Seminar
Agenda: Meet the curator(s)
On curating, practice, and relations.
For this first fall edition of Agenda, we turn our attention to a crucial field within contemporary art: the role of the curator. What happens in the encounter between artist and curator? How do curators create contexts, discourses, and spaces for art – and what is required from artists in these collaborations?
Through four curatorial practices, we will meet curators who will share their methods, experiences, and reflections on collaboration, institutional frameworks, and production. Drawing on concrete case studies, they will highlight how curatorial practices shape, challenge, and support artists in their work and process.
At the same time, the seminar raises important questions: What does genuine collaboration entail? Who holds the narrative of the work, and how can power, responsibility, and care be balanced in the relationship between artist and curator?
Throughout the day, we will gain insights into a range of curatorial approaches, from institutional practices to self-organised processes, and how these affect the field of art at large.
Program
10:00–10:10: Welcome, Merete Røstad
10:10–10:30: Introduction, Anne Szefer Karlsen
10:30–11.30: Short presentations and conversation between Helena Krits and Anne Szefer Karlsen
11:30–12:00 – Q&A
12:00 – 13:00: Lunch
13:00–13:15: Introduction Anne Szefer Karlsen
13:15–14:15: Short presentations and conversation between Dr. Tominga O’Donnell and Estrella de O (Tatiana Lozano)
14:15–14:45: Q&A
14:45–15:00 – Wrapping up, thank you and goodbye, Anne Szefer Karlsen and Merete Røstad
This Agenda is curated by the Master’s Programme in Art and Public Space (MAPS) at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and the event will be held in English.
Anne Szefer Karlsen
Anne Szefer Karlsen is a curator, writer, editor and educator. They is Professor of Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen (2015–2027), and was Senior Adviser and Head of Research for Bergen Assembly (2018–2020) and Director of Hordaland Art Centre in Bergen, Norway (2008–2014). Szefer Karlsen’s curatorial practice spans museum exhibitions, biennials, group and solo exhibitions addressing broad audiences – as well as discursive events, gathering communities of professionals together. They is currently working with Inside-Out Art Museum in Beijing, China as a visiting researcher, and latest convened the large-scale international conference Circuits of Experiences, Research and Knowledges across several art institutions in Bergen, Norway 26–29 June 2025, posing the relevant question ‘How to gather, when structures to gather disappear?’. Szefer Karlsen’s writing has appeared in journals such as Afterall, Artforum, Billedkunst, Kunstjournalen B-post, kunstkritikk.no and in artist monographs, and anthologies.
Helena Kritis
Helena Kritis (°1981, BE) is chief curator at WIELS, Brussels, focusing on time-based and performative practices addressing power, solidarity, oppression, and colonial legacies. Formerly at Beursschouwburg and IFFR, she’s an advisor for the Flemish Government and she serves on the board of Mophradat, and different artist-run collectives such as elephy and escautville. Recent projects include exhibitions with Christopher Kulendran Thomas (2024), Oscar Murillo (2024), Danai Anesiadou (2023), Shezad Dawood (2023), and Lucy Raven (2022). She’s currently preparing the first posthumous retrospective of Lutz Bacher (2026) as well as a comprehensive mid-career survey with Ali Cherri (2026).
Dr Tominga O’Donnell
Dr Tominga O’Donnell is Senior Curator/Head of Contemporary Art at MUNCH, where they curated the programme Munchmuseet on the Move (2016–2019), adopting a queer curatorial approach and commissioning a range of off-site art projects. At the new museum on Oslo’s waterfront, O’Donnell is the curator of several solo exhibitions including Camille Henrot, Sandra Mujinga, Piya Wanthiang and Lawrence Abu Hamdan; two editions of the MUNCH Triennale; and a series of performance commissions by among others Manuel Pelmuş, Bendik Giske, Camille Norment, and Harald Beharie. O’Donnell has been Associate Professor in the theory department at the Art Academy, University of Bergen (2018–2022) and a visiting professor at the Art Academy/KHiO in Oslo.
Estrella de O (Tatiana Lozano)
Estrella de O (Tatiana Lozano) (b. 1985, CO) is a multidimensional being, currently the Curator of the Norwegian Sculptors Society as the stars would have it. She is deeply invested in supporting artists by exploring and finding together hidden gems inside each and every one's unique artistic practice. To listen and to follow one’s inner compass plays a key role in her curatorial work. Based in Norway since 2012, she has her MA in both art and curatorial studies (2014-2019) from KMD - University of Bergen. She is the founder of –palmera– (2018-2023) and co-founder of FELT (2015-2017). Tatiana has organized a number of projects in the form of exhibitions, events, talks and various contemporary art manifestations in Norway and abroad.
