Spotlight with Kris Dittel
Kris Dittel, Independent Curator, Editor & Writer, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Could you tell us a little more about your background and how you got into curating?
Early on I was very interested in visual art and theatre, but curating or even working in the field was not a career path that was presented to me as a viable option. Growing up, my experience of visual art came mostly through books, I visited the first contemporary art institution as a sixteen-year-old, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest. Professionally I took a detour, after acquiring a degree in economic theory and governance, I soon realized it was not a field I could find my place in. I took a U-turn and returned to study art theory at the Maastricht University and later was a participant at De Appel Curatorial Programme in Amsterdam.
Who/what has influenced your curatorial practice?
I’m lucky to have had fantastic colleagues and mentors in my life as well as the possibility to experience many different artistic contexts, but it is mostly artists from whom I’ve learned from, long before I dared to call myself a curator.
An early formative aspect of my professional trajectory was co-running an independent art space, called B32 in Maastricht, which was located at a squat, together with five artists and other cultural workers. It reinforced my understanding that art most often happens outside of the white cube and is strongly tied to the social.
In regard to influential figures, I should also mention my fellow participants at De Appel Curatorial Programme, whom I met in 2013; many of them remained my professional sounding boards and friends.
One of my early mentors, Paula van den Bosch told me once to “see as much as you can” and “reach out and talk to people you find interesting”, and as simple as it sounds, it’s been an important advice.
The role of the curator is continuously changing. Could you describe what it means to be a curator today?
I think the field has changed and diversified over the past twenty or so years to the extent that it’s hard to define the curatorial in a short paragraph. Perhaps it is in this multidirectionality and ability to operate on different planes that lies the description of curating today.
As for myself, I prefer working collaboratively, with fellow curators, non-art professionals, artists, art workers. Similarly, amongst my colleagues I sense a desire of being numerous rather than putting emphasis on the individual and the so-called “excellence”.
This year I’ve started mentoring De Appel Curatorial Programme’s current participants and they have been emphasizing curating as space- and place-making and as a relational practice, which I find inspiring and gives me hope in regards to the sensitivities and ethics of generations of emergent curators.
Tell us about the latest exhibition that you curated.
Recently we have closed the exhibition Unruly Kinships at Temporary Gallery CCA in Cologne that I’ve co-curated with the institution’s director, Aneta Rostkowska. It aimed to contemplate and envisage various forms of kinship that go beyond blood relations and the Western model of the nuclear family. We were able to work together and support the practices of artists that don’t only perform but importantly also enact different kinship ties and social relations, and challenge existing notions and blueprints of what kinship may entail. It was truly a pleasure to work with artists such as Pauline Curnier Jardin & the Feel Good Cooperative, Selma Selman, Clementine Edwards, Jay Tan, Geo Wyeth, Robert Gabris, among others.
Importantly the project included a public research element, the Forms of Kinship study group, which consisted of monthly events, mostly online. The study group started a year before the exhibition opened and gave us the opportunity to talk to and learn from thinkers, academics, artists, makers, activists, healers, and others, and open up our research trajectory to the public.
The exhibition also involved an active public program of performances, LARP games, listening sessions, talks, and a night-long closing event, the Festival of Feelings. The latter was a leap into the unknown, as we could have not anticipated how audiences will respond to an 8+ hours long, dense program of performances, poetry, stories, music, dance, that continues into the night. And yet it surpassed all our expectations and we had the richest and warmest farewell to the exhibition, thanks to all performers, participants and guests involved.
Overall, with this project we tried to experiment with various formats and see what works for whom, especially now that audiences are returning to art institutions, “post” pandemic, with different needs, expectations and interests, which I feel institutions are only slowly adjusting to.
This project is a good example of my preferred way of working, on focused research projects that manifest in various formats across time, allows long-term collaborations and a more substantial engagement with artists and other practitioners. Right now, together with Aneta Rostkowska we are working on a publication, as the latest phase of Unruly Kinships. It will be a polyphonic collection of texts and visual materials that will bring together and expand on all of the project’s elements.
What are you reading, watching, or listening to now, that is helping you to stay relaxed and positive?
I’m not sure, I read or watch anything in particular in order to stay positive, usually I charge up by spending time with friends and my dog. But recently I got installed a projection screen in our living room and I’m very much looking forward to rewatching some New Wave classics.
I’m an eclectic reader and book hoarder, usually reading several books simultaneously, ranging from popular fiction to theory and poetry. I love to receive book recommendations; recently artist and my frequent collaborator Clementine Edwards told me about Black Trans Feminism by Marquis Bey, and artist Lucia Momu gifted me The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, I’m very much looking forward to start reading those. One of the pleasures of being also an editor is to exchange books with other authors; recently we swapped our publications with Suzanna Ellis Slack who gave me their White Spirit Videotelephony, which I’ve really enjoyed.
How long have you been part of IKT and how do you feel that it has benefited your curatorial practice?
I became an IKT member in late 2018. Unfortunately, since then I was not able to participate in-person conferences, mostly due to the pandemic, but I look forward to joining in the future. I appreciate the new website which gives a good overview of members’ activities and events, and I was happy that the podcast on curating I Hope This Message Finds You Well that I co-host with Eloise Sweetman got the opportunity to be featured.
Thank you Kris!
Learn more about Kris Dittel: Instagram | Facebook | Website
Spotlight
Spotlight is a new series of short interviews, aiming to provide insights about IKT members, their curatorial practice and projects in which they are involved. The series is intended to boost members' engagement with the network and help them find new opportunities for collaboration.
Want to participate?
Send us a request to ikt.curatorial@gmail.com and we will send you interview questions.