Roya Amirsoleymani and Kristan Kennedy

Talking To Ghosts

This week on the Talking to Ghosts Podcast we talk with Portland Institute for Contemporary Art curators Roya Amirsoleymani and Kristan Kennedy about challenging the exclusivity of art history to frame the artist’s now in their own words, the concept of the “unstitution,” and how working in any authentic way with Indigenous artists or staff means being open to new ways of working and hearing criticism. This was a great conversation that covered way too many topics to put in the description, but we did want to also highlight two performances mentioned: Javaad Alipoor’s "Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran," which they saw as part of the Under the Radar festival, and Ligia Lewis’“Deader Than Dead” performance for The Hammer Museum.

Roya Amirsoleymani is the Artistic Director and Curator of Public Engagement and Kristan Kennedy is the Artistic Director and Curator of Visual Art at PICA here in Portland, OR. To support or visit upcoming events at PICA, please check out their official website.

Talking to Ghosts is produced and recorded by Michael Kurt and Wesley Mueller. For an archive of all our episodes and to check out our Reviews section, please visit our official website.