World's top curators to meet in Kolkata

The best of the Indian and international curators will come together at 'The Experimenter Curators' Hub, an annual event that gets underway from Thursday in Kolkata.

In its fifth year, the three-day event is a crucial platform created in response to the need to bring together and share curatorial practice and exhibition making on one platform.

"There will be intense discussions and debates, structured around a series of presentations, held in a closed environment with some of the most exciting minds in visual art today," said Prateek Raja, organiser of the Hub.

Each year, the Hub invites 10 curators to present and discuss their practice in detail with reference to the latest exhibitions curated by the artists. The Hub is also a meeting ground for the visual arts community, critics, writers, thinkers, artists, collectors, theorists and connoisseurs of contemporary visual arts.

This year, some big names include Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, president and founder of Sharjah Art Foundation.

Sheikha Hoor has made huge contribution to the Sharjah Biennial, a firm fixture on the global art calendar. She has curated the UAE's National Pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale.

Another renowned name in the list is Dr Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, an art historian, writer, curator, designer and a cultural activist.

Mehta has successfully pioneered the revival and restoration of several of Mumbai's important cultural sites. She has also conceptualised, curated, designed and implemented the restoration and revitalisation of the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, which won the UNESCO 2005 Asia Pacific 'Award of Excellence'.

Another participant, Jitish Kallat is a household name in the field, who curated the second Kochi Muziris Biennale 2014.

Kallat's work has been exhibited widely at museums and institutions, including Tate Modern (London), Martin Gorpius Bau (Berlin), Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane), Kunst Museum (Bern), Serpentine Gallery (London), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Palais de BeauxArts (Brussels) among many others.

Other names in the list include Aleksandra Kedziorek, Doryun Chong, Eugenio Viola and Giovanni Carmin.