10:47 Manifesta's Kasper Konig on Curating in the Shadow of Putin | |
The eminent German curator Kasper König has had an extraordinary career in Europe, organizing his first show—a survey of Claes Oldenburg's work—at the age of 23, working on Pontus Hultèn's seminal Warhol retrospective at the Moderna Museet at 25, and going on to curate dozens of major exhibitions, found Frankfurt's esteemed Portikus kunsthalle, and hold professorships at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf and the Städelschule. In his native country, he is known as an exceptionally independent-minded figure who refuses to bend to political pressures in organizing his shows. Yet today König finds himself at the center of tumultuous world events as the organizer of Manifesta, the international exhibition that this year has been sited in the historic Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Curating under the eyes of the authorities in an increasingly politically restrictive and dangerously expansionist Russia, he has been exposed to protests from artists and accusations that Manifesta is insufficiently critical of the regime. With the exhibition now open after a fraught run-up—at one point it looked like the show would be canceled due to lack of payment for Manifesta's Russian staffers—and set to continue through October, audiences now have a chance to see König's handiwork for themselves. We spoke to the curator about what the experience of putting together the show was like, why there is no viable art community in Russia anymore, and where gestures of political provocation and critical engagement with the government were able to slip through into the Hermitage's galleries. | |
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