World Geostrategic Insights interview with Maja Ćirić on the geopolitics of art curating, how art and exhibition models influence geopolitical scenarios, and how new digital technologies are transforming art practices and exhibitions.
Maja Ćirić, PhD, is an independent, yet inseparable, curator and art critic. Her primary field of interest, the geopolitics of the curatorial, shifted to the multipolar geopolitics of planetary computation following the digital turn in 2020. Maja served as the curator of the Serbian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and as the commissioner in 2013. She also curated the BJCEM Mediterranea Young Artist Biennale in Tirana, Albania, in 2017, and the 20th Pančevo Art Biennale in Pančevo, Serbia, in 2022.
Q1 – You are an independent curator and art critic, and one of your main fields of interest is the geopolitics of curating. What do you mean by curatorial geopolitics? What is your vision of curatorial practice? How does it affect your approach to exhibition making? What kinds of art exhibitions in particular represent your curatorial style?
A1 – To view art through the lens of geopolitics is to recognize that there is no innocent organization or categorization of art-related data. Curatorial geopolitics acknowledges that curating, whether institutional or independent, is based on myriad decisions that always have political implications, for better or worse. Even basic aesthetic choices can serve as political tools, either supporting the status quo or ignoring the need for change.
As an independent curator, my choices and decisions are influenced by the need to navigate various micro or macro political environments and negotiate differences, if not foster change. This dynamic approach to curating means that I aim to engage with diverse cultural and political contexts, shaping my vision of curatorial practice. At the AICA conference in Zagreb, Croatia, I presented a paper titled “Silently Canceling the Present: Unveiling Narratives, Exclusion, and Representation in Post-Yugoslav Context” in January this year. How curatorial choices shape the outlook of the region is something I explored almost two decades ago in my paper “Constructions of the Balkans as the Other in Contemporary Art Practices,” presented at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. This theme is also central to my forthcoming text in the compendium Yugoslav Hauntologies by Routledge,due next year. Additionally, when I curated the BJCEM 18, Mediterranean Biennial of Young Artists in Tirana, I discovered an artist who was addressing the body of non-recognized countries such as Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh, which later became an exhibition and then a book Fragments 1: Where Stories Cut Across The Land.
My vision involves not only thematic, narrative, and display decisions but also politicizing these decisions by consciously selecting partners and endorsing emerging artists. This approach ensures that the exhibitions I curate, or the exhibition reviews I write, reflect the geopolitical background. It is not the same to talk about “The Female Role of Curating” in the context of wokism in the West or in Eastern European peripheries of the global capital where most participants are white, straight, young women. Whether it’s a conference, a lecture, an exhibition, or a review, my work is always context-responsive. I emerged as a curator with an acute awareness of the impact of propaganda and the influence of geopolitical agendas on culture and the arts. This awareness drove my purpose to introduce new horizons, challenge existing narratives, provoke thought, and engage with contemporary socio-political issues that are present but not obvious. I strive to create exhibitions and texts that are intellectually stimulating, encouraging viewers to reconsider their assumptions and engage with the political implications of art.
In summary, curatorial geopolitics for me means understanding the inherent political nature of curating as a mirror that does not absorb everything but reflects some perspectives while hiding others. Never attempting to tame the fundamental terror of politics, my work respects the established order of things but seeks to tell a different story within the existing parameters. For example, last year I curated an exhibition that represented ULUS, the oldest and largest association of artists in the Balkans, in Beijing. The question was how to negotiate between the potential Chinese exploitation in my region of origin and the surplus value that this kind of exposure could bring to the Serbian art scene, to whom the doors in the West are not that open.
Q2 – You have been curator of several major biennials. According to some scholars and art critics, there are definite geopolitical logics behind these exhibitions. More specifically, according to them, biennials promote homogenization, are a globalization device, supporting the Western model of democracy and neoliberalism. What is your opinion? How does art, and exhibition models, influence geopolitical scenarios , and in what ways are they influenced by them.
A2 – No doubt, biennials are outposts of geopolitical agendas. However, I believe that if a curator is capable of being in a position of power to drive the processes of selection and labeling of art practices in a context-responsive manner, a difference can be achieved. Biennials are hegemonic to the extent that curators often serve this hegemony, which is frequently the case with mainstream curating. It often happens that dissensus is instrumentalized to achieve career goals. Real critical curating can often be sidelined because it brings a confrontational agenda. The trap also lies in curating a biennial as a Potemkin village, creating an illusion of change without any real possibility for agency.
Q3 – Now you are increasingly focusing on the multipolar geopolitics of planetary computation. Indeed, computation is no longer just computation, but has become a planetary-scale cognitive infrastructure that impacts knowledge structures and geopolitics. How do new digital technologies transform art practices and exhibitions? How does art fit into planetary computation?
A3 – It happened organically during the digital turn provoked by the pandemic. I am an independent curator, and innovation in all its aspects is the condition of my professional survival. I co-curated the Art and Science segment of “Both Ways“ at the European Capital of Science in Trieste. Unable to travel, the link between art and technology became an unavoidable reality. What started as a requirement for a digital twin of the exhibition evolved into collaborations with the computer graphics and gaming industries, which adapted to change much faster than traditional art institutions. Learning by doing was supported by theoretical knowledge, which evolved into “Synthetic Curating,” a multipolar term I presented at the RAD Art Fair curatorial section during the Change panel in Bucharest this May.
State-of-the-art tech has certainly changed the ontology, the nature of being (art), the nature of existence (artists), and the nature of reality (exhibition making), and it has also induced transhumanism and posthumanism. As an example of a new kind of artist, take Botto, a decentralized autonomous artist employing cutting-edge machine learning algorithms to generate digital artworks using the guidance of BottoDAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). Further on, the changing nature of art is driven by exponential technologies: AI, robotics, genomics, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and GANs (generative adversarial networks). Generative modeling was something that conventional curators did—they selected and labeled. But today, GANs as an algorithm subtype also generate and discriminate against digital content. No doubt, curating needs to be a co-creation with AI.
So, to answer your questions, new digital technologies transform art practices both directly and indirectly/ The latter occurs because countries leading technological progress experience a boom in their art scenes. There is certainly a link between the production of microchips in South Korea and the rise of Seoul as a major global art hub. Direct change is evident in the fact that the logic of the conventional white cube has been challenged by user experience (UX), augmented placemaking, an expanded public sphere, diversified audiences, and new social dynamics. There is a significant gap between museums and tech innovation that must be bridged. By following art in terms of planetary computation, we can track civilizational progress and its relation to more conservative infrastructure.
Q4 – You are the founder of MCpresento Artists Talks, a nomadic platform dedicated to artists and their artistic practices in the domains of transhumanism, posthumanism and cybercapitalism. Can you give here some insight into the aims of this project of yours?
A4 – MCpresento Artist Talks, where “MC” stands for “Moving Crowds,” is a low-key, high-impact, non-funded, guerrilla platform for conversations in the arts. It aims to facilitate discussions that might not take place within the more controlled institutional realm. I initiated this platform to expose the insightful conversations I have with brilliant individuals in private to a broader public. Hosted by U10 gallery and UlUS in Belgrade, the talks have so far featured discussions on the Decolonization of the post-Soros landscape with Aron Moulton. Ivana Dama, a YALE graduate sound artist and researcher, presented her “Audible Silence” sound installation, which references the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999. Other participants, including Filip Kostić, Zorica Čolić, and Dr. Formalyst, each contributed unique perspectives on topics such as cybercapitalism, transhumanism, and posthumanism.
Maja Ćirić, PhD – Independent curator and art critic. Maja has received the ISCP Curator Award, the Dedalus Foundation Curatorial Research Award, the Lazar Trifunović Award, the ArtsLink Independent Projects Award, and the Visual Artists Ireland Curatorial Research Award.
Her speaking engagements include appearances at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (2006); MAC VAL (2017); Centre Pompidou (2018); MNAC Bucharest (2018); the AICA Serbia Conference (2021); the Zlin Digital Exhibition Design Conference (2021); the Interact Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (2021); the IKT Conference (2021); the AICA Macedonia and Croatia Conference (2022); the 5G and The Metaverse Conference at Patras Science Park, Greece (2023); the AICA Croatia Conference (2024); and the RAD Romanian Art Dealers Fair (2024), among others.
Maja has been a guest lecturer at the Fine Arts Academy of China, Hangzhou, China; the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia; the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, Serbia; Independent Curators International, New York; European University Cyprus, and many official and unofficial curatorial and art-related workshops and mentorship programs.
She wrote for FlashArt, Obieg, Artforum, Artmargins Online, Arts of the Working Class, springerin, Third Text, among others.