Independent Curators International (ICI) supports the work of curators to help create stronger art communities through experimentation, collaboration, and international engagement. Curators are arts community leaders and organizers who champion artistic practice; build essential infrastructures and institutions; and generate public engagement with art. Our collaborative programs connect curators across generations, and across social, political and cultural borders. They form an international framework for sharing knowledge and resources — promoting cultural exchange, access to art, and public awareness for the curator’s role.
Defne Ayas
Defne Ayas is the Director and Curator of Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. Before that, Ayas worked as a director of programs of Arthub Asia and as an art history instructor at New York University in Shanghai. Ayas has also been a curator/programmer of PERFORMA since 2004, the biennial of visual art performance based in New York City, where she has managed the biennial’s collaborative partnerships with a consortium of 80+ cultural institutions across New York City and (co-) organized acclaimed projects and programs with an international roster of artists, architects, curators, and writers. She remains a curator-at- large at Performa. In September 2012, Ayas co-curated the 11th Baltic Triennale (with Benjamin Cook, LUX).
involved in:
Project 35 Volume 2
Following the widespread popularity and success of PROJECT 35, ICI is collaborating with 35 more international curators to produce PROJECT 35 VOLUME 2. This program of single-channel videos is selected by 35 international curators who each chose one work from an artist they think is important for audiences around the world to experience today.
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