Curating Off The Beaten Track

The french sociologist Henri Lefebvre demands a spatial practice in which nature has been modified in order to satisfy and expand human needs and possibilities: an existing space may outlive its original purpose and the raison d’etre which determines its forms, functions, and structures. It may thus in a sense become vacant, and susceptible of being diverted, reappropriated and put to a use quite different from its initial one. In this presentation Nicola Ruffo focuses on his curatorial practice with exhibition formats outside of the white cube. His interdisciplinary art projects mainly consist of working with spaces of every day life and exploring their social context.

About the speaker:

Nicola Ruffo (*1979) works as a curator and writer in Zurich (Switzerland). He has realised several exhibitions in the off-scene, and for foundations, institutions and galleries. Together with the architect Nele Dechmann he runs the nomadic and interdisciplinary art club Kunstverein Zurich. They have organised projects in the wide field of arts and published several books – like Learning from Warsaw, which was awarded as “The Most Beautiful Swiss Book” by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. Furthermore, he works as a journalist for Switzerland’s radio and TV broadcaster. In 2011, he obtained a Master of Advanced Studies in Curating at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). He is currently in South Africa through the Pro Helvetia residency program until the end of March 2015.