The Curatorial Collective for Public Art (CCPA) develops curatorial formats for the production, mediation and representation of art in public space, public art and urban interventions. It develops curatorial formats for site-specific, transdisciplinary, critical and urban art. CCPA understand the “public” in the term public art as the medium and material of its practice. As an initiative without a
fixed space, it often works in the urban space; however, its practice extends into the public sphere, as well as the public in the sense of audience. Due its nomadic character, the collective is not tied to an exhibition space, and continues to conceptualize context-specific formats for its projects, which elude the traditional understanding of curating. CCPA views its practice as a collaborative, transdisciplinary endeavor on the intersection between concept, organization and design - akin to Maria Lind’s understanding of the curatorial as a methodology that reaches far beyond the mere activity of curating, and that can be executed or performed by actors in many different positions in the ecosystem of art. Long-term conceptual and creative collaborations with cooperation partners and reciprocal process with artists are an essential part of curatorial work. CCPA’s practice can be characterized as what Florian Malzacher calls “performative curating”. Thanks to the interdisciplinary backgrounds of its members, the collective makes use of artistic strategies that are more common in the field of theater and performance art, in order to create “reality-making” situations that not only describe their own reality, but generate an awareness of it. Although based in Berlin, the collective works translocally and unites the international networks of its members. The team consists of curator and cultural manager Lianne Mol, curator and dramaturg Yael Sherill, stage designer and theater pedagoge Julia Kawka, and artist and designer José Délano.
