Join the Conversation is an international networking initiative that invites emerging and senior art professionals, curators, and critics to experience and engage with the Viennese art scene in-depth. It is organized by viennacontemporary and takes place with the kind support of the Vienna Business Agency.

The program offers numerous visits to galleries, off-spaces, museums, and evening events, as well as a Talk at viennacontemporary, moderated this year by Bruno Mokoross, Curator of ZONE1.

Meet the seven impressive art professionals who will come to Vienna in September to join the conversation.

 

Carina Bukuts | Germany

Carina Bukuts is a writer and curator. Since 2022 she has been the co-curator of Portikus, Frankfurt, together with Liberty Adrien, where she has worked on new commissions by Simone Fattal (2023), Lap-See Lam (2023), and Asad Raza (2022) as well as group shows featuring Luiz Roque, Sung Tieu, Cecilia Vicuña, and Slavs and Tatars, among others. Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition by Adrian Piper, opening in November. Previously Carina served for several years as an editor of frieze magazine. She is the founder of PASSE-AVANT, an online magazine for contemporary art, and her writings have appeared in various monographs and magazines, such as Mousse Magazine, Spike Art Magazine, and Kunstchronik. Alongside these practices, she regularly teaches at Städelschule, Goethe-University, Frankfurt, and Braunschweig University of Art.

 

 

Martin Clark | Great Britain

Martin Clark is a curator and writer. Currently Director of Camden Art Centre in London, and previously Director of Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, and Tate St Ives, Cornwall, over the last 25 years he has curated and organized over 100 exhibitions, most recently with Matthew Krishanu, Lonnie Holley, and Tamara Henderson. He has written widely on contemporary art and artists and in 2023 he served on the jury for the Turner Prize. He lives and works in London.

 

 

Andrea Lissoni | Germany

Since 2020 Andrea Lissoni is the Artistic Director of Haus der Kunst München. His program is based on a transdisciplinary approach in which all strands are deeply connected started in April 2022 with the sound and music residency series TUNE and a series of intertwined exhibitions by Fujiko Nakaya, Dumb Type, Carsten Nicolai, Christine Sun Kim, Tony Cokes, Karrabing Film Collective (2022) followed by Inside Other Spaces. Environments by Women Artists 1956—1976, alongside shows by WangShui, Martino Gamper and Meredith Monk. The series developed further in spring 2024, with solo exhibitions by Pan Daijing, Liliane Lijn and Rebecca Horn.

Before that, he was Senior Curator of International Art (Film) at Tate Modern, London, and previously curator at HangarBicocca, Milan where he curated exhibitions by Micol Assael, Celine Condorelli, Gianikian-Ricci Lucchi, Ragnar Kjartansson, Wilfredo Prieto, Tomas Saraceno. At Tate, he curated Philippe Parreno’s Turbine Hall Commission in 2016, as well as survey exhibitions of Joan Jonas and Bruce Nauman. In 2019, he co-curated the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement The Sound of Screens imploding, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and OGR, Turin, and participated in the international opening of CCA Tashkent, the first public contemporary art center in Uzbekistan, where he curated the solo exhibition Qo’rg’on Chiroq by artist Saodat Ismailova.

 

 

Isabella Maidment | Denmark

Dr Isabella Maidment is a curator, art historian, and Chief Curator of ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark, where she leads the artistic program. In previous curatorial roles at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and The Hepworth Wakefield, she curated critically acclaimed exhibitions including Hurvin Anderson: Salon Paintings, Isaac Julien: What Freedom Is To Me, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly In League With The Night, and Anne Imhof: Sex. A specialist in performance and innovative exhibition formats, she holds a PhD in History of Art from University College London.

 

 

Zane Onckule | Latvia

Zane Onckule is the Curator and Program Director at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga (2010–2017 and from 2020). She was Co-Commissioner of 13. Baltic Triennial in 2018 (curated by Vincent Honore) and a Co-Commissioner of Latvian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale organized in partnership with Art in General (New York). Selected curatorial and collaborative projects: solo shows by Indriķis Ģelzis (2023), Ilya Lipkin (2022), Daiga Grantina (2022), Inga Meldere  (2022), Sophie Thun (2021), Tobias Kaspar (2019), Rodrigo Hernandez (2017); Ieva Epnere (2017); Alexandra Zukerman ( 2016), Ulla von Brandenburg (2015), and group exhibitions Wearable Memory and Body Techniques. Featuring Solomon Levitanus and Ljuba Monastirsky (2023), Betweenness: Technoculture and the Baltics (2023), Faktura (For A Nervous Spirit) (2020), Little Vera (with Sanya Kantarovsky and Ella Kruglyanskaya) (2014). She studied Art History at The Art Academy of Latvia, Communication Science at the University of Latvia, and Photography at Zurich University of Arts, and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Banking Institution of Higher Education in Latvia. In May 2019 she graduated from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) Onckule’s writing and reviews have appeared in Artforum, MoMA Post, Art Monthly, Echogonewrong.com, Kultūras Diena, Arterritory.com, and Foto Kvartāls among others.

 

 

Marek Pokorný | Czech Republic

Marek Pokorný is an art critic and curator, since 2013 the Director of the city gallery for contemporary art PLATO in Ostrava. From 2004 to 2012 he lead the Moravian Gallery in Brno and the International Biennial of Graphic Design Biennial Brno. In 2005 and 2013 he was the Curator of the Czech-Slovak Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. From 1995 to 2000, he was the editor of the visual arts magazine Detail, which he also co-founded. In the 90‘s, Pokorný was one of the profile art critics in the Czech Republic who wrote for daily and weekly newspapers. He is focusing on reflecting on the role of cultural institutions in society. In 2022 he received the Ministry of Culture Award for his contribution to the visual arts.

 

 

Janne Villadsen | Denmark

Janne Villadsen has recently been appointed Director at one of Copenhagen’s largest theaters. The vision is to turn Nørrebro Theater into an international cross-cultural art institution focusing on inclusion and engagement. Furthermore, Janne has been appointed a member of the Odense Art Council and chairwoman at the Copenhagen Photo Festival. Previously, Janne has been Program Director and part of the Directory at Heartland, a cultural festival taking place at Funen, Denmark as well as Head of Communication at Chart Art Fair in Copenhagen, the leading platform for contemporary art in the Nordic region.