Patrick Flores has a long-term research interest in the ‘artist as curator’ – especially in the context of Southeast Asia, and in the interplay between history and contemporary artistic approaches. During his presentation, Flores will focus on ideas of the collective in curatorial practices, taking the recent documenta fifteen as a starting point.

Frances Morris has contributed significantly to the curatorial field since restructuring Tate Modern’s collection displays by theme, rather than chronology, in 2000. Morris will address issues of opening up the canon of Western art history and bringing about institutional change.

Programme:
Welcome by Katrine Hjelde
Presentation by Patrick Flores (20 minutes)
Presentation by Frances Morris (20 minutes)
Conversation between Katrine Hjelde, Patrick Flores, Frances Morris and Anne Szefer Karlsen (20 minutes)
Open Q&A

This event is in English.

This conversation is organised on the occasion of the graduation of the 2021–2023 cohort of MA Curatorial Practice at The Art Academy, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen where Flores and Morris have served as external examiners.

About the speakers:

Patrick Flores is Professor of Art Studies at the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines and concurrently Deputy Director at National Gallery Singapore. He is the Director of the Philippine Contemporary Art Network. He was a Visiting Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1999. Among his publications are Painting History: Revisions in Philippine Colonial Art (1999); Past Peripheral: Curation in Southeast Asia (2008); Art After War: 1948-1969 (2015); and Raymundo Albano: Texts (2017). He was a Guest Scholar of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles in 2014. He was the Artistic Director of Singapore Biennale 2019 and Curator of the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022.

Frances Morris, curator, writer and broadcaster is currently Director Emerita, Tate Modern, after leading the institution as Director for seven years. Frances has made many exhibitions and publications, including acclaimed retrospectives of Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama, and Agnes Martin, most recently co-curating Hilma Af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life. As Director of Collections, International Art from 2006 to 2016 Frances led the transformation of Tate’s International Collection, strategically broadening and diversifying its international reach and representation, as well as bringing photography, moving image and live art into the institution for the first time through acquisitions, displays and exhibitions. Since 2019, Frances has championed Tate's responses to climate and ecological emergency, exploring how cultural institutions can best respond to the complex social impact of the crisis.
Among external roles Frances is currently a member of the Advisory Committee, Serralves Museum, Porto; the Scientific Board, MNAC, Bucharest; the International Advisory Committee, Mori Art Museum Tokyo and the Scientific Committee, MUDAM, Luxembourg, as well as Guest Professor at SAFA, Shanghai.

Katrine Hjelde is an artist, lecturer, curator and researcher. Since 2023 she is the Head of Department at The Art Academy, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen. Until 2023 she was Course Leader for Graduate Diploma Fine Art and Senior Lecturer BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts. Ongoing research focuses on the student exhibition, the role of the art school in society and developing critical connections between the art school and society.

Anne Szefer Karlsen is a curator, writer, editor and educator. They is Professor of Curatorial Practice and currently programme director for MA Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen (2015 – to date) and was Senior Adviser and Head of Research for Bergen Assembly (2018 – 2020) and Director of Hordaland Art Centre in Bergen, Norway (2008 – 2014).

Image of Patrick Flores by Hollis Johnson (left) and Frances Morris in the Tate Modern Community Garden by Samia Meah (right)