What Keeps Mankind Alive?
11th International Istanbul Biennale Curators in Beijing
Time: 18 March, 2009 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm
Venue: UCCA Auditorium
Speakers: Ana Devic, Ivet Curlin
The 11th International Istanbul Biennial will take place between 12 September and 8 November, 2009 and takes its title, What Keeps Mankind Alive? from the closing song of the second act of Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, written 80 years ago. The curators of the upcoming Istanbul Biennial are the members of What, How & for Whom (WHW), a Zagreb based collective made up of four women: Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović.
Join us at UCCA on Wednesday, March 18th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, for a presentation and open discussion with curators Ana Devic and Ivet Curlin about their ongoing practice and the critical framework behind the 2009 Istanbul Biennial.
What, How & for Whom (WHW) is a non-profit organization for visual culture and curators’ collective formed in 1999 and based in Zagreb, Croatia. Its members are curators Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović and designer and publicist Dejan Kršić. WHW is currently curating the 11th Istanbul Biennial (2009). What, How & for Whom (WHW) is the first recipient of the Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory 2008.
Since May 2003 WHW has been directing the program of Gallery Nova-non-profit, city owned gallery in Zagreb. Apart from exhibitions, the gallery Nova program includes lectures, presentations, screenings and public discussions. Since then WHW has been intensively developing models based on collective way of working, creative use of public space and collaboration between partners of different backgrounds. In the past ten years, practice of WHW had established a platform based on partnerships with cultural workers from different fields, reopening and questioning of topics suppressed within public discourse, establishing of trans-generational and international links.
Among WHW’s international shows are: What, How & for Whom, on the occasion of 152nd anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, Association of Croatian Artists, Zagreb, Croatia, 2000; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria, 2001; Broadcasting project, dedicated to Nikola Tesla, Technical Museum, Zagreb, Croatia, 2002; START City gallery Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2002 and Gallery Karas Zagreb, Croatia, 2003; Looking Awry Apexart, New York, 2003; Repetition: Pride and Prejudice, Gallery Nova, Zagreb, Croatia, 2003; Side-effects, Salon of Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, 2004; Collective Creativity, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, 2005; Final Exhibition, Gallery Nova, Zagreb, 2005; Normalization, dedicated to Nikola Tesla, Gallery Nova, Zagreb, 2006; Here and Now Real, Not Yet Concrete, Mala Galerija, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, 2006; Ground Lost, Forum Stadtpark, Graz & Gallery Nova, Zagreb, 2007; All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go, Gallery TranzitDisplay, Prag, 2007; Vojin Bakić, Kunstverein, Graz; 2008.
WHW published several books (Against Indifference selected essays by Renata Salecl, Hieroglyphs of the Future selected essays by Brian Holmes, Zagreb, 16/6/01 book of interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Croatian artists, reader for the What, How and for Whom exhibition with essays by Slavoj Žižek, Richard Barbrook, Boris Buden, Fredric Jameson, Charles Esche) and regularly publishes Gallery Nova newspapers.
The curatorial research of WHW in China is graciously sponsored by ArtHub.
WHW’s Beijing research is organized in collaboration with Beatrice Leanza from BAO Atelier and is generously supported by UCCA and 3plus1bedrooms.
