Monday 26th, Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th of October, from 10am to 5pm.
Master CCC
Building A, 5th floor
Route des Franchises 2
CH-1203 Genève
Universität / Haute École
for student applications
Vasıf Kortun proposes a three-day seminar on museums and their spaces of the last century. The participants will examine extraordinary examples, good and evil, to free ourselves from present-day impasses, the malaise of normalization, and the prison of revered models. The seminar aims to expand our horizons, challenge what is present, and imagine different ways of being with the world.
Each workshop will start with a 60- to 90-minute lecture followed by open discussions.
There will be extended readings to complete before each session. Participants will be provided the reading lists at the beginning of the Fall semester.
Monday 26.10
1. The legacy: the industrial fair, people’s palaces, From Fun Palace, Kulturhuset Stockholm, to the Pompidou Center. University museums from Albert Eugene Gallatin to now.
Tuesday 27.10
2. Willem Sandberg was right. Roads half taken: Dorner & Lia Bo Bardi
Wednesday 28.10
3. Selling Nations, Blockbusters and the Franchise
From the Magiciens de la Terre to Decolonizing Museums
Vasıf Kortun is a curator, writer, and educator in visual art, its institutions, and spatial practices. He was the founding director of research and programs at SALT in Istanbul (2011-17). He also founded Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul (2001-10), and was the first director of the Museum of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (1994-97). Kortun co-curated the Taipei Biennale (2008), the 9th International Istanbul Biennial (2005), and was one of the co-curators of the 24th São Paulo Biennial (1998). Recent publications include How Did We Get Here: Reading Vasıf Kortun (Salt & Archive Books, 2026) and İpek Duben: The Skin, Body, and I (Salt & Mousse Publications, 2024). He received the Award for Curatorial Excellence from CCS, Bard College.