The renowned artist and a curator Gavin Jantjes (b.1948) will be the first speaker in a line of distinguished guests in the new series of HIAP Talks at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme. Once a month on Thursdays in the spaces of Gallery Augusta, and starting with Jantjes’ presentation on 21 October 2010 at 6 pm, HIAP Talks will invite the local scene to debate and reflect on current issues in contemporary art. In autumn 2010 Nicolaus Schafhausen, the director and curator of Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art of Rotterdam, and Nicolas Bourriaud, the celebrated French curator and theorist, will be guest speakers. Maria Lind, the respected curator and critic from Stockholm will reflect on Biennial Business, Residency Routine and Other Contemporary Concerns.

Before each HIAP Talk begins, artists and curators-in-residence at HIAP will introduce their ongoing artistic processes. On the first day of the Talks, 21 October at 4.30 pm, the audience will have the possibility to visit the Open Studios, which take place near Gallery Augusta, in the residencies on Susisaari, Suomenlinna.

In his talk, Jantjes will talk about his experience curating exhibitions of contemporary art from Africa over the past 50 years, with specific reference to his recent exhibition projects such as Africa in Oslo, the first major presentation of African contemporary art in Norway, as well as his forthcoming presentation of Nicholas Hlobo. Born in Cape Town South Africa, Jantjes became a refugee from the apartheid regime and spent the greater part of his professional life in exile, living and working in Germany, England and Norway. Jantjes has played a strategic and leading role in the re-evaluation of contemporary art in Europe through his art production, his curatorial work, his lectures and writing. His special focus has been on diversity and new internationalism in contemporary art. Jantjes currently holds the position of curator for contemporary international exhibitions at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, Norway. On Saturday 23 October at 3 pm Jantjes will give a tour and comment on the ongoing exhibition on the South-African contemporary art in Helsinki Art Museum, Tennispalatsi called Peekaboo.

Nicolaus Schafhausen, the second speaker on the 25 November, will address questions of strategies which art institutions might adopt in face of the difficult relationship between content and marketing. Schafhausen was curator of the German Pavilion at both the 52nd and 53rd Venice Biennials (2007 and 2009). Currently he is a co-curator of the Media City Seoul 2010 Biennial in South Korea.

The year 2010’s last HIAP Talk on 2 December will be presented by the renowned Parisian curator and theorist Nicolas Bourriaud, who will discuss his concept postproduction. Bourriaud is the author of the seminal book Relational Aesthetics (1998). He was the Curator of the Fourth Tate Triennial in 2009 which focused on Bourriaud’s concept of the Altermodern.

HIAP Talks is curated by Marita Muukkonen.