CONVERSATIONS

In conjunction with Exhibition #4 at The Museum of Everything, we present a series of conversations with artists, curators, studio directors and others on the nature of the art presented in the show.

Click on any of the names below to read more. Please note: all conversations are the property of The Museum of Everything and cannot be copied used without written permission.

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• Daniel Baumann(USA)

  Daniel Baumann is an art historian, curator and writer for Kunst-Bulletin, Parkett and Spike Art Quarterly. Recipient of the Swiss Award for Best Curator (2006) and Special Advisor for Frieze (2009/10), Baumann is curator of the Adolf Wolfli Foundation at the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh (2013). Baumann was a contributing writer for Exhibition #1.

• David Byrne and Tom di Maria (Creative Growth, USA)

  Musician, artist, writer, filmmaker and cycling activist, Byrne is the founder of record label Luaka Bop and principal songwriter of the band Talking Heads. Winner of Oscar, Grammy, Golden Globe and other awards, Byrne's work as a visual artist includes Playing the Building at London's Roundhouse (2009). Byrne was a contributor to Exhibition #1.

  Curator and filmmaker di Maria is a former assistant director at the Berkeley Art Museum at UC Berkeley and director of Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California. Exhibitions include Create at the Berkley Art Museum (2011) and Glossalia: Languages of Drawing at the Museum of Modern Art (2008). Di Maria was a speaker during Exhibition #1.

• Paolo Colombo (Italy)

  Art advisor for the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art and curator of the Thessaloniki Bienniale (2011), Paolo Colombo an award-winning film producer and the former curator of Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo in Rome, the Istanbul Biennale (1999) and former director of the Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva (1989/2000). Colombo co-curated Exhibition #1 at the Pinacoteca Agnelli in Italy.

• Christiane Cuticchio (Atelier Goldstein, Germany)

  Former set and costume designer, Cuticchio is the founder of Atelier Goldstein in Frankfurt and co-curator of Weltenwandler: Der Kunst Der Outsider at Schirn Kunstalle Frankfurt (2010) and Interchange at the Guangdong Museum of Modern Art (2008). Artists in Exhibition #4 include Hans-Jorg Georgi and Stefan Hafner.

• Chris Dercon (Tate Modern, London)

  Chris Dercon is director of Tate Modern in London and former director of Haus der Kunst in Munich (2003/10), Rotterdam's Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (1996/2003) and Witte de With(1990/5). Producer of several awardwinning films, Dercon has hosted exhibitions for Stiftung Euward and has supported the work of Atelier Herenplaats in Rotterdam, whose artists feature in Exhibition #4.

• Dr Johann Feilacher (Studio Gugging, Austria)

  Trained as a psychiatrist, Feilacher is an artist, curator and director of the Art/Brut Center Gugging. He has co-curated several exhibitions including Weltenwandler at Schirn Kunstalle Frankfurt (2010) and Arnulf Rainer's Art Brut at La Maison Rouge in Paris (2005). Artists include Leonhard Fink and Gunther Schutzenhofer.

• Peter Heidenwag (Galerie der Villa, Germany)

  Trained in psychology, art philosophy and music, Heidenwag is director of Atelier and Galerie der Villa, Germany. Co-curator of Mehr Als Zuviel (2011) and Malerei und Grafik (2004), publications include Zusammenspiel (2010) and Reflexion von Spreache bei Harald Stoffers (2011). Artists include Harald Stoffers, Thomas Beisgen and Bernd Ollhorn.

• Matthew Higgs (White Columns, New York)

  Matthew Higgs is an artist, curator, writer and director of White Columns Gallery, New York. Former director of exhibitions at the ICA in London (1996/9) and a former curator at the Wattis Institute in San Francisco (2001/4), Higgs was a contributor and speaker at Exhibition #1 and has exhibited the work of Creative Growth artists Dan Miller (2011) and William Scott (2009), both featured in Exhibition #4.

• Hiroshi Imanaka (Atelier Incurve, Japan)

  Trained as an architect and designer, Imanaka is founder and director of Atelier Incurve, Japan's most progressive studio for artists with developmental disabilities. Exhibitions include the Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York (2008) and the Suntory Museum, Tempozan (2008). Artists include Katsuhiro Terao and Tomoyuki Shinki.

• Axel Klöss-Fleischmann (Atelier 5, Germany)

  Art therapist Klöss-Fleischmann is director of Atelier 5 at Mariaberg Werkstatt, Germany's first large-scale communal facility for people with intellectual and mental disabilities. Exhibitions include Skulpturen im Kloster (2011) and Begegnungen (2001). Artists include Romina Bafaro, Roland Kappel and Marco Schmitt.

• Adam Phillips (Cardiff, Wales)

  Adam Phillips is a child psychologist, psychoanalyst, literary critic and writer. Principal child psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital, London(1977/1995), he is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and a frequent essayist on philosophy and psychoanalysis. Phillips is the author of many books, including Monogamy (1996), Side Effects (2006) and On Balance (2010).

• Colin Rhodes (University of Sydney, Australia)

  Author, educator, curator and artist, Colin Rhodes is Dean and Professor of Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney in Australia. Publications include Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives (2000) and Primitivism and Modern Art (1994). Rhodes is President of the European Association of Outsider Art and was a contributing writer for Exhibition #1.

• Sir Ken Robinson (Liverpool, England)

  Sir Ken Robinson PhD is an author, speaker, educator and advisor on education and the development of creativity. Former director of The Arts in Schools Project and former chairman of Artswork (both 1985/9) and the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (1998), Robinson's presentations at TED conferences have been viewed by many millions online.

• Anne-Françoise Rouche (CEC La Hesse Belgium)

  A fine art graduate from L'Institut des Beaux-Arts Saint-Luc in Liege, Rouche is founder and director of CEC La Hesse, Belgium. Artists from the studio have been exhibited world-wide, including Madmusee, Belgium (2011), Le Centre Historique Minier de Lewarde, France (2011) and Gaia Museum, Denmark (2009). Eight artists are presented in Exhibition #4.

• Cindy Sherman (New Jersey, USA)

  Photographer and self-portraitist Cindy Sherman is one of the world's foremost female contemporary artists. Exhibitions of her work include the Venice Biennale (2011), the Whitney Bienniale (2010), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1998) and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1997).She is the recipient of the National Arts Award (2001) and the MacArthur Fellowship (1995).

• Dr Elisabeth Telsnig (Lebenshilfe, Austria)

  Art historian Telsnig has been working with mentally disabled people in the Lebenshilfe Oberosterreich for over 15 years. Since 1997 she has been the mentor of artist Josef Hofer. Exhibitions include the Galerie Christian Berst, Paris (2011) and Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne (2003). Her publications on Hofer include Unlocking the Human Form and Euward 2004: Josef Hofer, Robert Burda and Florival Candeias (2004).