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.
Shabbir Hussain Mustafa
Shabbir Hussain Mustafa is Curator at the National Art Gallery, Singapore, where he researches art from Singapore and Southeast Asia. He was formerly Curator (South-Southeast Asia) at the National University of Singapore Museum (NUS Museum). Mustafa’s curatorial approach has centered heavily on deploying archival texts as ploys in engaging different modes of thinking and writing, all in an attempt at opening up the archive to multivariate struggles of perception and reading. Selected Southeast Asian exhibitions that Mustafa has curated at NUS Museum include: Archives and Desires: Selections from the Mohammad Din Mohammad Collection (2008); I Polunin: Memories of Singapore Through Film and Photographs (2009); Writing Power | ZulkifliYusoff (2011); Semblance/Presence: Renato Habulan and Alfredo Esquillo Jr (2012); and most recently, Come Cannibalise Us, Why Dont You? | Erika Tan (2013). Some of his publications include “Remembering the Intimate Past” in Shifts: Wong Hoy Cheong, 2002-2007 (2008); “Something” in Being: Ahmad Zakii Anwar (2009); “Confessional Curation” in The Sufi and The Bearded Man: Re-membering a Keramat in Contemporary Singapore (2011); and “Curatorial Notes” in Camping and Tramping (2011), an essay and exhibition that lays out some methodological considerations for the rethinking of curatorial practice in Singapore. He also co-conceived the online platform http://www.malayablackandwhite.wordpress.com and the curatorial project space at NUS Museum titled, Prep Room | Things That May or May Not Happen (2011).
involved in:
What Does it Mean to be International?
Developed by ICI in collaboration with the Mori Art Museum, the Curatorial Intensive: What Does it Mean to be International? will examine the current state of the Asian contemporary art scene within the larger global context.
read more »2013 Tokyo Curatorial Intensive Symposium
Join ICI and the 2013 Tokyo Curatorial Intensive on Saturday, November 2 for a daylong public symposium where the participants will present the exhibition and project proposals that they have developed through the program.
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