EKO 8 / Creative Director
EKO 8 Creative Director
Alessandro Vincentelli is a curator and writer based in the UK and in Athens, Greece. He is former Curator of Exhibitions & Research at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead where he worked up until recently, for more than 15 years. He previously worked as a Curator at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and also in roles at the Arts Council England and in photography publishing. He trained in a degree in Social Anthropology and African History at SOAS, London before completing the Contemporary Curating Course at the Royal College of Art, London.
At BALTIC he has curated exhibitions with many international artists including Steve McQueen, Yoko Ono, Ed & Nancy Kienholz, Sam Taylor Wood, Elizabeth Price, Lindsay Seers, RAQS Media Collective, Bani Abdi, Martin Boyce, Rodney Graham, David Maljkovic, Bharti Kher, John Akomfrah and hundreds of others.
In 2017 he curated and researched a major exhibition with Canadian artist Rodney Graham titled That’s Not Me along with new publication in partnership with IMMA, Dublin, published by JRP Ringer. And a significant presentation with Jasmina Cibic ‘This Machine Builds Nations’ examining soft-power strategies and the construction of nationhood. He has continued to work as curatorial advisor for Jasmina Cibic, 2019-20 trilogy titled The Gift filmed in Paris and Geneva last year.
In the last few years he has developed and curated several significant solo presentations with artists John Akomfrah, Susan, Phillipsz and Heather Phillipson. He has been working with the Indian British artist Sutapa Biswas towards an exhibition and publication together with Kettles Yard, Cambridge, for 2021.
Last year he worked with BildMuseet Umea, and guest curator Filipa Ramos for the large group show Animalesque: Art Across Species and Beings, developed by Ramos with Anders Jansson and curators at the BildMuseet Umea, and was co-curator for its presentation at BALTIC, Gateshead as part of the tour.
Looking to the future in development is a major group show looking at machine learning, and the undermining of democracy in a show titled Hidden States: the New Geographies of Seeing working together with Professor Steve Graham Professor of Cities, University of Newcastle, examining our reliance on machine learning algorithms and the undermining of democracy with artist presentations by Trevor Paglen, Joy Buolamwini, Mariam Ghani, David Birkin, Andrius Arutiunian, Bill Posters and Zach Blas.
In 2021 he is the creative director of the International Triennial of Art and Environment in Maribor, Slovenia in a project titled EKO8 A Letter to the Future, taking place in the now empty MTT textile factory in the city of Maribor Slovenia, with presentations by more than 30 international artists including Kara Chin, Ulay, Mark Požlep, Danae Stratou, Allora and Calzadilla, Emilja Skarnulyte and Chris Watson. He retains a strong interest in the work of contemporary photographers and video installations, but is now focusing on questions of democracy, assembly and the role of transnationalism.