Recipients of the FACE Foundation Étant Donnés Contemporary Art Curatorial Fellowships

On May 4, 2023

In this opportunity, ICI partnered with FACE Foundation to offer three research travel grants to U.S-based Curatorial Intensive alumni, current and former Curatorial Research Fellows, and Curatorial Seminar and Forum participants. Through the Étant Donnés Contemporary Art Curatorial Fellowship program, these curators will receive travel grants of $3,000 each to conduct research in France and engage with the country’s contemporary art ecosystem.

FACE Foundation supports French-American cultural exchange in education and the arts. This new initiative is intended to expand the opportunities of American and U.S.-based curators in ICI's networks, to encourage in-depth explorations of French cultural resources, and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and knowledge among artists, professionals, researchers, and institutions.

MEET THE RECIPIENTS:

Emily Edwards, Assistant Curator, Dallas Contemporary

Emily Edwards (Curatorial Forum participant, 2023) will travel to Paris to visit artist Bianca Bondi in advance of Dallas Contemporary’s November 2023 exhibition of her work. Bianca Bondi: A Preservation Method is based on the French-South African artist's research into the U.S. Highway Beautification Act of 1965, passed by American President Lyndon B. Johnson and inspired by his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. Intended to prevent billboards from intervening in natural spaces, the Act has since provoked protracted debates between open-space advocates and business interests that reveal an ongoing struggle between the natural and commercial worlds, particularly in Texas. The show will bring Bondi's work to an American institutional audience for the first time, and the grant will allow Edwards to preview new work and collaborate directly with the artist to build a shared language around the exhibition.

Kate Kraczon, Director of Exhibitions and Chief Curator, Brown Arts Institute / David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University

Kate Kraczon (Curatorial Intensive alum, Philadelphia 2010) will present a solo exhibition of work by French-Caribbean artist Julien Creuzet in January 2025 in collaboration with Le Magasin – Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble. This presentation will introduce this groundbreaking artist’s work to a North American audience while he simultaneously represents France in the 60th Venice Biennale. Using the FACE Foundation grant, Kraczon will travel to Creuzet's studio and archive, as well as to Grenoble to visit Le Magasin's presentation of his work, to continue to refine the exhibition checklist and concept while deepening relationships with French partners.

Photo: Angele Balducci

Kari Rittenbach, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1

Kari Rittenbach (ICI collaborator, Axis Mundo) will explore the international legacy of French neo-conceptual artist Philippe Thomas, whose work has not yet been exhibited in the context of an American museum. Following her interest in conducting research into Thomas's appropriation of marketing strategies and resistance to questions of personal identity, Rittenbach will travel to France to visit his estate and to meet with the artist's former gallerist as well as curators who have previously exhibited his work. She will also visit the Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir in Paris to study the films of Carole Roussopoulos, particularly those that address US-related subjects and topics of sexual health from a second-wave feminist perspective.

Recipients

Kate Kraczon

Kate Kraczon is Director of Exhibitions of the Brown Arts Institute (BAI) and Chief Curator of the Bell Gallery at Brown University.

Emily Edwards

Emily Edwards is the Assistant Curator at Dallas Contemporary.

Kari Rittenbach

Kari Rittenbach is a critic and curator based in New York.

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