Galini Notti Announced NEON Curatorial Award Winner At Whitechapel Gallery

Galini Notti has been announced as the winner of the 2013 NEON Curatorial Award at The Whitechapel Gallery, at a ceremony this evening. The NEON Curatorial Award is part of an on-going partnership between the Whitechapel Gallery in London and NEON, a non-profit organisation in Athens. Through building links between emerging curators in London and across Greece, new ideas are developed around the presentation of contemporary art, with the aim of championing curatorial excellence.

Young curators devise a proposal for an exhibition based on artworks from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, which is made up of over 500 works by 170 international and Greek artists, with the best submission being awarded the NEON Curatorial Award.

Athens-based curator Galini Notti received the award for her project Now, bring me that horizon, and was one of 18 curators invited to submit a unique proposal based on works from the Collection. Notti’s winning proposal, which examined different views of the world through aspects of migration, neo-colonialism, globalisation and ecology, included the use of a disused passenger terminal in the port city of Piraeus in the region of Attica, Greece. Her proposal was commended for its unique structure and sequencing, scrupulous attention to detail and thorough research.

The judging panel for the 2013 NEON Curatorial Award consists of four curators: Martin Caiger-Smith, The Courtauld Institute; Nico de Oliveira, London Metropolitan University; Dr. Simon Sheikh, Goldsmiths College and Dr. Victoria Walsh, Royal College of Art and is moderated by Dr. Nayia Yiakoumaki, Whitechapel Gallery.

Of the winning proposal the judging panel commented ‘Galini Notti’s Now, bring me that horizon is a daring proposal that addresses themes of current interest and has the potential to frame the D.Daskalopoulos Collection in new ways for a local Greek audience in an unusual and little known location.’

Notti studied at the National Technical University of Athens, Ecole du Louvre and Sorbonne University in Paris, and University Of Ioannina and was a co-curator at Agora, the 4th Athens Biennale this year.

Of the 2013 NEON Curatorial Award, Iwona Blazwick said ‘It is wonderful for the Whitechapel Gallery to be able to recognise the stellar achievements and imaginative new ideas of emerging curators. This award, the result of a rich exchange of ideas between London and Greece, is inspired by the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, one of the foremost European collections of contemporary art.’

Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Founder of NEON said ‘This is an exciting moment for me. I consider my role as a collector to be that of a temporary custodian of the physical manifestation of great artistic ideas and creativity. Seeing the proposals by the participants who had access to my collection, I was impressed by the vision and ingenuity of the interpretations by the creative minds of this young generation of curators. My vision for NEON is to channel this energy and manifest change in the contemporary cultural landscape of Greece through the exploration of art as a tool of growth and development.’

Elina Kountouri, Director of NEON said ‘The Curatorial Exchange and Award continues to develop a significant and creative dialogue between the UK and Greece. Our aim is to encourage curators to investigate new avenues of thought to ensure that art remains a motor of change.’

The NEON Curatorial Award (formerly Demergon Curatorial Award) is open to curators across Greece and London, including current and alumni students from London Metropolitan University, The Courtauld Institute, Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art. The award builds on the Whitechapel Gallery’s local and international networks with academic departments of curatorial studies.

The NEON Curatorial Award is part of the NEON Curatorial Exchange, in which curators benefit from a four-day study trip to Athens and London, including guided tours of the Athenian and London art scene. The exchange is designed to open up networking and professional development opportunities for young curators. The programme is organised by the Whitechapel Gallery and coordinated by Nayia Yiakoumaki, Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery and Project Manager of the NEON Curatorial Exchange and Award.

The judges for the 2013 NEON Curatorial Award are Martin Caiger-Smith, Head of MA Programme: Curating the Art Museum, The Courtauld Institute; Nico de Oliveira, Programme leader, Curating the Contemporary, London Metropolitan University; Dr. Simon Sheikh, Programme Director of MFA Curating, Goldsmiths and Dr. Victoria Walsh, Head of Programme, Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art.

Galini Notti (born 1980) is an independent curator based in Athens, Greece. She holds a Bachelor degree in Philosophy from the University of Ioannina, Greece and has received graduate degrees in Aesthetics from Paris 1 University and in Museology from the Ecole du Louvre, Paris, France. Recently she curated the group show … at 3 137, a dynamic artist-run space in Athens, and co-curated the group show Vanishing Point at Action Field Kodra, an annual contemporary art exhibition in Thessaloniki. Previously, she curated the group show All that melts into air is solid at Elika Gallery and co-curated the shows Studios and Chain Reaction at The Art Foundation in Athens. She is currently working at Xippas Gallery and her professional experience includes work in the curatorial departments of the Musée d’Orsay, MoMA, and the Athens Biennial.

Applications for next year’s award will open in spring 2014.

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