Born in Spain, Chus Martínez has a background in philosophy and art history. Currently, Martínez is the Head of the Institute of Art of the FHNW Academy of Arts and Design in Basel, Switzerland. From 2021 on she will be the artistic director of the Ocean space in Venice, a project initiated by the TBA21 Academy. She has been the Chief Curator at El Museo Del Barrio, New York. She was dOCUMENTA (13) Head of Department, and Member of Core Agent Group. Previously she was Chief Curator at MACBA, Barcelona (2008 to 2011), Director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2005–08) and Artistic Director of Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2002–05). For the 56th Biennale di Venezia (2015), Martínez curated the National Pavilion of Catalonia, with a solo project of filmmaker Albert Serra, and for the 51st edition the Cyprus National Pavilion (2005). In 2014/15 she served as curatorial ”alliance“ for the Istambul Biennial (2015); in 2008 served as a Curatorial Advisor for the Carnegie International and in 2010 for the 29th Bienal de São Paulo. Martínez lectures and writes regularly including numerous catalogue texts and critical essays, and is a regular contributor to Artforum among other international journals.

This series of free online events maps the radical potential of curatorial practice to enable connections between people and disciplines, individuals and their wider communities of interest and place. Conversations on Curating explores how curating is continuously redefined and repositioned in ways that go far beyond exhibition-making. It draws on the local and global networks of curatorial scholars and practitioners in Cork, Ireland, and is a collaborative initiative at University College Cork led by Carlos Garrido Castellano and the curatorial team of the Glucksman. Conversations on Curating is presented online extending the museum’s focus on the contemporary intersections between visual culture, critical thought and curating, and the discursive relationships between academic research and art practice.

Conversations on Curating is funded by University College Cork and the Arts Council of Ireland.