CSA, Art & Care series: Kisito Assangni: Situating Care in Transcultural Curating

Art has always reflected, articulated and interpreted global transformations of socio-political conditions and cultural relations. The ways in which we take care of each other might be the vector through which we can bridge the seeming void between theory and praxis in the art world. The idea of the 'transcultural' is currently gaining momentum in academic, curatorial and artistic contexts, providing a framework for thinking through non-hegemonic global exchanges and knowledge production.

Highlighting entanglements between and within cultures, the transcultural provides a new set of care ethics, methodological and theoretical concerns, as well as a timely platform for curatorial and artistic practices in the globalised art world. In this context, with what kinds of political imaginaries can curatorial research and practice reassess the significance and possibilities of caring?

Biography
Kisito Assangni is a Togolese-French curator and consultant who studied museology and art history at Ecole du Louvre in Paris. Currently living between UK, France and Togo, his research interests gravitate towards the cultural impact of globalisation, psychogeography, and critical education. He investigates the modes of cultural production that combine theory and practice. He inherently aims at going beyond the usual relations between artist, curator, institution, audience, and artwork in order to engage audiences in encounters with art that are unexpected, transformative, and fun. Assangni is heavily involved in video, performance, and experimental sound.

His discursive public programs and exhibitions have been shown internationally, including the Venice Biennale, ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Centre of Contemporary Art, Glasgow; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Malmo Konsthall, Sweden; Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles; Es Baluard Museum of Art, Palma, Spain; National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow; HANGAR, Lisbon; Marrakech Biennale among others.

Assangni has participated in talks, seminars, and symposia at numerous institutions such as the British Museum, London; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Ben Uri Museum, London; Pori Art Museum, Finland; Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen (Norway); Sala Rekalde Foundation, Bilbao; Depart Foundation, Malibu (USA); Sint-Lukas University, Brussels; University of Plymouth, UK; University of Pretoria, South Africa; Motorenhalle Centre of Contemporary Art, Dresden (Germany); Kunsthalle Sao Paulo, Brazil; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Ticino, Switzerland. He is a contributing editor at ArtDependence Magazine and Arshake. Assangni is the founder of TIME is Love Screening (International video art program) and serves as curatorial advisor to Latrobe Regional Gallery in Morwell - Victoria, Australia.

The event is part of a series including examples of best practices impacting society, through the lens of creative research and care ethics. The series is led by Dr. Elena Cologni, Artist and Senior Research Fellow, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, and Dr. Merel Visse, Director Medical and Health Humanities at Drew University (US) and Associate Professor at the University for Humanistic Studies in The Netherlands Image credit: Kokou Ekouagou, Sanctification, 2021

Event contact: elena.cologni@aru.ac.uk