Roundtable

As a first in its 70-year history, the Whitney Biennial 2006 will feature American artists working abroad, foreign-born artists working in the U.S. and those having lived here all their lives. Even before its opening in March 2006, this biennial is being heralded as one that “will take in the world.” (The New York Times).

This panel brings together curators of the upcoming Whitney Biennial, Chrissie Iles and Philippe Vergne, along with several curators of past biennials, to discuss the difficulties inherent in realizing a curatorial concept and coping with the firestorm that follows such an overdetermined event. The dynamics between expectations versus results, or experience versus expectations, will drive the discussion.

Moderator
Tim Griffin, editor-in-chief Artforum

Participants
Chrissie Iles, Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Klaus Kertess, curator, Adjunct Curator of Drawing at The Whitney Museum in 1989, becoming full time in 1993 curating the following Biennial
Louise Neri, co-curated the 1997 Whitney Biennial as the first non-staff and non-American curator in the history of the Biennial project
Elisabeth Sussman, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Marcia Tucker, writer, curator, art critic, and lecturer
Philippe Vergne, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Walker Art Center