The success of an exhibition often depends on the talent and expertise of its curator, so who better than to lead the joint collaboration between MONA and TMAG than two of MONA’s most experienced curators?
Nicole Durling has been a senior curator for the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) since 2006. Prior to this, Durling was a Melbourne-based contemporary art specialist for Sotheby’s, before she was hired by MONA’s owner, David Walsh. Over the last six years, Durling has assisted in building collaborations, curatorial direction and the collection installation at MONA, curating and developing several of the museum’s projects.
Durling is sharing the curating experience with another of MONA’s senior curators, Olivier Varenne. Born in Paris in 1977, Varenne has been involved as a MONA curator since 2006, also serving as an international buyer for the museum. In 2009, Varenne was involved in co-curating the highly coveted Moscow Biennale, alongside MONA curator Jean-Hubert Martin. His work outside of MONA includes curating the On and On exhibition at the Casa Encendida Museum in Madrid.
“Theatre of the World” promises to present the best of MONA and TMAG (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery), and is expected to be a blockbuster exhibition for Tasmania.
“It is a vast exhibition that will cover approximately 4000 years of human creativity,” Durling said.
“It’s a very rich exhibition in a labyrinth-like space.”
