Helga Just Christoffersen and Natasha Llorens given £40,000 budget for exhibition
The Zabludowicz Collection has just announced Helga Just Christoffersen and Natasha Llorens as the winning duo of the second annual Zabludowicz Collection Curatorial Open. The open was designed as a major opportunity for curators to work with a contemporary art collection of international repute.
They will be given a £40,000 budget as well as full and unlimited access to the Zabludowicz Collection to curate an exhibition for public display at the Zabludowicz Collection London,
5 July–12 August 2012.
A panel comprised of Chris Dercon (Director, Tate Modern), Martin Herbert (Writer), Maria Lind (Director, Tensta Konsthall) and Anita Zabludowicz (Founder, Zabludowicz Collection) chose Christoffersen and Llorens’ proposal amongst the following shortlisted candidates:
Egemen Demirci and Adnan Yildiz
Agata Jastrzabek and Olga Raciborska
Helga Just Chistoffersen and Natasha Marie Llorens Frances Loeffler
Christoffersen and Llorens’ exhibition Troubling Space will feature work by twelve artists from the Zabludowicz Collection that investigate types of physical and social space. The project proposes the Zabludowicz Collection as a space to gather and debate publicly and this will be activated through lectures and workshops held in the gallery space. The proposal is motivated in part by current international contestation of public space, as well as struggles for equal- access educational places. Troubling Space invests in discussion as one mode of presentation in order to ask how a contemporary art collection can be put to use in service to its audience.
Christoffersen and Llorens’ said of their win: “We wish to thank the jury for their careful consideration of our proposal and for believing in the relevance of our ideas.”
Anita Zabludowicz said: “We are delighted at the result of this Curatorial Open. Christoffersen and Llorens show obvious talent and the winning proposal promises to use the Collection’s London exhibition space in a totally novel way, and over the weeks of the exhibition, to bring together various groups of people to discuss and comment on the works on show.”
The Zabludowicz Collection Curatorial Open is a unique opportunity for an emerging curator to work with one of the strongest collections of contemporary art in the world. The panel felt that Christoffersen and Llorens’ proposal was sophisticated and well researched, and showed a well-developed sensitivity to and understanding of the works chosen.
Continuing its commitment to working with artists and curators, the Zabludowicz Collection launched this annual initiative to encourage and support experimental curatorial practice. The Curatorial Open invites creative professionals to engage with the Collection and propose a project for public exhibition and an accompanying publication and programme of events at the Zabludowicz Collection London, to be realised in July and August. The Curatorial Open seeks to actively engage new voices in the discussion around works in the Zabludowicz Collection, encouraging points of view from a variety of disciplines and transcending the confines of contemporary art curating. The winner of the inaugural Zabludowicz Collection Curatorial Open, Pavel S. Pyś, went on to be appointed as Exhibitions and Displays Curator at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds shortly after his exhibition at the Zabludowicz Collection.