This article has been updated with additional information, 5/24.
Following an almost six-month-long search, Hong Kong’s Para/Site Art Space has appointed a new executive director/curator, ART iT has confirmed. Founded in 1996, the nonprofit independent art organization will introduce incoming director Cosmin Costinaş to the local community during events surrounding this week’s ART HK art fair, which include a May 26 gala fundraising benefit for Para/Site.
The appointment comes in the midst of major developments in Hong Kong’s contemporary art infrastructure, including the implementation of plans for a major inter-disciplinary institution, M+, to anchor the long-gestating West Kowloon Cultural District, and the May 6 acquisition by the company behind the Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach art fairs of a majority stake in ART HK. Furthermore, numerous international galleries are following the lead of mega-dealer Larry Gagosian in investigating satellite spaces in Hong Kong. Gagosian opened a branch in the city in January 2011.
These developments could mean more money and attention for small- to medium-sized organizations like Para/Site, but for administrators they will also require a sensitive balance between critical integrity and market pressures. Notably, Costinaş’s position is supported by the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, a philanthropic organization that has also helped to fund acquisitions for the Tate Collection and the production of projects by artists including Steve McQueen, Yael Bartana and Karla Black. He is the first director of Para/Site to be so supported.
Currently curator at Utrecht’s BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Costinaş is still under 30 but has already been involved in major projects including the ongoing research initiative spearheaded by BAK, Former West; the co-curation of the First Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art, Ekaterinburg, in 2010; and the editing of documenta 12 magazines for the eponymous survey exhibition in 2005-07, directed by Roger Buergel. Born in 1982 in Satu Mare, Romania, he is also curator of the acclaimed first survey of works by Lebanese multi-disciplinary artist Rabih Mroué, which debuted at BAK in May 2010 under the title “I, the Undersigned” and has since toured to institutions in Lunds, London and Stuttgart as “The People are Demanding” following events of 2011’s Arab Spring. The exhibition continues to Prague and Warsaw through the end of the year.
Costinaş replaces outgoing director Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya, who arrived from Spain in 2009. An official announcement regarding his appointment is scheduled for release May 23.
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Art Basel owners acquire ART HK