Natasha Christia, Reinventing the (photo)book An expanded narrative through personal research diaries and curatorial projects

The talk will tackle the (photo)book as a field of intervention. Departing from Natasha Christia’s research diaries and a handful of personal curatorial projects produced in the course of the last five years, it will offer an expanded narrative on her personal relation to (photo)books. More to this, it will illustrate how this relation has grown into an autonomous whole, and how it has fuelled her curatorial practice, enriching and subverting her ideas about it. Driven by the premise that a genuine contemplation of the photographic can solely take place outside the strict confinements of the medium, the talk will employ the experience of the visual-narrative book as an effective, destabilising means of questioning when it comes to the dissolution of dichotomies, the engagement with communities, and the writing of the future’s potential history.

Curating and Exhibiting Photography is a workshop addressed to curators and artists —whether independent or working for an institution, or just starting out in their curatorial practice — who develop their practice in the area of photography and lens-based media.

The aim of this workshop is to provide the assistants with tools so that they can develop their own language when it comes to exhibiting their work in different formats and contexts (galleries, festivals, etc.).

When thinking about exhibiting photography in the context of institutions, festivals and education programmes, many questions arise: For whom do we curate photography exhibitions? What is our role as producers/curators of content? How do we unfold a story / concept / question on the wall and in space? How do we integrate authorial photography works into contemporary inter-media narratives without violating their material and conceptual essence?

The program of the workshop will encompass these and other questions from theory to practice: from the conceptual genesis and interplay of ideas to synergies and follow-up with participating artists; from budgets to fieldwork to production. Particular emphasis will be drawn on what happens after the installation and the opening, on how the content can be activated from a mere wall display to a meaningful interaction with the audience through actions and educational programs.

The complete workshop will cover two weekends.

The first weekend will be dedicated to the analysis and the debate on the theoretical and practical issues regarding the curating, production display and communication of curatorial projects in form of exhibitions.

The second weekend will be dedicated to the review and development of individual projects: the participants will be asked to implement the concepts discussed during the workshop on their personal projects.

Participation in the first weekend is obligatory to take part to the second one.

PROGRAM
Weekend 1 (Theory)

Saturday, March 7

10:00-13:00 Introduction: The photography world-the shift of exhibition and curatorial practices in the last 15 years -a short overview of the history of photography exhibitions – new modes

14:30-18:00 What is/can be an exhibition? What is curating?
Mapping the curatorial and exhibition processes 1: Conceptualization / installation formats and languages (prints, books, or varied media / execution / materials / budgets / audience targets / design / communication / documentation– the aftermath of an exhibition

Sunday, March 8

10:00-13:00 Mapping the curatorial and exhibition processes 2: How to work and to display different formats in diverse contexts (galleries, festivals, institutions, public installations)

14:30-18:00 Curating and power structures – issues of ethical conduct –experience and engagement with artists – the audience (the great unknown) – activating the exhibition space

Weekend 2 (Projects)

Saturday, March 14

10:00-13:00 Review of specific projects by the participants and practical applications
Debate

14:30-18:00 Work sessions
Individual tutorials

Sunday, March 15

10:00-13:00 Review of specific projects by the participants and practical applications
Debate

14:30-16:30 Review of specific projects by the participants and practical applications
Debate

16:30-18:00 Conclusions

Info & applications: leporello.books@gmail.com

Prior requirements for workshop 2

The participants will be selected based on applications – short biographical note and resume of projects, plus a curatorial project proposal (it can be a project on other’s work or on their own work).
For the workshop, they will need a laptop and basic knowledge of one of the following layout programs: Photoshop/Indesign/Illustrator/Mural/Sketch Up.

Natasha Christia is a non-affiliated curator, writer and educator based in Barcelona. She is also a collection consultant and a dealer specialized in fine art photography and photobooks. Her research focuses on the exploration and reinvention of dominant narratives through a novel reading of archival collections, the intersection of photography, film and the photobook, and the dialogue between 20th century avant-garde photography and contemporary forms of expression often labelled as post-photography.

Christia was the artistic director of the fourth edition of DocField Documentary Photography Festival 2016, which was launched under the theme “Europe: Lost in Translation”. She has curated various exhibitions, among them “Uncensored Books” (Belgrade Photomonth/April 2017, Minimum Studio/Palermo-June 2017), “AMORE: An Unfinished Trilogy by Valentina Abenavoli” (Void / Athens Photo Festival, June 2017), Dragana Jurisic: “My Own Unknown” (Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris November 2017), “Reversiones” (Centro de la Imagen, Mexico DF, November 2017-March 2018), Lukas Birk: “Travelogue Sammlung” (Belgrade Photomonth / Galerie Lustenau, Austria / Nooks Art Space, Istanbul, 2018) and “The Family of No Man” (show co-curated with Brad Feueherlm, Cosmos Arles Books, July 2018). She has been the curator of the “You Are What You Eat” exhibition (Bunkier Stzuki Gallery) in the last edition of Krakow Photomonth.

Since 2008, she has been teaching in photography schools in Spain and abroad. She regularly contributes essays on photography criticism for international publications and for artists. She was the guest editor of OjodePez magazine 41: “Self Calling” and guest-editor at the Read or die Publishing Fair in Barcelona (November 2015), exploring the topic “The Book: on Endless Possibilities. She has recently coedited, together with Lukas Birk (Fraglich Publishing) two artist’s publications: Fernweh and Gülistan (winner of the PhotoEspaña Best Photobook Award 2019 (International Category).