While here the two visiting curators will be speaking at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery on their curatorial methodologies and exhibitions in some of the most important contemporary art institutions in Asia and Europe.

The conversation will span their respective roles at the Fridericianum (Kassel, Germany) and Centre Pompidou (Paris, France) as well as their roles as curators of national pavilions at the Venice Biennale.

Yung Ma and Susanne Pfeffer's visit is supported through Creative New Zealand's Te Manu Ka Tau: Flying Friends international visitors programme; The Asia New Zealand Foundation (Yung Ma); Goethe-Institut Neuseeland (Susanne Pfeffer); the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre; and the International Visiting Curators Program, developed and presented by Artspace Sydney in partnership with UNSW Art & Design. 

Yung Ma is currently Curator of the Contemporary Art and Prospective Department at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a role that was created in collaboration with the K11 Art Foundation. Formerly Associate Curator of Moving Image at M+ in Hong Kong, he had been part of the core curatorial team for M+ since its inception in 2011, and twice co-curator of the Hong Kong Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2013 and 2009). At M+, he looked after the institution’s moving image portfolio, helping to define and build the collection while conceiving the ongoing M+ Screenings series and the exhibition Mobile M+: Moving Images (2015).

Susanne Pfeffer is an art historian and curator based in Germany. She has been director at the Fridericianum in Kassel since 2013. Pfeffer is currently serving as curator for the German Pavilion at the 57th Biennale di Venezia presenting Anne Imhof’s exhibition Faust, which was awarded the Golden Lion for best national pavilion. She curated the Swiss Pavilion at the 56th Biennale di Venezia, presenting an immersive installation ‘Our Product’ by Pamela Rosenkranz. Pfeffer has served as a curator for the São Paulo Biennale and the Lyon Biennale, as well as the Tel Aviv Art Museum, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and the Museion Bozen. She was previously chief curator of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (2007–2012), curator and consultant at MoMA PS1 in New York and was artistic director of Künstlerhaus Bremen (2004-2006).

Curators in conversation
Yung Ma and Susanne Pfeffer
Wed 30 Aug | 6 – 7.15pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre
Gallery 5 | Free entry