It can be disconcerting to fight the oppression and power imbalance in the world, including the art world. Still, it’s essential to continue and focus on growing, says Xiaoyu Weng, one of the most provocative contemporary curators and writers. Her advice to aspiring curators is to challenge authority and try their best to understand different points of view.
Based in New York, her practices focus on the impact of globalization, identity, decolonization, and the intersection of art, science, and technology. Xiaoyu Weng is coming to Romania this fall as the leader of the 5th edition of the Autumn School of Curating, a project organized by the Cluj Cultural Center in partnership with the Art Encounters Foundation from Timișoara.
The program was initiated and conducted under the ECCA (The European Centre for Contemporary Art) platform and aims to provide young curators, artists, and art critics access to an international platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, and learning.
Discover how Xiaoyu Weng approaches this year’s theme, “For A Multitude of Futures”.
Key defining moments
There are a few memorable moments. Coming to the United States for my graduate study and met my wonderful peers and professors; starting working for the Kadist Art Foundation and got to work with a wide range of international artists and colleagues; getting my first museum position as a curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and really witnessing the different ecologies and communities of the art world; deciding to leave big institutions and reconsidering the meaning, approach and impact of my work as a curator and writer.
The Autumn School of Curating: Thoughts and Expectations
I am looking forward to meeting the participants. I hope the school will be very transnational. I am also looking forward to knowing the contemporary cultural and art scene in Romania, of which I am not familiar with.
Essential lessons for emerging curators
While having an aspirational, open, risk-taking, creative, and experimental heart in taking on the work, keep in mind the obstacles and tedious tasks that come with the responsibility and obligations. Remember to challenge the authority, the ones in power, and try your best to understand different points of views. Be kind and make sure to understand the difference between being kind and being nice.
“Can’t help myself” by artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, as shown at the Guggenheim Museum
The theme “For A Multitude of Futures”
We all have different cultures, art histories, aesthetic traditions, and knowledge systems. Multitude of Futures means we can also have a space and be acknowledged and valued in certain ways as we move forward. No ideology and system should be the dominating hegemony (that includes how we judge and evaluate art and culture). Art opens our mind and helps us see things that we may not understand before.
The influence of the last few challenging years
It has been very challenging. I have been spending a lot of time contemplating and reflecting the meaning and value of our work as a curator, artist, or writer. There is this sense of jadedness and a bit disillusioned because of the unending oppression and power imbalance in this world at large, as well as in the art world, but I continue to find my path and understand it as an ongoing process of growth and becoming. In terms of future on a grander scale, I have been working with artists and practitioners that concerns climate change and ecology. This will be something I continue to research.
Creative block
When I experience a creative block, it is usually because I am burnt out and overall stressed, so this may be counter-intuitive, but taking breaks, exercising and saying no to things that I could not take on or not interested in doing for a while, then the creativity will come back to me when my mind is having space again!
A magic wand to change anything in the world
Gender and sex binary! I wish both sexes (or if there will be more other kinds of sex) can reproduce so women can be freer. I guess for this one, perhaps I don’t need to explain too much?!
