How to Work Together: Retrospective exhibition of The Creative Association of Curators TOK

Octrober 3–13, 11 AM – 8 PM

Feeling the need to analyze the current conditions of the curatorial profession, which have been shaped over the past ten years by political, economic, and environmental degradation, TOK is organizing a retrospective exhibition How To Work Together about the duo’s practice and the role of a curator in the contemporary society. TOK curators will showcase archival materials, video interviews, and objects commissioned from artists reflecting the global and local transformations of the past ten years. These chronological markers, that have defined the current political agenda, will be mapped alongside the stages of TOK’s development, and will allow us to reflect upon the change in society and within all of us

In the past ten years, curatorial practice has largely expanded as a discipline and area of knowledge. In different parts of the world, there have emerged new independent curators and curatorial collectives, who, like TOK, are constantly testing new formats of artistic statements and collaborations, search complex contexts and find new meanings in them. The exhibition will reflect upon cultural developments in St Petersburg against the backdrop of global sociopolitical processes.

The Creative Association of Curators TOK is the first officially registered curatorial union in Russia founded by Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits in St Petersburg in 2010, who have been working together since then. Throughout their practice TOK curators challenge the borders of the territory of art and seek ways of how it can foster social change. Most projects of the collective are multilayered and long-term initiatives aimed at generating new knowledge about the causes and consequences of changing political and social realities and often lie between historical analysis and the political imaginary. TOK’s projects have a strong social component and deal with current issues that are widely discussed both in Russia and internationally such as migration, public space and citizens, development of education, deprivation of social resources, forming collective memory, use of natural resources, growing role of the media in the global society, and many others.

Free admission. Schedule subject to change on the lecture days.

As a part of the exhibition on October 5 at 19:30, there will be organized a talk by Mirjam Westen, the chief curator at the Arnhem Museum (The Netherlands). In her talk Curatorial Turns From Feminist And Intersectional Perspectives she will focus on expanding formats of contemporary curating that require new contexts of collaborations and interactions. Relying on her experience of connecting female artists of different generations throughout her practice who have redefined curatorship, Westen will elucidate how these new visions have influenced her practice as a curator.

The exhibition is a part of the 1 Curatorial Symposium, which TOK is curating in the framework of the 1 Curatorial Forum organized by The North-Western Branch of NCCA in partnership with the Creative Association of Curators.

About the Curatorial Forum

The North-Western Branch of NCCA in partnership with the Creative Association of Curators TOK initiates the 1st Curatorial Forum. This Forum aims to develop and strengthen a professional dialogue, create new possibilities for the international partnership, mobilize local and regional creative forces as well as widen audiences for contemporary art.

Organisers

• Artistic and cultural projects contributed to the dialogue between contemporary art and the cultural landscape of St. Petersburg; art in public spaces, site-specific projects; international projects.
• Integration of St. Petersburg and Russian contemporary art into international art process.
• Projects representing foreign actual art in St. Petersburg and Russia and Russian art abroad;
• Educational activities in the field of contemporary art: lectures, seminars, master classes of Russian and foreign artists, curators and art historians.

The North-West branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art within the ROSIZO has a residence for artists in Kronstadt.

TOK is curatorial collective co-founded in 2010 by Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits as a platform for interdisciplinary research-based projects in the field of contemporary art. Throughout their practice TOK curators challenge the borders of the territory of art and seek ways of how it can foster social change. Most projects of the collective are multilayered and long-term initiatives aimed at generating new knowledge about the causes and consequences of changing political and social realities and often lie between historical analysis and the political imaginary. TOK’s projects deal with current issues that are widely discussed both in Russia and internationally such as migration, public space and citizens, development of education, deprivation of social resources, forming collective memory, human rights, feminism, the growing role of the media in the global society, changing political climate and many others. Curators of TOK organize educational events, international conferences and summer schools, programs that aim at the international exchange between artists, curators, designers and educators from Russia and other countries. TOK has a strong publication component and publishes books, brochures, exhibitions catalogues that are available in print and online.