Aneta Szylak

Aneta Szylak is a curator, writer, and the co-founder and current Director of Wyspa Institute of Art. Since 2010, Szylak has been Artistic Director of Alternativa, a series of exhibitions accompanied by numerous additional events, which seeks new directions for art and its social role. After co-founding and running the Laznia (Bathhouse) Centre for Contemporary Art (1998-2001), she continued her career as an independent curator and researcher. Since 2004, Szylak has been responsible for programming Wyspa—the intellectual environment for contemporary visual culture—in the Gdansk Shipyard. In 2005, she received the Jerzy Stajuda Award “for independent and uncompromising curatorial practice.” Szylak has a long interest in located practice and her exhibitions are characterized by a strong response to cultural, political, social, architectural, and institutional particularities. She has taught and lectured at many art institutions and universities including Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem, New School University, Queens College, New York University, Florida Atlantic University, Goldsmiths College, Copenhagen University, and worked as a guest professor at the Akademie für Bildende Künste in Mainz, Germany. Currently she is finalizing her PhD thesis entitled “Curating Context. The Palimpsest” at Goldsmiths College in London and Copenhagen Doctoral School, Copenhagen University.