Held on the occasion of the exhibition The Imaginary Institution of India : Art 1975-1998 (Barbican, London) and organised in collaboration with the Barbican, this panel discussion opens onto comparative frameworks outside South Asia and asks how curatorial practices can destabilise the established art histories we inherit. Among these, it will critically interrogate the limits of conventional terminologies and periodisation when applied to areas previously deemed marginal. Going further, it will look at the ways artists relate to socio-political upheavals of their specific contexts, while paying close attention to the overlap between international, regional and national politics, as well as imaginaries and networks. How can these dynamics be captured in exhibitions and other display formats?
A didactic, explanatory logic has often guided exhibitions of artworks presented outside their countries of making. In contrast, the speakers on this panel have sought to move beyond any reductive intent. They have been involved in ambitious curatorial projects that make their research on specific art scenes, media and networks not only visible but accessible to audiences outside their places of production. What are the challenges involved in this process? How can the work of individual artists be illuminated and critically apprehended? And, in doing so, how do curatorial practices contribute to the unmaking of art historical conventions? These are some of the questions that the panel will address.
For more information on the exhibition ‘The Imaginary Institution of India : Art 1975-1998 (Barbican, London), please see: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2024/event/the-imaginary-institution-of-india-art-1975-1998
Organised by Dr Devika Singh, Senior Lecturer in Curating, The Courtauld, and Dr Shanay Jhaveri, Head of Visual Arts, Barbican.
Speakers
Dr Sam Bardaouil is a distinguished curator, art historian, and award-winning writer, known for his expertise in modern and contemporary art. He is currently Co-Director of the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, where he has led numerous innovative exhibitions that explore interdisciplinary practices and global narratives. Bardaouil has curated exhibitions at leading cultural institutions such as the Reina Sofía in Madrid, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He co-curated the Lyon Biennale in 2022 and will co-curate the Taipei Biennale in 2025. His publications include Surrealism in Egypt: Modernism and the Art and Liberty Group. As co-founder of Art Reoriented, he emphasizes reshaping art history to highlight overlooked voices, bringing a collaborative and inclusive approach to the international art landscape.
Osei Bonsu is a British-Ghanaian curator and writer based in London and Paris. He is currently a curator of International Art at Tate Modern, where he is responsible for organising exhibitions, developing the museum’s collection and broadening the representation of artists from Africa and the African diaspora. As a leading curator of contemporary art, he has advised museums, art fairs and private collections internationally and mentored emerging artists through his digital platform, Creative Africa Network. Bonsu has worked as a contributing editor for Frieze magazine and has contributed to a number of exhibition catalogues and arts publications. He holds a Masters in History of Art from University College London, and a BA in Curatorial Studies from Central Saint Martins. In 2020, he was named as one of Apollo Magazine’s ‘40 under 40’ leading African voices.
Dr Shanay Jhaveri is the Barbican’s Head of Visual Arts. Previously, he was Associate Curator of International Art from 2016 – 2022 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and completed his PhD at the Royal College of Art in London. Among the many exhibitions Jhaveri has curated are the ground-breaking retrospective Phenomenal Nature: Mrinalini Mukherjee at the Met Breuer in 2019, and Huma Bhabha’s Met Roof Commission ‘We Come in Peace’ in 2018. He has published widely in various art journals, and has written books including Western Artists and India: Creative Inspirations in Art and Design, Outsider Films on India: 1950 –1990 and America: Films from Elsewhere. In September, 2023 Jhaveri launched a new series of site specific commissions at the Barbican with Ranjani Shettar’s Cloud songs on the horizon.
Dr Devika Singh is Senior Lecturer in Curating at The Courtauld. She was previously Curator, International Art at Tate Modern where she was part of the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational and in charge of acquisitions of South Asian art. Singh has also been Smuts Research Fellow at the Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge and a fellow at the Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art (Max Weber Foundation) in Paris. She has curated exhibitions and collection displays at the CSMVS (Mumbai), Dhaka Art Summit, Dubai Design District, Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge) and Tate Modern. She is a joint editor of the Oxford Art Journal, has written widely for exhibition catalogues, art magazines and journals and is the author of International Departures: Art in India after Independence (Reaktion Books, 2023).
Claire Tancons is a curator, writer and researcher who has contributed to the inaugural edition of Prospect New Orleans (2008-9), the Gwangju Biennial (2008), the Cape Town (CAPE 09, 2009), Benin (2012), Gothenburg (2013) and Sharjah (2019) biennials. Tancons has carried out numerous projects with museums and art centres in the United States and Europe and has received grants from, among others, the Prince Claus Fund, the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Foundation for Arts Initiatives. Her exhibition EN MAS’: Carnaval and Performance Art of the Caribbean (2014-16) received the Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award (2012) and her book project Roadworks: Processional Performance in the New Millennium (2019) the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Book Grant. The current project Van Lévé: Visions Souveraines des Amériques et de l’Amazonie Créoles et Maronnes (Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2026) is supported by the Ford Foundation. Tancons was the Artistic Director of the city-wide public program Nuit Blanche in Paris in 2024.
