Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

Curator, researcher and scholar Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (1957, Ridgewood, New Jersey) is director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and of Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti. She holds a visiting professorship at Northwestern University, and has taught at the University of Leeds, at the Goethe Universität Frankfurt Am Main and at Harvard University. Christov-Bakargiev began her career in the arts writing reviews for the magazine Reporter and for the newspaper IlSole24Ore. Friendships with artists in Italy and internationally, including William Kentridge, Alighiero Boetti, Pierre Huyghe, Francis Alÿs, Mario and Marisa Merz, and Jannis Kounellis, propelled her curatorial work. Following a period at Villa Medici where she curated summer exhibitions (1998-2000), she served as Chief Curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center affiliated to MoMA in New York. In 2002 she returned to Turin to work at Castello di Rivoli upon invitation of its former director Ida Gianelli. In 2008 she curated the Sydney Biennial, followed by dOCUMENTA(13) in 2012, and the  14th Istanbul Biennial in 2015. The following year she returned to Turin where, until 2017, she directed both GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. Amongst her major publications is the monograph Arte Povera (London, Phaidon Press, 1999).

Last update: November 31st, 2019.