Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/193668
Matthew Abess, Silvia Barisione, Claire Breukel, Susan Caraballo, José Carlos Diaz, Alex Gartenfeld, Bryan Granger, Christian Larsen, Rene Morales, Diana Nawi, Tobias Ostrander, Elizabeth Shannon and Chana Budgazad Sheldon: 13 curators who represent an exciting generational shift. They're a critical mass of young curators to finally emerge as Miami's art institutions develop and mature. Along with their executive directors, their work is to create exhibitions and curatorial programs that must inspire, engage, educate, inform and, yes, entertain visitors. In sum, a curator's job is a tall order. If you could organize an exhibition with any artist or designer in the world— dead or alive, past or present—who would that be and why? Claire Breukel Unscripted Bal Harbour, and independent curator "Greedily, I would choose to work with the creative philosophies of three designers rolled into one superhuman colleague. They would have Dieter Rams' functionalist approach that bears simultaneously essential and beautiful designs, Azzedine Alaïa's uncompromising focus on individualism and creativity and Zaha Hadid's courage and powerful boundary-breaking." Chana Budgazad-Sheldon Executive Director, Locust Projects "John Armleder's universe of diverse works has always excited me. It oscillates between the fields of art, design, performance and Pop. He is constantly experimenting with the language of art-making, investigating what art is and what art can do." Silvia Barisione Curator, Wolfsonian-FIU "If I think abstractly of an artist or designer with whom I would like to work, my immediate answer would be Leonardo da Vinci. Then, I reflect that he was a Renaissance genius and too brilliant in every field to consider working with me. So, I go back to my field of expertise and select a name rom my favorite 20th century designers: Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945), who is, for me, one of the most influential exponents of French modernism. In 1929, he was among the founders of he Union des Artistes Modernes, pursuing the 58 CULTURED idea of unifying the arts in the creation of modern and affordable objects. Man Ray chose MalletStevens' Villa Noailles at Hyères, perhaps the architect's masterpiece, as the set for his film "Les Mystères du Château du Dé," and Mallet-Stevens himself designed film sets. This is another reason why I would like to work with him: to discover what was lost." Susan Caraballo Artistic Director, ArtCenter/South Florida "I don't know if I can narrow it down to just one. But, perhaps two: Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Leandro Erlich. Often, these artists' works blur the lines between object, installation and performance as they seek engagement from the spectator. This is the type of work that I am naturally attracted to as I have a performance background. I am especially interested in participatory art that draws the viewer into the artwork and involves him/her at another level." Christian Larsen Curator, Wolfsonian-FIU "Charles and Ray Eames. No better studio for learning how to make things that evoke surprise and wonder in equal measure to the joy and beauty they inspire in everyday use. That's no easy feat. Could you imagine working in a warehouse in Venice, California, in the 1950s-60s with a whole team of young, curious, imaginative, creative types who excelled at designing and making things across every discipline and at every scale? The Eames' curiosity and absolutely individual approach to each of their projects made for a beehive of creativity of which I wish I could have been a part." Alex Gartenfeld Interim Director and Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami "The pleasure of working with contemporary art is the ability to constantly re-evaluate the plane of immanence, as it were." Matthew Abess Assistant Curator, Wolfsonian-FIU "The Russian Futurist artists, writers, and designers who gathered at the Fantastic Tavern cabaret in Tiflis (now Tblisi) in the period following the October Revolution and ensuing civil war. During the brief time before new Soviet policies effectively dismantled much of the nation's avant-garde, this raucous group, prone to excessive drink and transrational declamation, actively sought to revolutionize the world by artistic, literary, and other aesthetic means—to transform consciousness at the level of the canvas and the printed page. It was a highly aspirational program that seems rather unimaginable today, appearing by turns quaint and explosive, generous and reckless, progressive and dogmatic. I find it an incredibly moving moment."