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CECAC 2009

European Course for Contemporary Art Curators

Visiting Professor
Ulrich Loock

Curated by
Roberto Pinto and Gabi Scardi

1-10 October 2009, Milan

Promoted by
Province of Milan
Fondazione Antonio Ratti
Delegation of the European Commission in Milan

In collaboration with
Goethe-Institut Mailand

 The Province of Milan, the Fondazione Antonio Ratti, and the Delegation of the European Commission in Milan, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Mailand, promote the third edition of the European Course for Contemporary Art Curators (CECAC). The course gives the opportunity to European young curators to work side by side with an internationally renowned Visiting Professor, approaching a critical analysis of theoretical and practical aspects of curatorship and of the contemporary art scene. In the European Year of Creativity and Innovation the course also represents an occasion to establish new connections between young cultural operators from different European countries.

Course Structure
The course has a seminar structure, and every year contents are planned according to the Visiting Professor’s guidelines. The course lasts ten days, with an intensive schedule of theoretical and practical lessons held by the Visiting Professor, presentations of the participants’ projects and experiences, visits to exhibition spaces and institutions of the territory. The students also spend one day with a Visiting Artist invited by the Visiting Professor, whose work is related to the course issues. Classes are full time, attendance is compulsory. A publication with texts by all the participants will be published following the course.

Objectives
The course aims to:
- promote reflections and investigations questioning the role of the curator.
- set up a working platform that may enable participants to develop further curatorial projects.
- offer young curators the opportunity to work side by side with one of the leading experts of the European contemporary art scene.
- support contacts between young operators of the European contemporary art scene.
- encourage international circulation of cultural projects and competences.
- promote a publication documenting each year’s course activities.

Contents
This year's course, held by Visiting Professor Ulrich Loock, focuses on the conditions of building an extensive overview exhibition. The specific case is an international exhibition devoted to the 1980s. The participants will discuss and project the implementation of such an exhibition in all its aspects: focus, goal, historical pertinence, choice of artists/works/contributions, museological method, installation, publication, etc. It is expected that the participants will develop different, even conflicting models for making such an exhibition and that fundamental questions concerning the functions and the mission of a contemporary art museum and a historical exhibition will arise. To further explore this angle the course will include the discussion of different models of exhibition making since the 1960s. The participants will be asked to do some research prior to the course.

Visiting Professor
Ulrich Loock was born in 1953 in Braunschweig, Germany. From 1985 to 1997 he was the Director of Kunsthalle Bern. Exhibitions focused on the legacy and critical re-shaping of institutional critique. Some of the artists shown there early on in their career were Reinhard Mucha, Thomas Schütte, Thomas Struth, Marlene Dumas, Bethan Huws, Franz West, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Christopher Wool, Robert Gober, and many more. From 1997 to 2001, as the Director of Museum of Art Lucerne, Ulrich Loock worked on possibilities of adapting an exhibition practice close to the actual working of the artists, to a museum structure. Mixing Memory and Desire, the opening show of the new Art Museum Lucerne in 2000, was devoted to questions of identity. Since 2003 Ulrich Loock is the Deputy Director of Museu Serralves in Porto. Here he has initiated several one-person and group exhibitions with artists such as David Goldblatt, Erik van Lieshout, Tatjana Doll, Robert Grosvenor, Wilhelm Sasnal, Eberhard Havekost, Johanns Kahrs, and others. In 2007 he made a comprehensive exhibition entitled The 80s. A Topology. Ulrich Loock has extensively written on the artists he has exhibited and has been teaching in different institutions.

How to Apply
The call is open to citizens of the European Union over 18. No study certificate is required. English essential. The applications must be posted by 10 July 2009 (date of the postmark) to the following address: European Course for Contemporary Art Curators (CECAC), Ufficio Arti Visive – Settore Beni Culturali Arti Visive e Musei - Provincia di Milano, Viale Vittorio Veneto 2, 20124 Milan, Italy.
The applications must include

- curriculum vitae (with name, surname, nationality, age, postal address, email, phone) illustrating studies and work experiences

- abstracts and documentation of the most relevant realized curatorial projects

- a motivational statement of the applicant illustrating research interests (max 4.000 characters)

The course committee will select the participants which will be contacted via email. The material sent for the application will not be returned. Attendance and accommodation during the course are free. According to art. 13 of the d.l. 196/03, personal data of the applicants will be exclusively used for the course selection procedures and will not be communicated to others.

Info
Fondazione Antonio Ratti + 39 031 233111
Provincia di Milano +39 02 77406341

With the support of:

EUNIC - European Union National Institutes for Culture – Milano, Accademia d’Ungheria in RomaAmbasciata della Repubblica di Lettonia, Ambasciata d’Irlanda, Centre culturel français de Milan, Consolato generale dei Paesi Bassi, Consolato generale della Repubblica di Polonia, Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art, Forum Austriaco di cultura, Instituto Camões di Lisbona, Istituto Slovacco.