Giulia Colletti on Curating as Relational and Occupational Practice

Curator Giulia Colletti describes her practice as relational and 'occupational,' challenging exhibition spaces by using disused or adapted sites. In Glasgow, she has curated in a phone box, a former linen bank, a sports facility, and a laundromat. During a residency in Mexico City, she projected Ross Little's film on globalized labor inside an ex-cold storage room at La Merced market and illegally distributed copies of his work in Tepito. She initiated the autonomous project FALTE, resulting in conversations, exhibitions, and performative talks. Colletti contributed to the first edition of OFF-Biennale Budapest and worked with Francis McKee at CCA Glasgow, adopting open-source strategies. She organized the workshop 'Conjunctive Tissue' (2017) with artist Marco Giordano, who wove his work based on visitor input and collaboration with performer Sue Tompkins. She curated 'One Missing Sock After Doing Laundry' featuring artists Elisabetta Benassi, Gabriele De Santis, Tessa Lynch, Jonathan Monk, and Scott Myles, rejecting the white cube syndrome. Colletti references Lauren Berlant's 'cruel optimism' regarding unfulfilled promises of job security and equality, seeing curating as a way to address the current impasse without claiming a panacea.