29 Aug 2018

School for curatorial studies Venice: All’estero & Dr. K takes the waters at Riva. Version A

Private view: 1st September 2018 at 6.pm

Curated by Saim Demircan and the emerging curators from the School for Curatorial Studies Venice.

Works by: Whitney Claflin | Stephan Dillemuth | Rochelle Goldberg | Nick Mauss | Sophie Reinhold | Mark Van Yetter | Miriam Yammad

For this exhibition, sixteen emerging curators, working with curator and writer Saim Demircan, have collectively read W.G. Sebald's Schwindel. Gefühle (Vertigo) as a tool for storytelling in exhibition making.

In the second and third chapters of Vertigo, Sebald narrates twin journeys from Vienna to Venice made by two literary figures; the author himself, or rather, a version of himself, and a Dr K. Sebald's trips between Austria and Italy, made in the 1980s, are actually based on a documented trip made by the writer Franz Kafka in 1913.

Through a distinct use of intertextuality, Sebald lays clues and hidden messages throughout the text to confuse the authenticity of happenings and manifest vertigo. Taking inspiration from the writer's narrative devices, such as repetition, doubling and disorientation, the group show 'All'estero & Dr K. Takes the Waters at Riva: Version A' is a collaborative project from the point of view of an unreliable narrator. New and existing works by artists invited in response to Sebald's writing are installed in A plus A gallery, paying particular attention to intermediate spaces in its architecture as a way to mirror the experience of dizziness all'estero (abroad) a century after Kafka's visit to Italy.

Saim Demircan is a curator and writer based in New York City. Between 2012 and 2015 he was curator at Kunstverein München, and in 2016, curator-in-residence at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany. Previously, he curated a two-year program of offsite projects as well as a survey of Kai Althoff's work at Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea, UK. Most recently, he was the 2017 recipient of MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 in NYC, USA. He has lectured and published on numerous artistic practices and his writing regularly appears in periodicals such as frieze and Art Monthly. Following this exhibition in September, he will take part in Curated By_ in Vienna, with another exhibition illustrating Sebald's writing.

Co-curated by: Eleonora Antoniadou (Cyprus), Sophia Au Yeung (Hong Kong), Christina Chirouze Montenegro (Guatemala), Line Dalile (Syria), Tatiana Danilevskaya (Russia), Apurva Kansara (UAE), Aleksandra Lenskaya (Russia), Wendy Ma (Australia), Alexandra Malouta (Greece), Zoë McGee (USA), Sabine Miquelis (France), Georgina Pope (Australia), Rania Rizk (Lebanon), Julia Terzano (Argentina), Lina Yevtushenko (Ukraine), Eliana Zanini (Argentin)

Among the principal activities of the A plus A gallery is the The School for Curatorial Studies Venice, founded by Aurora Fonda in 2004 with the purpose of creating an open laboratory for the expression of creativity in the field of visual arts and the professions related to contemporary art. The Course in 'Curatorial Practices and Contemporary Arts', now in its 25th Italian edition and the 4th edition of the International Summer School, is articulated on both a practical and theoretical level towards an experimental approach, culminating in a final event organized by the participating students. The course is an ambitious and challenging project that aims to offer a vision of the complex world of contemporary art and offers a constructive contribution through the works produced by the School and its students. www.corsocuratori.com