12th edition of Experimenter Curators’ Hub

Experimenter announces 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 broadcast live on the websites of Experimenter and ArtReview, eliminating geographical boundaries and allowing participants from all around the world to participate in the discussion. The online audience has the chance to speak with and ask the curators questions 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.”

The Hub has hosted 100 eminent curators since its launch in 2011. To enable audiences to utilize as a resource for study and to participate in the event, all presentations are free and preserved online. You may view the presentations from earlier editions 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

In 2009 in Kolkata, India, Prateek & Priyanka Raja co-founded Experimenter. The gallery is an incubator for an ambitious and difficult modern work because of its diverse approach. The program features some of the most esteemed contemporary artists from around the world. The Experimenter Curators’ Hub, a highly regarded annual curatorial intensive that is based on discussion and dissent and is widely regarded as setting the pace for its region, is a program that goes from exhibition-making to knowledge creation through regular talks, performances, and workshops. 2018 saw the addition of a second, more ambitious room, signaling a deeper exploration of the gallery’s areas of interest. Experimenter – Colaba, its third venue, opened in 2022 and extends the commitment of its discursive programming to Mumbai, which in turn serves as a representation of the region’s different pluralities.

Beyond the bounds of its expected function, the gallery tries to broaden the definition of current practice. The Experimenter Study Program, which permits learning in the domains of contemporary and performing arts, curatorship, film, writing, language, and social culture, was introduced in 2018 after its artist-book publishing wing was introduced in 2016. Experimenter Outpost, an iterative exhibitions program outside the actual gallery that temporarily resides in vacant, charming spaces, was established in 2019. Experimenter Labs, an inclusive, experimental, and multi-dimensional vertical that complements the on-site gallery programming, launched in 2020.

About Experimenter Learning Program Foundation 

A long-term, sustainable, and multifaceted learning and education program with visual culture at its core is what the Experimenter Learning Program Foundation (ELPF), established in 2018, aspires to be. Experimenter continues to be interested in fostering interaction, discussion, and debate in the areas of contemporary and performing arts, curatorship, film, writing, language, and social culture. This interest is based on the ELPF. The program has an annual Experimenter Curators’ Hub, salon-style classes, symposia, lecture-performances, and the Experimenter Juniors Program on its year-long agenda.