Lumi Tan “Survival strategies”
This lecture will reflect on the shifting role of small-scale non-profit organizations in the ecosystem of the contemporary art world, particularly in the market–driven context of New York City. The Kitchen, a non-profit presenting exhibitions and performance with equal regard since 1971, will be used as primary example to examine what constitutes support for artists in the current landscape through the lens of interdisciplinarity as well as look at the institution as a site of production. She will also discuss how feminist and anti-white supremacist approaches to curating can contribute to a more holistic vision of institutional support and push experimental approaches beyond the established statements of the 1970s avant-garde.
Lumi Tan is Curator at The Kitchen in New York, where she organizes exhibitions and produces performances with artists across disciplines and generations. Most recently, Tanhas worked with Meriem Bennani, Half Straddle, Sara Magenheimer, and Sondra Perry. Previously she co-curated From Minimalism into Algorithm (2016), a year-long performance and exhibition series, as well as projects with artists including Ed Atkins, Gretchen Bender, Glasser, George Lewis, Anicka Yi, and Danh Vo and Xiu Xiu. Prior to The Kitchen, Tan was Guest Curator at the Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Nord Pas-de-Calais in France, director at Zach Feuer Gallery, and curatorial assistant at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Artforum, Frieze, The Exhibitionist, and numerous exhibition catalogues.
The series is supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Baltic-American Freedom Foundation, Estonian Academy of Sciences.
Recorded by Tõnis Jürgens at the Academy of Sciences.