Barbara Vanderlinden is leading a course at SFAI this fall that critically examines the history of exhibitions after 1989. Of a generation of curators less interested in rigid structures and static exhibition spaces than in more flexible projects, Vanderlinden’s interest lies, according to Hans-Ulrich Obrist, “in creating a structure of production wherein the curator is free to produce . . . not merely exhibitions but events, hybrid collaborations, books, films, and videos, indeed projects in any medium or combination of media her artists choose.” As an independent curator and founding director of Roomade, an “office for contemporary art” in Brussels, Vanderlinden has co-curated numerous exhibitions, including Manifesta 2 (Luxemburg), Revolution/Restoration (Palais des Beaux Art, Brussels), and Do You Believe in Reality? at the 2004 Taipei Biennial (Taipei Fine Arts Museum). Her most recent book, The Manifesta Decade (MIT Press), co-edited with Elena Filipovic, charts the first ten years of Manifesta, the world’s first itinerant European Biennial for Contemporary Art.
