Project Summary

Presentation Proposal

SanctionedArray by SpecifyOthers (a curatorial partnership between Sandra Skurvida and Sidhant Bhagchandani) is an ongoing project comprised of an online database for video art, a series of curated exhibitions and a journal. Initiated in 2010, SanctionedArray was conceived as a response to the restrictions placed on artists’ submissions to the Guggenheim Museum and YouTube’s video biennial Play, where artists’ submissions were restricted as per US OFAC sanctions—citizens or residents of Belarus, Ivory Coast, Congo, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Myanmar/Burma and Zimbabwe were not eligible to participate. In protest at the continuity of such restrictions, artists of any origin were invited to submit their videos to the SanctionedArray database (launched at WHITE BOX, NYC). The database shall be expanded via curated exhibitions focusing on each sanctioned country. Discursive premises from cultures defying former dialectics of East/West will be negotiated in the quarterly journal released in February 2011.

Speakers

Sandra Skurvida, PhD, is an independent curator and scholar based in New York. She has curated numerous exhibitions since 1995, most recently Avant-Guide to NYC (apexart, 2009) and Custom Car Commandos (Art in General, 2009). She has taught at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, MoMA, NYC, and FIT-SUNY, among other institutions.

Sidhant Bhagchandani is an artist, curator, scholar and programmer based in Dubai and New York. His recent art exhibitions include Diversity (Dubai and Doha, 2009) and Studio B-Last (ISCP, NYC, 2010); recent curated exhibitions include EFEM (The Garment Room, NYC, 2010) and N/A v0.0 (Salt Art Space, NYC, 2009). He founded and administers two web archives: ICA (www.thisishowitshouldbe.blogspot.com) and MECA (www.middleeastcontemporaryart.blogspot.com).

November 2011

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