A Group’s Self-Study is a self-organised community of curatorially-curious friends that began in 2016. The group meets on the last Sunday evening of every month at OCAC’s Ganzhou Street space for a reading group or thematic discussion. After completing the translation of Cultures of the Curatorial / Curating Cultures in summer 2019, the group launched the “Artist–Curator Mutual Aid Discussion” — shifting the focus from translation and theory to the projects, fieldwork and back-stories that artists and independent curators are working on right now.
The group’s principle is “no teacher, no graduation”: each session is convened by one or two hosts who propose a theme and readings; participants read, screen, walk, interview and report on what they are doing — treating “self-study” as a sustained, collective curatorial method.
- Initiated by Open Contemporary Art Center
- Frequency Last Sunday evening of every month
- Venue OCAC Ganzhou Street space (occasionally on the road)
- Open Non-profit, free, registration required
Annual summary
2021 Focused on the second edition of the Artist–Curator Mutual Aid Discussion; eight or more artists/curators took turns to host sessions on their in-progress projects, with a collective year-end share.
2022 Continued the Mutual Aid Discussion and opened collaborations with external groups, including the Taipei Art Creators Trade Union, with multiple sessions on artistic labour conditions.
2023 Nine sessions across the year. Visiting speakers included Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez (Cité internationale des arts, Paris), the Taipei Art Creators Trade Union and Shanchen Used Bookstore. Topics ranged from international residency systems and artistic labour to the contemporary role of bookshops and independent publishing.
- Average attendance 12 per session
- Format Educational outreach; lecture/discussion
- Ticketing None, non-profit