This June, world-renowned curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev will be visiting Australia for a series of public lectures, discussions and master classes, sharing insights into her deeply influential work and its positioning of curatorial practice as a form of care and as a vital tool for thinking, listening, and responding to our shared historical moment.

The tour is made possible through a partnership between The University of Queensland Art Museum, The University of Melbourne with support from the Potter Museum of Art, Art + Australia and the Dr Harold Schenberg Bequest, Australian Institute of Art History and the Macgeorge Bequest, Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney, and supported by Milani Gallery.

Christov-Bakargiev is an Italian American curator, art historian, and theoretician internationally recognised for her transformative approach to contemporary exhibition-making. She is best known for her groundbreaking direction of dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012, which expanded across multiple sites to explore themes of trauma, ecology, and interdisciplinary research, and for her foundational scholarship on Arte Povera, which has been pivotal in advancing critical understanding of the movement.

Her curatorial work spans major international exhibitions, including the 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008) and the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015). She served as Director of Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art and founding Director of the Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti (2016–2023) and has held distinguished academic appointments at Northwestern University and the University of Leeds. She is the recipient of the 2019 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. She retired as director of Castello di Rivoli in Italy in 2023, where she previously served as chief curator from 2002 to 2009. She is currently honorary guest Professor at FHNW University, Switzerland.

This series is presented in partnership with The University of Queensland Art Museum, The University of Melbourne with support from the Potter Museum of Art, Art + Australia and the Dr Harold Schenberg Bequest, Australian Institute of Art History and the Macgeorge Bequest and Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney and supported by Milani Gallery.

Image: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, 2026. Photo by Rainer Hosch. Courtesy of the speaker.

Contact the host of Between the Angelic and the Agentic: A Curatorial Autobiography by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev