of the largest and most internationalized colleges of architecture and urban planning. The college prioritizes talent cultivation and is committed to fostering a sustainable built environment. It aims to establish itself among the world's top architectural and planning schools, driving innovation and forging global collaborations to build world-class disciplines and serve as an educational and academic center with a significant global influence.
