Choreographic Turn in Contemporary Art Institutions – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

In recent years, we have witnessed a dynamic increase in choreographic strategies being introduced in the area of curatorial and artistic practices. The conceptual lines are becoming blurred ­– terms like performance, dance theatre spectacle or action art are no longer sufficient to express the full scope of changes brought about by the choreographic turn. Artists who draw on performative practices abandon the black space of the theatre stage in favour of gallery spaces. In consequence, we move away from event time towards exhibition time. How does this transition affect the exhibition space? How does it change the perception of exhibitions based on a choreographic format? Contemporary Art Centre WIELS has been tackling these questions for several years. Its characteristic feature is that it combines a number of functions that affect the form of presented exhibitions and projects. Production, exhibition and education are the three interweaving functions of WIELS. This set up allows for presenting exhibitions that become dynamic projects within a changing context allowing for temporary interactions. WIELS is one of the first exhibition facilities whose activities clearly exemplify the choreographic turn in visual arts.

Dirk Snauwaert

• has been involved with WIELS Contemporary Art centre since July 2004; he was appointed Artistic Director in January 2005. Before joining WIELS, Dirk Snauwaert was Co-Director of the Institut d’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alps, in France, where he was in charge of the exhibition programme and of the development of the FRAC Rhône-Alpes collection. He was Director of the Munich Kunstverein from 1996 to 2001, and, from 1989 to 1995, he was in charge of the contemporary art programme of the Société des Expositions of the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels. He has organised and coordinated numerous exhibitions, both monographic and thematic, and he lectures and publishes regularly on art and visual culture. He has been a member of several boards, including the Flemish Community's Visual Arts Advisory Board, and he was also in charge of the acquisitions for Belgium's Flemish Community from 2003 till 2006. He was a member of AFAA's think tank, in Paris, and has sat on several juries, among them the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogram, Munch Prize Oslo, Blue Orange and the Prix Marcel Duchamp. He's also on the board of acquisitions for the FRAC des Pays de la Loire, in Carquefou, France, APT Berlin, the Kuratorium der Allianz Kulturstiftung and the Generali Foundation, both in Vienna. For Wiels, he has curated exhibitons by Anne Mie Van Kerckhoven, Bruno Serralongue, Luc Tuymans, Andro Wekua and Francis Alÿs, and groups shows such as Expats-Clandestines (2007) and Rehabilitation (2010). He was also the curator of Jef Geys' exhibition at the Belgian Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennial.