Beatrice "Bice" Curiger (born 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a Swiss art historian, curator, critic and publisher who has been the Artistic Director of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles since 2013. [1] In 2011 she became only the third woman to curate the Venice Biennale.
Curiger was born in 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland. [2] She studied art history at the University of Zurich. [3] After graduation she became an art critic at the Swiss daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger . [3]
Co-Founder and Chief Editor of the art magazine Parkett from Zurich (since 1984); Independent Curator for various international art galleries, museums and exhibitions, including for the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (France), the Hayward Gallery in London (UK), and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
From 1993 to 2013, Curiger worked as curator at the Kunsthaus Zürich (1993-2013). In addition to her work in Zürich, she served as an editor of Tate Etc. magazine (since 2004); a member of the Federal Arts Council; and lecturer at Humboldt-Universität of Berlin (Germany) (2006–07).
In 1999, Curiger chaired the jury that awarded the Museum Ludwig's Wolfgang Hahn Prize to Pipilotti Rist. [4] In 2011, she chaired the jury of the Preis der Nationalgalerie, which was awarded to Cyprien Gaillard. [5]
In 2011 Curiger curated the 54th Venice Biennale, which she entitled ILLUMinations. [6] She was the third-ever woman to curate the prestigious event since its inception (Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez co-curated the Biennale in 2005). [7] Curiger explained that the name of the exhibition was meant to "shed light on the institution itself, drawing attention to dormant and unrecognized opportunities, as well as to conventions that need to be challenged." [8] Curiger asked five open questions to all participating artists: Where do you feel at Home? Does the future speak English or another language? Is the artistic community a nation? How many nations do you feel inside yourself? If art was a nation what would be written in its constitution? [9] Curiger selected 84 artists for her exhibition. [7]
In 2013 Curiger became the Artistic Director and Exhibition Curator of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles in Arles, France. [10] The museum is dedicated to Vincent van Gogh's time spent in Arles and organizes exhibits that foster relationships between van Gogh and contemporary artists. [11]
In 2016, Curiger was a member of the jury which selected Njideka Akunyili Crosby as recipient of the Prix Canson. [12] She also served on the juries that selected Beatriz Milhazes (2021-22) [13] and Cao Fei (2022-23) [14] as participants in the “Safety Curtain” series at the Vienna State Opera.
In 2019, Curiger was part of the selection committee that chose Andrea Lissoni as director of Haus der Kunst. [15]
In 1984 Curiger co-founded the bi-annual contemporary art magazine Parkett . [17] She has been the Editor-in-Chief since its founding. [17] Since 2004 Curiger has also served as the Editorial Director of Tate's art magazine Tate Etc. [17]
Curiger has also authored numerous books on contemporary art, including:
Since 1993 Curiger has been a curator at the Kunsthaus Zürich, [18] and has also curated and co-curated numerous contemporary art exhibitions, including:
From 1984 to 1994 Curiger was a member of Switzerland's National Council for the Arts. [18]
In 2010 Curiger was listed Number 6 on ArtReview's annual Power 100 list. [19]
In 2014 Curiger was named by Artnet as one of the twenty-six most powerful European women in the Art World. [20]
In 2022, Franz und Walther König published the book C is for Curator: Bice Curiger, A Life in Art by Dora Imhof that recaps Curiger's career. [21]
The Venice Biennale is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of its kind. The main exhibition held in Castello, in the halls of the Arsenale and Biennale Gardens, alternates between art and architecture. The other events hosted by the Foundation—spanning theatre, music, and dance—are held annually in various parts of Venice, whereas the Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido.
James Lee Byars was an American conceptual artist and performance artist specializing in installations and sculptures, as well as a self-considered mystic. He was best known for his use of personal esoteric motifs, and his creative persona that has been described as 'half dandified trickster and half minimalist seer'.
Harald Szeemann was a Swiss curator, artist, and art historian. Having curated more than 200 exhibitions, many of which have been characterized as groundbreaking, Szeemann is said to have helped redefine the role of an art curator. It is believed that Szeemann elevated curating to a legitimate art-form itself.
Meret Elisabeth Oppenheim was a German-born Swiss Surrealist artist and photographer.
Thomas Hirschhorn is a Swiss artist who lives and works in Paris. Trained in Zurich and inspired by Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol, he began as a graphic designer and switched to art in the 1990s. He has become known for using everyday materials in the creation of complex sculptures executed often on a large scale. In addition, he has written extensively on his work and the theories that inform it. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Europe and the United States.
Anri Sala is an Albanian contemporary artist whose primary medium is video.
Bethan Huws is a Welsh multi-media artist whose work explores place, identity, and translation, often using architecture and text. Her work has been described as "delicate, unobtrusive interventions into architectural spaces".
Franz West was an Austrian artist.
Countess Adelina von Fürstenberg-Herdringen is an international curator and one of the field's pioneers in broadening contemporary art. A Swiss citizen of Armenian origin — granddaughter of the Armenian architect Dikran Kalfa Cüberyan — she was born in Istanbul. She married when she was still at university, to the photographer Count Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Herdringen, son of Gloria Guinness (1913-1980) and Count Franz-Egon von Fürstenberg-Herdringen (1896-1975).
Parkett was an international magazine specializing in art. The magazine ceased publication in Summer 2017 with its 100th issue and now continues online as a time capsule and archive with some 270 in-depth artists portraits, artists documents, newsletters and more at www.parkettart.com.
Marc Bauer is an artist best known for his works in the graphic medium, primarily drawing.
Shirana Shahbazi is an Iranian-born photographer who now lives in Switzerland. Her work includes installations and large prints of conceptual photography.
Maja Hoffmann is a Swiss art collector, art patron, documentary producer, impresario, and businesswoman. She is the founder and president of the LUMA Foundation. She is also part of the shareholder pool made up of descendants of the founder of the Roche Holding AG, which controls the Swiss health-care company Hoffmann-La Roche.
Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles is a non-profit foundation located in Arles France dedicated to the work and legacy of Vincent van Gogh. Its goal is to generate and promote cultural and artistic activities with reference to the oeuvre of Vincent van Gogh as related to the time he spent in Arles, and the intention that van Gogh expressed in establishing an international center of artistic creation and exchange in Arles. The artistic director is editor-in-chief of Parkett, Bice Curiger.
Latifa Echakhch is a Moroccan-French visual artist working in Switzerland who creates installations. She participated in the Venice Biennale in 2011 and won the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2013.
Anne Barlow is a curator and director in the field of international contemporary art, and is currently Director of Tate St Ives, Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018. There she directs and oversees the artistic vision and programme, including temporary exhibitions, collection displays, artist residencies, new commissions, and a learning and research programme. At Tate St Ives, Barlow has curated solo exhibitions of work by artists including Thảo Nguyên Phan (2022), Petrit Halilaj (2021), Haegue Yang (2020), Otobong Nkanga (2019), Huguette Caland (2019), Amie Siegel (2018) and Rana Begum (2018). She was also co-curator of "Naum Gabo: Constructions for Real Life" (2020) and collaborating curator with Castello di Rivoli, Turin for Anna Boghiguian at Tate St Ives (2019).
Cathérine Hug is a Swiss art historian and curator.
Adrián Villar Rojas is an Argentinian sculptor known for his elaborate fantastical works which explore notions of the Anthropocene and the end of the world. In his dream like installations he uses aspects of drawing, sculpture, video and music to create immersive situations in which the spectator is confronted with ideas and images of their imminent extinction.
Bertrand Lavier is a French conceptual artist, painter and sculptor, belonging to the post-readymade era, inspired by the Duchampian legacy and the Nouveau réalisme, the artistic movement created by the art critic Pierre Restany in 1960. Lavier studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Horticulture in Versailles, France in 1968-1971.
Ingrid Paula del Carmen Wildi-Merino is a Chilean-born Swiss video artist, curator, and educator. She has been a lecturer at the Geneva University of Art and Design, from 2005 to 2016. She has been active in Geneva, Biel, and Madrid; and she currently lives in Santiago.
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