IKT 2020 Virtual Meeting

A Gleaning

219 registered participants from 37 nations, exciting lectures and field reports with lively discussions, a much-used chat and conference technology that worked perfectly over long distances – this is the balance of the first digital meeting in the history of IKT, to which the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art, together with host Marta Herford under the direction of IKT member Roland Nachtigäller, invited IKT members and the public on October 17th and 18th, 2020.

The topic of the virtual meeting, "Sustainable Curating in Corona Times", linked the drastic consequences of the pandemic on the art and culture industry to a problem, which has been known for a long time, but is rarely discussed in public: How sustainable is the art and culture industry? What do the corona-induced closures of art institutions, worldwide travel bans etc. mean for curatorial work? How threatened is the pandemic for the existence of independent, but also employed curators? Does the art business have to rethink in order to do justice to the principles of sustainability itself? And what alternatives are there to the classical institutional exhibitions?

For the most part, IKT members from around the world reported live on the virtual stage about their experiences, presented concepts that have proven their worth in recent months, and discussed with the invited guest speakers and participants in smaller sessions about what a sustainable curatorial practice could look like in the future.

Among the high-profile guests were keynote speaker Till Briegleb, journalist and author of the groundbreaking essay "Consequence Paralysis", Thomas Oberender, Director of the Berliner Festspiele and curator of the "unplugged exhibition" Down to Earth, which was shown at the Gropius Bau in Berlin in summer 2020, and Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of General Ecology at the London Serpentine Galleries. The virtual panel discussion moderated by IKT board member Ombretta Agró Andruff was completed by Farid Rakun, member of the Indonesian collective ruangrupa, which will curate the "documenta fifteen" in Kassel 2022.

At the end of the event everyone agreed: Although a virtual meeting cannot replace the physical gathering on the occasion of an IKT Congress, in these difficult times especially for art and culture, it offers a perfect and above all sustainable opportunity and platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences.

In any case, the digital event gave a foretaste of the IKT Congress in Germany, which was postponed until September 2021 due to the pandemic, and which will be organized collaboratively between IKT, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, hase29. Gesellschaft für zeitgenössische Kunst and Marta Herford – hopefully as a face-to-face event.

Our special thanks go to Roland Nachtigäller and the entire team from Marta Herford, Alfredo Cramerotti, Mostyn/Wales, SmartEvents, Dresden as well as to
Antje Nöhren, Kultursekretariat NRW Gütersloh and Bezirksregierung Detmold for their kind support.