ECAV - Ecole Cantonale d'Art du Valais, Sierre
Faculty Member, MAPS - Arts in Public Spheres
Zurich University of the Arts, Department of Culture Analysis
About
Dr. Barnaby Drabble is a curator, writer, researcher & teacher.
He was born in the UK and lives in Zurich, Switzerland.
With a focus on contemporary art he curates independent projects including exhibitions, screenings, discursive events and events in the public space. He frequently works collaboratively, often in long-term partnerships with other curators and artists. These include his ongoing work with the curator and academic Dorothee Richter, with whom he initiated the research and archiving project Curating Degree Zero. A further partnership of importance is with the Basel-based artist Hinrich Sachs. Between 2001 and 2006 the two produced artistic/curatorial projects together as Drabble+Sachs, focussing on the diverse and complex issues of public-space, cross-disciplinary communication, urbanism, intellectual property & civil disobedience.
He holds a doctor of philosophy (PhD) in visual culture (Edinburgh College of Art, 2010). His ongoing research involves a focus on the question of the public’s role in the exhibition, and the history of artists exhibitions of folk, low-art or pop artifacts.
He also holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Art (Goldsmiths College, London 1998), a Postgraduate Diploma in Exhibition Interpretation and Design (Napier College, Edinburgh 1996) and a BA in English Literature (Edinburgh University 1995).
Alongside giving visiting lectures and workshops at numerous European academic institutions, in 2005, together with Dorothee Richter he co-founded the Postgraduate Program in Curating at the Zurich University of the Arts, where he now has a research position supporting the University's enquiry into the publication of Artistic Research. Since 2009 he has also been a faculty member of the MAPS program (Master of Arts in the Public Sphere) at the Ecole Cantonale d’Art du Valais, in Sierre, where he is also conducting research in collaboration with the art-historian Federica Martini.
He is managing editor of the Journal for Artistic Research (since 2010). Edited the Swiss Arts Council’s annual publication on exhibitions (2010 & 2011) and, as a critic, regularly contributes to art magazines, most notably to Art Monthly and Metropolis M. He has written numerous texts for artist’s catalogues, websites and thematic publications, and together with Dorothee Richter he has co-edited two influential collections of writing on curatorial practice.
