KRISTINA LEE PODESVA

Great Expectations: Prospects for the Future of Curatorial Education Koenig Books, CCA, Banff Centre for the Arts, 2016

Edited by Leigh Markopoulos

Almost 30 years after the founding of the first curatorial studies program (at the École du Magasin, Grenoble), with the curator remaining a figure of curiosity and fascination in the contemporary art world, a new question has emerged: how do we educate curators? Great Expectations: Prospects for the Future of Curatorial Education explores this question, focusing in particular on the challenges, opportunities and subjects that motivate educators and students. How has curatorial education changed in the past 25 years, and what will the next 25 years bring?

The product of a spring 2015 conference at the California College of the Arts, this volume brings together contributions from Mark Beasley, Maeve Connolly, María del Carmen Carrión, Kit Hammonds, Matthew Higgs, Anthony Huberman, Prem Krishnamurthy, Mami Kataoka, Kristina Lee Podesva, Salwa Mikdadi, Julian Myers-Szupinska and Ulay, among others.

Fillip #20 (Vancouver), 2015

A Long Road Turns: On the Release of Fillip 20

Ten years ago (2005) Fillip debuted its first issue in Vancouver, Canada. A handsome fledgling eight-page broadsheet, it brought to life the swirl of local artistic energy and activity of that place and time, thanks to the efforts of Fillip’s founding team (Paloma Campbell, Jeff Khonsary, Jonathan Middleton, Sadira Rodrigues, and especially Jordan Strom, Founding Editor). It also put into practice both an internal ambition and an external call to complicate contemporary art discourse there and elsewhere. Over the course of the past decade, we have pursued this project with great enthusiasm for the community of artists, writers, curators, and readers who have engaged us in companionable conversation. The degree to which we, collectively, have succeeded in complicating contemporary art discourse remains an open question, but it is a pursuit we must now surrender, both to history and to the future, with the publication of Fillip 20—the final instalment of our magazine.

A quick survey of art magazines of the recent past shows that this is an inventory thick with salutation but thin on valediction. After all, who really wants to say goodbye? We, too, have struggled with how to think about our shuttering of this particular venture: By shining a light on the administrata piling up at the back door? Or by unloading the dreary burden of budgets, grants, and fundraising? By calculating the cumulative, familiar ratio of 0 dollars (paid) to X hours (worked)? No matter what the reasons behind dissolving the magazine, the truth is that Fillip, as an organization, will not disappear and will continue to publish and present activity in the spirit of its originary project and in the form of supplements, books, and events.

For us, within the ranks, it has been a long road, but this was always by design. From a relative poverty—of infrastructure and funds—we wrested an unlikely luxury—of time, space, and relationship—working closely with writers and artists to bring forward their gradual, deliberate voices. The distinct sum of these efforts spans Fillip 1 through Fillip 20 in a rare arc, which we leave to the archive in an elaborate stack.

Before this long road turns, so to speak, we would like to recognize and celebrate the exquisite, strenuous work that our fellow contributors, collaborators, staff, volunteers, and supporters have devoted to Fillip over the years. We applaud them for their virtuoso patience and commitment to the project, which has demanded much of their time and sanity in long-haul editing exchanges, late-night mail-out sessions, and epic event planning, among other antics. We acknowledge them here.

In closing, we wish to give special applause to the contributors of Fillip 20, who have stuck it out with us with faith and grace. To Ken Becker, Paul Branca, Nate Crompton, Zanna Gilbert, Jesi Khadivi, Lois Klassen, Philip Monk, Melanie O’Brian, Chantal Pontbriand, Nina Power, Mo Salemy, Nick Srnicek, Erik van der Weijde, and Alex Williams, we say, thank you! And to our readers, we also say thanks and warmly invite you to pick up the latest and last magazine issue. 

With affection and on behalf of the entire staff at Fillip,
Kristina Lee Podesva, Editor

Jeff Khonsary, Publisher
Antonia Hirsch, Associate Editor
Kate Steinmann, Associate Editor
Amy Zion, Associate Editor
Jaclyn Arndt, Editorial Supervisor
Victoria Lum, Office Manager

 Fillip #20 is for sale at fillip.ca and at Motto.

Tradición versus Modernidad / Tradition versus Modernity, Guayaba Press and Archivo (Mexico City), 2014

This project was Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura’s first publication including collaborations by architects, visual artists, and anthropologists, as well as visiting and in-house curators. Tradition versus Modernity examines the legacy of Enrique del Moral, one of Mexico’s premier modern architects, through artist project commissions, critical texts, and an English translation of one of del Moral’s lectures. The project features original content from del Moral’s archive, whose estate is housed at the Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura in Mexico City.

Editado por / Edited by: Rodrigo Ortiz Monasterio & Kristina Lee Podesva

Textos por / Texts by: 
Marwa Arsanios
Mariana Castillo Deball
Jorge Méndez Blake
Rodrigo Ortiz Monasterio
Kristina Lee Podesva
Pia Rönicke
Sandra Rozental

Traducción / Translation: 
Gabriela Jauregui, Rodrigo Ortiz Monasterio, Kristina Lee Podesva
Diseño Editorial / Book Design: Carla Valdivia

Corrección de Estilo / Proofreading: 
Aurelia Cortés Peyron, Jaclyn Arndt, Gabriela Jauregui, Aline Bénard Padilla

Sur: Volume 1, Studies for a Player Piano Guayaba Press (Mexico City) & Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite Verlag (Berlin) 2014
 

Sur is a contemporary art journal published out of Mexico City. Both a publication and a series of invitations, Sur is premised on aesthetics of encounter, specifically between the writing, art, and ideas expressed in Mexican culture in relation to discourses, philosophies, and art generated elsewhere. Published in both Spanish and English, Sur creates a new and necessary space for engaging and amplifying such discussions. With texts by Rodrigo Ortiz Monasterio, Alex Waterman, Jürgen Hocker, Kristina Lee Podesva, Mario Garcia Torres, Mariana Castillo Deball, Carlos Sandoval, Céline Condorelli, and James Langdon.

Volume #1 departs from the concept of a player piano and specifically addresses certain fragments of the life and work of experimental composer Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997). Although an American, Nancarrow exiled himself to Mexico, where he could openly belong to the Communist party with social and political impunity. There, he became famous for a series of scores, entitled Studies for Player Piano (1948-1960 and 1965-1992), making him one of the first composers to write scores for machines to play. Although he lived in relative isolation in Mexico, he did become a Mexican citizen in 1955 and enjoyed a close collaboration with the Mexican modern architect and muralist Juan O’Gorman with whom he worked to build his house in Mexico City. The issue loosely examines their relationship through some related themes. In English / Spanish.

Institutions by Artists, Fillip Folio Editions and the Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (Vancouver), 2012

Edited by Kristina Lee Podesva & Jeff Khonsary

This book conceptualizes and compiles multiple, international narratives that materialize this concept. Institutions by artists is "loosely defined as the co-articulation of artists and their institutions via processes of sociality and mutuality. Operating visibly in Canada for well over four decades in the framework of artist-run centres and the pursuit of artistic self-determination, and over a similar period in the United States under the banner of "alternative spaces," the practice of institutions by artists occurs formally and informally elsewhere around the world under different rubrics, some which are discussed in this anthology. Together, the texts in this book signify a small, but not inconsequential, shift in thinking about the institution of art and thus deterritorialize its discursive formation by wresting it from the gallery and museum, and relocating it in a field of relations among artists living and working in the world." In English with French supplement.