Talk #45

Charles Esche

Dr Gulsen Bal (Senior Lecturer in Curating, Art Theory & Practice at Manchester School of Art) and Dr Michael Pinchbeck (Reader in Theatre at Manchester School of Art) in conversation with Professor Charles Esche.

Charles Esche is director of Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and professor of contemporary art and curating at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London where he works with the MRes Exhibition Studies. He is a visiting advisor at Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht and chair of CASCO, Utrecht. He is currently writing a book on Demodern Thinking with Prof. Walter Mignolo and preparing an exhibition project in the Netherlands and Australia called The Four Soils for 2023.

Outwith the Van Abbemuseum, he (co-)curated Power and Other Things, Europalia, BOZAR, Brussels 2017; NSK State Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2017; Art Turns, Word Turns; Museum MACAN, Jakarta 2017; Le Musée Égaré, Kunsthall Oslo 2017 and Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse 2016; Jakarta Biennale 2015; 31st Sao Paulo Bienal, 2014, U3 Triennale, Ljubljana, 2011; RIWAQ Biennale, Palestine, 2007 and 2009; Istanbul Biennale, 2005; Gwangju Biennale, 2002 amongst other exhibitions.. He received the 2012 Princess Margriet Award and the 2014 CCS Bard College Prize for Curatorial Excellence. From 2000-2004 he was director of Rooseum, Malmö, Sweden and before that worked at protoacademy, Edinburgh and Tramway, Glasgow in Scotland.