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LUMA Foundation announces POOL Curatorial programme

Over the past twenty years, little in the art world has changed as dramatically as private collecting. Rapidly growing private collections around the world have garnered attention as tastemakers, while the reduced financial capacities of public collections have further pushed their private counterparts into the limelight. From politicians to artists, market players to the media, many are wondering what roles private collections will play in the future. POOL explores these questions, theoretically and practically, through discursive and curatorial experimentation.

POOL is an innovative new programme that combines an international group of private collections with a mentor-based training programme for curators. Giving curators the opportunity to position private collecting within the context of contemporary exhibition practice, POOL does not interpret private collections as merely the representation of individual preferences, but rather as a contemporary document. A platform for new approaches to how art is considered and mediated, POOL is not merely a place of education but also a public exhibition space.

POOL exhibition
some a little sooner, some a little later
9 June–18 August 2013
Curated by Gabi Ngcobo

some a littler sooner, some a little later… stages a continuous deflection of historical, mythical and fantastical narratives. Works selected from the private collections of Maja Hoffmann and Michael Ringier emphasize insistence and repetition. Together they seek to propose a rearrangement and erasure of gaps in time, by warping concepts of place as well as contemporary speculation on the future(s).

Gabi Ngcobo (b. South Africa) is an independent curator, creative researcher and educator based in Johannesburg. In 2010 she co-founded the Center for Historical Reenactments, a project foregrounding investigations into historical legacies and their impact on contemporary art. She is the first curatorial fellow of POOL and was proposed by POOL mentor Tom Eccles, Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, of which she is a graduate.

POOL symposium
“Restoring Depth: Questions for Twenty-First Century Curating and Collecting”
Sunday 9 June 2013, 1–5:30pm
Curated by Beatrix Ruf with Zoë Gray and Fionn Meade
Fee entry, space limited

The POOL symposium launches this new curatorial programme while raising essential questions that will shape its future. It features panel discussions on curatorial pedagogy and the future of collections. These are interspersed with two speculative papers given by two dynamic thinkers: Liam Gillick (artist, New York); Mario García Torres (artist, Mexico City).

“Shaping the Contemporary: Training Future Curators”
How are existing curatorial study programs increasing awareness of incisive experiments in collecting? How is the impact of contemporary collections upon future curatorial practice being theorized?
Featuring Ann Demeester (De Appel, Amsterdam); Ruth Noack (Royal College of Art, London); Dorothee Richter (University of Fine Arts Zurich); and Simon Sheikh (Goldsmiths College, London).

“Building Future Collections”
What are the responsibilities of public institutions regarding the stewardship of private collections? How should institutions mediate the transition of meaning from subjective to collective?
Featuring Vasif Kortun (SALT, Istanbul); Chris Dercon (Tate Modern, London); and Clémentine Deliss (Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt).

“POOL: A New Model”
A final panel presents POOL, introducing its principle actors, outlining its early projects and underscoring its ambitions.
Featuring Michael Ringier (Ringier collection, Zurich); Maja Hoffmann (LUMA Foundation, Zurich); Beatrix Ruf (Kunsthalle Zürich); Tom Eccles (Bard College, New York); and Gabi Ngcobo (first POOL curatorial fellow).

Location and structure
POOL is housed in the spaces of LUMA/Westbau POOL etc., part of the recently converted and expanded Löwenbräukunst in Zurich. POOL is conceived by Beatrix Ruf in collaboration with the founding collections of Maja Hoffmann and Michael Ringier. This pilot project by the two private collections is hosted by the LUMA Foundation.

For further information on POOL, please email [email protected].

LUMA/Westbau POOL etc.
Löwenbräukunst
Limmatstrasse 270
CH-8005 Zürich
Switzerland
www.poolproject.net