Art Talks: Fatoş Üstek

Tuesday, July 9, 2024, 18.00
Venue: Istanbul Modern Auditorium

Istanbul Modern is organizing a new series of talks titled “Art Talks,” aiming to foster collective thinking and sharing with the audience by interpreting current issues from various disciplines through an artistic perspective. The first guest of the series is London-based curator and writer Fatoş Üstek with her book The Art Institution of Tomorrow, Reinventing the Model (Lund Humphries, 2024). The talk, which will also focus on Üstek's experiences and research, will be held in Turkish.

Fatoş Üstek argues that there is a “world of crises” at different scales and intensities and that the current systems of art institutions have difficulty meeting this world's demands. With this new book, she also proposes a new model. Built on an extensive study of non-profit visual arts organizations and the creative industries at large and incorporating interviews with more than 50 international institutional leaders from throughout the sector, the book expresses a clear outline of change that art institutions will need to undergo in order to maintain their relevance for generations to come. 

Fatoş Üstek is an independent curator and writer, working internationally. She is the author of The Art Institution of Tomorrow, Reinventing the Model (2024), Co-founder and Managing Director of non-profit community interest company FRANK Fair Artist Pay, and Curator of Frieze Sculpture in London. Üstek is a Member of the International Association of Art Critics AICA UK, ICI, IKT, and Founding Member of AWITA (Association of Women in the Arts). She was previously Director of the Liverpool Biennial, Director of the Roberts Institute of Art, Curator of Art Night, London (2017), Curator of fig-2 50 exhibitions 50 weeks, ICA London (2015), and Associate Curator of the 10th Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2014).