The Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA)—a national research centre of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) developed with support from Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB)—announces the appointment of its Founding Director Ute Meta Bauer and has officially launched on 23 October 2013.

At the launch on 23 October, Bauer presented the vision and mandate of the Centre, and introduced the core members of the newly appointed CCA curatorial team. This inaugural event featured performances and video screenings from eminent and emerging artists from Singapore and the NTU School of Art Design and Media, including Bani Haykal, Lucy Davis, Martin Constable and Cultural Medallion Awardee Lee Wen.

Bauer comes to Singapore from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, where she was an Associate Professor for Visual Art, the founding director of the Programme in Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT) and director of the MIT Visual Arts Programme. For over 25 years Bauer has worked as a curator of exhibitions and presentations on contemporary art, film, video, and sound, with a focus on transdisciplinary formats. Most recently she was co-director with Hou Hanru of the World Biennial Forum No. 1, Gwangju, South Korea, and in the last academic year she served as Dean of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, London. Previously, Bauer served as the Founding Director of the OCA – Office for Contemporary Art, Norway, was the Artistic Director of the 3rd Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art and a Co-curator of Documenta 11, Kassel.

As its Founding Director, Bauer brings to the CCA a wealth of experience and expertise. Her vision incorporates a holistic approach towards art and culture, intertwining the Centre’s varied programmes of research, exhibitions, education, residencies and public programmes. Located in Gillman Barracks alongside a cluster of international galleries, the CCA will take up a unique position in Singapore’s art ecology. Committed to knowledge production and innovation, spurring research-based artistic practices and transdiciplinary investigations, the CCA serves as a new centre for art and research in the region, operating as a local hub with an international perspective.

During its inaugural phase, from October to December 2013, the CCA will feature a programme of events under the title “Free Jazz,” where artists, curators, composers, designers, architects, musicians, writers and a whole range of cultural producers and intellectuals come to improvise together and contribute to the thinking and envisioning of the potentials for this new Centre for Contemporary Art.

Information from e-flux

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