Ranjit Hoskote is a poet, cultural theorist, and independent curator. He is the author of 19 books. These include five collections of poetry, most recently Vanishing Acts: New & Selected Poems 1985-2005 (New Delhi: Penguin, 2006) and Die Ankunft der Vögel (München: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2006). Hoskote has authored nine monographs on art and artists; most recently, Zinny & Maidagan: Compartment/ Das Abteil (Frankfurt: Museum für Moderne Kunst/ Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2010). Hoskote has co-authored, with the German novelist and essayist Ilija Trojanow, a critical history of cultural confluence, Kampfabsage (München: Random House/ Blessing Verlag, 2007).
Hoskote’s essays have appeared in numerous books and anthologies; most recently: ‘Biennials of Resistance’, in Elena Filipovic, Marieke van Hal and Solveig Øvstebo eds., The Biennial Reader (Bergen & Ostfildern-Ruit: Bergen Kunsthall & Hatje Cantz, 2010); ‘Preliminaries towards a Manifesto: The Future of the Museum in India’, in Hans Ulrich Obrist ed., Art Basel Miami Transcripts (Basel & Ostfildern-Ruit: Art Basel & Hatje Cantz, 2008); and ‘Versions of a Postcolonial Metropolis: Competing Discourses on Bombay’s Image’, in Klaus Segbers ed., The Making of Global City Regions (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
Hoskote has curated 21 exhibitions of contemporary Indian and international art, including a mid-career survey of Atul Dodiya (Japan Foundation, Tokyo, 2001) and a lifetime retrospective of Jehangir Sabavala (National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay and New Delhi, 2005-2006). He was co-curator of the trans-Asian collaborative curatorial project, ‘Under Construction’ (Japan Foundation, Tokyo and other Asian venues, 2001-2002). Hoskote and Hyunjin Kim co-curated, with Artistic Director Okwui Enwezor, the 7th Gwangju Biennial (Korea, 2008). He has just been appointed as Commissioner for India’s first-ever national pavilion for the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).
Hoskote is currently a research scholar at BAK/Basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.
