This symposium, comprised of two panels, celebrates and contextualizes the launch of the Art Spaces Directory, published in conjunction with the 2012 New Museum Triennial: “The Ungovernables.” The Art Spaces Directory is an international guide to the sites where contemporary art and artists are nurtured, interrogated, and sustained. With detailed profiles of over 400 art spaces from ninety-six countries, this volume is a useful tool for artists, curators, students, and the general public. In addition, it includes a series of essays and discussions contributed by Víctor Albarracín, Reem Fadda and Christine Tohme, Stefan Kalmár, Naiza H. Khan, Catalina Lozano, Elaine W. Ng, and tranzit.org.

Panel 1
What can happen in these spaces that cannot happen elsewhere? What unique challenges do these spaces face? Is failure inevitable? Panelists include: Lia Gangitano, founder/director of PARTICIPANT INC, New York; Stefan Kalmár, executive director and curator of Artists Space, New York; Heejin Kim, director of Art Space Pool, Seoul, Korea; and Tobias Ostrander, chief curator and deputy director for curatorial affairs at the Miami Art Museum. Moderated by Eungie Joo and Ethan Swan.

Panel 2
This panel considers current attempts at working without a physical space, through online platforms and nomadic initiatives. Participants include: Lauren Cornell, Executive Director, Rhizome, and Adjunct Curator, New Museum, New York; Deana Lawson, co-founder/co-director, 68 Months Discussion Group, New York; Daniela Perez, co-founder, desitio, Mexico City, Mexico; and Sarah Rifky, founding director of CIRCA, Cairo, Egypt. Moderated by Eungie Joo and Ethan Swan.

Participants:
Lauren Cornell is the Executive Director of Rhizome and Adjunct Curator for the New Museum. Cornell oversees and develops Rhizome’s programs, all of which serve to promote and contextualize art engaged with technology. Previously, Cornell worked as a curator and writer in London and New York. She worked on the Andy Warhol Film Project at the Whitney Museum and, from 2002–2004, she served as executive director of Ocularis, an organization dedicated to avant-garde cinema, video, and new media.

Lia Gangitano founded PARTICIPANT INC in 2001, a not-for-profit art space on the Lower East Side of New York, presenting exhibitions by Virgil Marti, Charles Atlas, Kathe Burkhart, Michel Auder, and Renée Green, among others. Gangitano served as curator of Thread Waxing Space, New York, for four years. She is editor of Dead Flowers (2010) and the forthcoming anthology, The Alternative to What? Thread Waxing Space and the ‘90s. She has also served as a curatorial advisor for P.S.1 with exhibitions including Lutz Bacher, My Secret Life (2009).

Stefan Kalmár is the executive director and curator of Artists Space. Previously, he has held positions as director of the Kunstverein München, Munich (2005-2009), director of the Institute of Visual Culture, Cambridge, UK (2000-2005), and curator of Cubitt Gallery, London (1996-1999). He has also worked with numerous artists on a range of projects including: a survey exhibition of the work of Allora & Calzadilla, the exhibition project “Beugung” with Wolfgang Tillmans, and the first European survey exhibitions of Hilary Lloyd and Duncan Campbell.

Heejin Kim is curator and director of Art Space Pool in Seoul (2010–present), one of the most prominent and active alternative art spaces in Korea. Through exhibitions, collectively organized research labs, workshops, and publications, Kim has presented diverse projects that engage artists, local communities, and the public. As the former curator of Insa Art Space (IAS), Arts Council Korea (2006–2009), she has brought a number of Korean artists to global audiences, curating exhibitions at the New Museum and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, among other cities.

Deana Lawson is a photo-based artist born in Rochester, New York, and received her MFA in Photography from RISD in 2004. Exhibitions include New Photography 2011 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010 Greater New York at P.S.1, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Helene Bailly Gallery, Paris, and the Studio Museum, Harlem. Deana Lawson and Aaron Gilbert worked together in forming 68 Months discussion group in Brooklyn, a spin-off of the discussions held at Kara Walker’s 6 to 8 Months space in 2010. The 68 Months environment is free-form and non-hierarchal, and promotes an experimental dialogue outside of institutional and market spaces.

Tobias Ostrander is the chief curator and deputy director for curatorial affairs at the Miami Art Museum. Prior to moving to Miami he worked for eleven years in Mexico City, first as the curator of contemporary art at the Museo Tamayo and then as the director of the alternative space Museo Experimental El Eco. Prior to living in Mexico he served as associate curator for the bi-national public art project inSITE2000 in San Diego and Tijuana. He has held additional positions at the 24th São Paolo Biennial, Brazil, El Museo del Barrio, New York, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Daniela Pérez, co-founder of desitio, is an independent curator based in Mexico City. Between 2007–2011, she was associate curator at Museo Tamayo where she curated The Marquise Went out at Five…, I am a fe(MEN)ist, Chronicles of Absence, and The Line of the Volcano. Pérez has worked at the Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, the New Museum, and Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico. She has participated as jury for art prizes, collaborates on texts for art magazines, and has taught art courses at La Esmeralda and Soma. She holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London.

Eungie Joo is Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs at the New Museum, New York, curator of the 2012 New Museum Triennial, “The Ungovernables,” and co-editor of the Art Spaces Directory.

Ethan Swan is Education Associate at the New Museum, New York, and co-editor of the Art Spaces Directory.