CURATING ‘NOW’
Biennial models, their discontents and the shaping of contemporary discourse
Biennials often attract criticism for their globalist ambitions and top-down methods. Yet, they are not losing momentum as fixtures of the contemporary art landscape, expected to platform the art of now. Amid a shift away from traditional canons, and acute global political tensions, biennials are at the frontline of contemporary art’s engagement with public discourse.
‘Curating Now’ is a new program series that considers distinct curatorial forms of contemporary exhibition-making through critical case studies by international curators. The first session features Stefanie Hessler and David Teh, and is moderated by Olivier Krischer and Anabelle Lacroix from UNSW Art & Design.
Together, Hessler and Teh offer timely reflections on how curators leverage exhibitions to (re)activate sites, wage or amplify debates, excavate or recuperate overlooked histories, enact communities, and speculate futures. They question: Are biennials limited by their ‘international’ remit, or can they serve as a conduit for deep ongoing research? How do curators navigate these expectations and experiment with new curatorial models to shape critical conversations?
Stefanie Hessler | Biennials between sensory knowledge and infrastructural critique
Stefanie Hessler will present on two curatorial projects: Sensing Nature, for the 2021 Momenta Biennale, Montreal, and the forthcoming Counterpublic Triennial, St Louis (co-curated with Jordan Carter, Raphael Fonseca, Nora N. Khan, and Wanda Nanibush, opening September 2026). Through these projects, Hessler explores how she works with artists through long-term commissions to address overlooked or erased histories, and how they draft alternative futures. These projects explore ideas and methods of sensing and creating infrastructural change, locally and on a planetary scale.
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Stefanie Hessler is a curator, writer, editor, and institutional leader. Her work centres artists and ideas through new commissions, transdisciplinary collaborations, and experimental formats, often with a focus on ecologies and technologies. She currently serves as the Director of Swiss Institute (SI) in New York. At SI, Hessler initiated the long-term curatorial project Spora, which invites artists to transform the institution through ‘environmental institutional critique’, and curated solo shows by Saodat Ismailova, Raven Chacon, Ali Cherri, and Lap-See Lam, as well as the East Village-wide exhibition Energies. Other recent and forthcoming exhibitions include the Counterpublic Triennial titled Coyote Time, St. Louis; the Pavilion of Finland at the 61st Venice Biennial; Elevation 1049: Energies, Gstaad; Parcours, Art Basel; Sex Ecologies, Kunsthall Trondheim; Sensing Nature, the 17th Momenta Biennial, Montreal; Rising Tides, Gropius Bau, Berlin; Joan Jonas, Ocean Space, Venice; and the 6th Athens Biennial. Hessler holds a PhD from the University of Westminster, London, titled “Toward a Curatorial Praxis of Planetarity,” is the author of Prospecting Ocean (The MIT Press), and has edited over a dozen volumes. She was named among Apollo’s 40 under 40 and ArtReview’s Power 100.
David Teh | Loose Canons: biennials and contemporary art’s disorderly history
Through a selection of recent curatorial projects, David Teh explores the interplay between history and exhibition in the fast-evolving landscape of Asian contemporary art. He starts with the prospect of a ‘global’ canon, as mooted in his exhibition Misfits: Pages from a Loose-leaf Modernity (2017, Berline), a response to the First World museum’s newfound desire for non-Western modernism. In our still uneven landscapes of collection, how might contemporary art history be advanced or impeded by the proliferation of biennials, where historical players (like dead modernists) are increasingly fair game? Drawing on his recent biennial exhibitions in Istanbul and Phuket, Teh asks: What purchase can these platforms have on the past, and on contemporary art’s disorderly historicisation?
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David Teh is a writer, curator and Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, researching Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art. His curatorial projects have included ‘Misfits: Pages from a Loose-leaf Modernity (HKW Berlin, 2017), Returns’ (12th Gwangju Biennale, 2018) and the 17th Istanbul Biennial (with Ute Meta Bauer and Amar Kanwar, 2022). He is currently Artistic Co-Director of Thailand Biennale Phuket, 2025. David’s publications have included Thai Art: Currencies of the Contemporary (MIT Press, 2017) and Artist-to-Artist: Independent Art Festivals in Chiang Mai 1992-98 (co-edited with David Morris; Afterall, 2018).
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Stefanie Hessler’s research and travel is supported by the International Curators Program, which is funded by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and the Keir Foundation.
‘Curating Now’ is an ongoing programming series developed in partnership between UNSW Galleries and UNSW’s Masters of Curating & Cultural Leadership Program.
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