Caterina Avataneo is an independent curator whose practice emphasises creative confabulation and methodologies of intimate exchange. In 2019 she founded KISS: a series of shows experimenting with collaborative formats. On the same year, after having been involved in a research group around the topic of "evil", she gradually developed an interest for the aesthetics of the dark in contemporary art practice; the role of darkness, destruction, negativity, transgression and evil (intended more in its original etymology of exceeding limits); Gothic recurrence and its temporal and historical implications. She is associate curator at Cripta747 (Turin), and she co-curates the Digital Fellowships of Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters - the first long-term, contemporary art programme established by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
She has been editorial coordinator for CURA. 2023 -2025; curator of the VII Edition of the Club GAMeC Prize (Bergamo) in 2022; and curatorial consultant for the New Entries section for emerging galleries at Artissima (Turin) in 2022 and 2023. In 2019 she was Assistant Curator of Sun & Sea (Marina), the Lithuanian Pavilion for the 58th Venice Biennale - winner of the Golden Lion. From 2018-2021 she worked as Associate Curator at Arcade Gallery (London & Brussels) and as Assistant Curator on assigned projects at Serpentine Gallery (London).
Her curatorial projects have appeared in institutions and galleries including: Factory International (Manchester); Kunstraum, Austrian Cultural Forum, Zabludowicz Collection, White Crypt, Open Space, and Gossamer Fog (all London); HAUS, and Pina (Vienna); Britta Rettberg (Munich); Almanac Inn (Turin); DEMO Moving Image (online); SixtyEight Art Institute (Copenhagen); Mare Karina (Venice); La Tolerie (Clermont-Ferrand). She has been invited as Curator in Residence at a number of international institutions, including: NEON (Athens); Danish Arts Foundation (Copenhagen); Salzburger Kunstverein (Salzburg); RUPERT (Vilnius); 40mcube (Rennes) and FRAME (Helsinki).
She has been commissioned to write texts for catalogues and exhibitions at Kunstverein Freiburg; GAM (Turin), Austrian Cultural Forum (London), Azkuna Zentroa (Bilbao), among others, and her texts appeared in CURA., Flash Art, Nero, ATP Diary, Vogue Italia, and PW-Magazine.
She holds an MA in Architecture from Politecnico of Turin (2014) and an MA in Curating from London Metropolitan University and Whitechapel Gallery (2017).
She was awarded the 2017 NEON Curatorial Award by The Neon Foundation and Whitechapel Gallery.
ARTISTS SHE WORKED WITH:
Pietro Agostoni
Sophia Al-Maria
Helene Appel
Salvatore Arancio
Josefin Arnell
Ed Atkins
Miriam Austin
Anna Barham
Alvaro Barrington
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė
Tosh Basco
Chiara Camoni
Jeremiah Day
Caterina De Nicola
Diego Delas
Olivia Douglass
Anna Engelhardt
Lara Favaretto
Cao Fei
Formafantasma
Keira Fox
Anna Franceschini
Lee Fraser
Ryan Gander
Vaiva Grainytė
Heith
Julius Heinemann
Deborah-Joyce Holman
Sebastiano Impellizzeri
Irati Inoriza
Invernomuto
Karrabing Film Collective
Barbara Kapusta
Lina Lapelytė
Mark Leckey
Rebecca Lennon
Liliane Lijn
Lorenza Longhi
Eleonora Luccarini
Jonas Mekas
Miao Ying
Jota Mombaça
Shana Moulton
MRZB
Hannah Neckel
Jim C. Nedd
Rolf Nowotny
Paul Pfeiffer
Rory Pilgrim
Ruth Proctor
Giuliana Rosso
Rose Salane
Barbara Sanchez-Kane
Leonor Serrano Rivas
Marianna Simnett
Anastasia Sosunova
Philip Speakman
P Staff
Alan Stefanato
Slavs and Tatars
Jenna Sutela
Emilia Tapprest
Sissel Tolaas
Visio
Zoe Williams