curating.org
Talks
Yasmin Afschar
Nouveaux Commanditaires – Art that does something
28 April 2023
By loading the video, you agree to Vimeos's privacy policy.
Learn more
In her talk, curator Yasmin Afschar discusses her engagement as mediator for Nouveaux Commanditaires, an international initiative that allows citizens who want to improve their living environment, change a situation or transmit the values that drive them, to associate an artist with their concerns by commissioning an art project. Fostering strategies of democratization and participation in contemporary art Nouveaux Commanditaires is for Afschar a means to place artistic creation in a renewed democratic perspective.
Yasmin Afschar is a Swiss-Iranian curator and writer based in Zurich, Switzerland and Mainz, Germany. She is the Interim Director of Kunsthalle Mainz, mediator for Neue Auftraggeber:innen Schweiz / Nouveaux Commanditaires Suisse, an international initiative for art projects commissioned by citizens, and co-organizes LE FOYER – In Process, a nomadic talk platform focusing on artistic processes. Before she was the curator of Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau, Switzerland from 2018 to 2021. Her recent exhibitions include «What Is It Like to Be a Bat?» (Kunsthalle Mainz, 2023) «Hannah Villiger. Amaze Me» (Muzeum Susch, 2023, with Madeleine Schuppli) and «Emma Kunz Cosmos. A Visionary in Dialogue with Contemporary Art» (Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau 2021 & Tabakalera, San Sebastián 2022). She writes regularly on art historical topics, contemporary art and visual culture. Recent edited volumes include «Emma Kunz Cosmos» (2021) and «Denise Bertschi. Strata. Mining Silence» (2020). Afschar was the winner of Asia Society Switzerland’s first Curator Residency at Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong in 2021 and currently serves on the jury boards of the artists residency programs of Tabakalera, San Sebastian and Podere Trafonti, Tuscany.