The Power Plant

Power Talks 2006

Fri Nov 10 – Sun Nov 12 2006

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

12 November 2006 / Institutional Futures: Catherine de Zegher

Catherine de Zegher is the former Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Drawing Center in New York. Under her leadership, The Drawing Center originated and presented many significant historical and contemporary exhibitions on drawing that have toured widely. Previous to this position, de Zegher was the co-founder and Director of the Kanaal Art Foundation in Kortrijk, Belgium. She is the curator of many acclaimed exhibitions, with her most recent, Eva Hesse Drawing(2006), opening at the Walker Art Center in November. In the last ten years, de Zegher has received three best show awards from AICA (Award of International Critics).

12 November 2006 / Collector as Curator: Wilhelm Schürmann

Wilhelm Schürmann is a prominent German collector and comes to The Power Plant from Aachen, Germany, where he is Dean of the Academy of Art and Design. He is well-known as a photographer and as an art collector, particularly of photographs. Drawing on his impressive collection, Schürmann has organized group shows on various themes including Superman in Bed, Contemporary Art and Photography, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund/Germany and Prophets of Boom: Werke aus der Sammlung Schurmann, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden. As a curator, he is particularly adept at creating a “strange alchemy” (New York Times), juxtaposing images to force the viewer to re-examine them.

11 November 2006 / Institutional Futures: Hedwig Fijen

Hedwig Fijen is the Founding Director of Manifesta European Biennial of Contemporary Art, which started in Rotterdam in 1996, and is a biennial contemporary event that moves from city to city within Europe. She is currently the overall Executive Director of the Manifesta International Foundation in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has also worked as an independent curator in Cuba, the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and many other countries. In early June, Manifesta 6 – which was to open in Cyprus in September 2006 and take the form of a 100 day art school – was officially cancelled, due to dissension over the proposed involvement of Turkish Cypriots.

11 November 2006 / Collector as Curator: Claudia Beck

In the late 1960s, Claudia Beck studied with Henry Homes Smith, founder of the first academic photography program in America. By the time she moved to Vancouver in 1970, she was “obsessed and enthralled” with photography. She and her husband, Andrew Gruft opened NOVA gallery in 1976 which was a pioneer in the local art community, giving shows to artists such as Rodney Graham, Jeff Wall, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans. Since NOVA closed in 1982, Beck has curated many exhibitions for galleries and museums in Vancouver including the recent Christopher Williams exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery.

10 November 2006 / Institutional Futures: Yuko Hasegawa

Yuko Hasegawa is Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. She is currently Co-Curator of media_city seoul2006and was Artistic Director of the 7th International Istanbul Biennial (2001) and Co-Curator of the 4th Shanghai Biennale (2002). Until recently she was Chief Curator of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa Japan. She is also Professor of the Department of Art Science, Tama Art University in Tokyo. This year she co-curated Trial Balloons, an exhibition of forty-eight artists, designers, architects, and performers that was presented at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon.