Hou Hanru

Reengaging a Contemporary Art Institution to the Civic Society

Friday, 11 October 2019, at 5 p.m.

Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova

Hou Hanru's presentation will be evolving around the program of the MAXXI as vision-strategies toward the reengagement of a contemporary art institution to the civic society in the time of “global crisis”. At the same time, he will be discussing some of the challenges of running 21st century institution, its complexity, reality, and action.

The event takes place in the framework of the Day of Contemporary Art, which is the major annual event promoted by AMACI – Association of Italian Museums of Contemporary Art to focus on the art of our times and its public.

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Hou Hanru is a prolific writer and curator based in Rome, Paris and San Francisco. He is currently the Artistic Director of MAXXI (National Museum of 21st Century Art and National Museum of Architecture), Rome, Italy.

Hou Hanru has curated and co-curated over 100 exhibitions for the last two decades across the world, which include: “China/Avant-Garde” (National Museum of Art of China, Beijing, 1989), “Cities On The Move” (1997–2000), the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial (Hong Kong etc., 1997), Shanghai Biennale (2000), Gwangju Biennale (2002), Venice Biennale (French Pavilion, 1999; Z.O.U. -- Zone Of Urgency, 2003; Chinese Pavilion, 2007), the 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005), the exhibition and public program of San Francisco Art Institute (2006-2012), the 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007), “Trans(cient)City” (Luxembourg, 2007), the 10th Biennale de Lyon (2009), the 5th Auckland Triennial (Auckland, New Zealand, 2013), “Open Museum Open City” (MAXXI, Rome, 2014), “Transformers - Choi Jeong-hwa, Didier Fuiza Faustino, Martino Gamper, Pedro Reyes” (MAXXI, Rome, November 2015 – April 2016), “Istanbul, Passion, Joy, Fury” (MAXXI, Rome, December 2015 – May 2016), “Please Come Back, the world as prison?” (MAXXI, Rome, 2017), “Piere Giraldi” (MAXXI, Rome, 2017), “Home Beirut” (MAXXI, Rome, 2017-18), “Growing in Difference, the 7th Shenzhen Hong Kong Bi-City Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture” (UABB 2017-2018)”, etc. He is also a consulting curator of Chinese art for the Guggenheim Museum, New York, co-curating “Tales of Our Time” (2016), “Art and China after 1989, Theater of the World” (2017-18), “One Hand Clapping” (2018).

He is an advisor for numerous cultural institutions He frequently contributes to various journals on contemporary art and culture and lectures and teaches in numerous international institutions. His books include “Hou Hanru”, (Utopia@Asialink, and School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, 2014), “Paradigm Shifts, Walter and McBean Galleries Exhibitions and Public Programs, San Francisco Art Institute” (2011, SFAI), “On the Mid-Ground” (English version published in 2002 by Timezone 8, Hong Kong, and Chinese version published in 2013 by Gold Wall Press, Beijing), “Curatorial Challenges” (conversations between Hou Hanru and Hans-Ulrich Obrist, in “Art-It magazine” as “curators on the move”, Japan, 2006-2012, Chinese version, Gold Wall Press, Beijing, 2013), etc.