The Curator Residency is an initiative launched by Asia Society Switzerland and Esther Heer-Zacek in 2021. It allows a curator from Switzerland to be embedded in an Asian art hub for three months, closely associated with a local art space, and supported in meeting artists, curators, and cultural practitioners from the city as well as the region.

This year, the second recipient of our Curator Residency, Giada Olivotto, spent her residency in Taipei and worked closely with TheCube Project Space. During her stay, Giada gave talks, exchanged with institutions, students, artists, and curators while also getting to live and breathe the beat of the city. She traveled within the island but also made a research trip to Yunnan, China.

In this special Talk at the Library open to the public, Giada Olivotto will share her experience from the Curator Residency as well as give insight into her curatorial practice. Serena Jung, Program and Communications Director at Asia Society Switzerland, will moderate the conversation. 

Giada Olivotto (1990, Locarno) is an independent curator based in Ticino. Since 2017 she has been co-director of the Sonnenstube off-space and co-funded in 2020 the sound exhibition space CANALE MILVA. Since 2021 Giada has been part of the artistic-curatorial duo Fattucchiere. Giada’s recent artistic and curatorial projects: Switch the witch, with Fattucchiere, larada (Locarno, CH); Sweet Dreams Foundation, with Fattucchiere (Nida Art Colony, Nida, LT); La casa ispirata, with Fattucchiere, Istituto Svizzero (Roma, IT); RACCONTO GROSSO, with Fattucchiere, Spazio Lateral (Roma, IT); Tamed love, a conversation with SARA RAVELLI (Schiavo-Zoppelli Gallery, Milan, IT); From Submersion to Subversion (PALAZZINA, Basel, CH); Plattform21, MASI (Lugano, CH); FOTOROMANZA, Le Commun (Geneva, CH); Une histoire d’amour, One gee in fog (Geneva, CH); EMO, Schwobhaus (Berna, CH). Giada co-founded and co-managed the Residenza La Fornace project (Milan, 2017-2020) and collaborated in the methodical reconstruction of the exhibition Le mammelle della Verità (Monte Verità, 2016). In 2021 she was a resident at the Cité des Arts in Paris and a 21/22 Fellow at the Swiss Institute in Rome. www.giadaolivotto.ch

Patronage 

The Asia Society Switzerland Curator Residency is generously supported by Esther Heer-Zacek and Dominik Keller. 

About Talks at the Library

Talk at the Library is a members-only series where we invite an expert to our office library, over lunch, for a conversation on specific niche topics on a variety of countries and regions of Asia. The program consists of a moderated discussion and subsequent audience Q&A. Participants have the opportunity interact with the experts, asking questions live or online.