“HACKING CONVENTIONS”, FRANCESCO URBANO RAGAZZI IN CONVERSATION WITH MARINA FOKIDIS
The conversation between ARTWORKS Curators in Residence Francesco Urbano Ragazzi (FFUR) and curator, writer, and institution-builder Marina Fokidis will place particular emphasis on curatorial practice as a tool of political insubordination: a perspective that also reflects the affinities between them, both theoretically and through past collaborations. The conversation will focus on strategies of hacking conventions adopted by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi in order to create short circuits between social realities and artistic operations. The talk will focus in particular on a series of projects curated by the duo related to the valorization of queer heritage, the reappropriation of public space, and their recent research on rethinking national exhibition formats in times of resurging nationalisms.
Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, Photo: Daniele Molajoli
Marina Fokidis, Photo: Stathis Mamalakis
Francesco Urbano Ragazzi is a curatorial duo founded in Paris in 2008 by Francesco Ragazzi (PhD) and Francesco Urbano (PhD). Their practice reconnects art with reality through exhibitions that extend beyond galleries and museums, exploring a broader concept of public space. Their approach is exemplified by a series of exhibitions curated in Venice on the occasion of the Biennale: “The Internet Saga” by Jonas Mekas (2015); “Hillary: The Hillary Clinton Emails” by Kenneth Goldsmith with the participation of Hillary Rodham Clinton (2019); “Adoration” by Pauline Curnier Jardin and the inmates of the Giudecca detention house (2022); and “Stitched Cosmos” by Jennifer West at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The duo has also developed projects for major institutions worldwide, including including e-flux, School of Visual Arts, ISCP (New York), MMCA (Seoul), Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), CERN (Geneva), Maraya Art Centre (Sharjah), Castello di Rivoli Research Center (Turin), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome), Reykjavík International Film Festival, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, La Loge (Brussels), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Institut Français (Paris), Ruya Foundation (Baghdad), and Emirates Foundation (Abu Dhabi). In the last five years, Francesco Urbano Ragazzi co-edited FUORI!!! 1971–1974, an award-winning anthology dedicated to the first LGBTQ+ magazine in Italian history; directed the 17th edition of the LIAF Biennial in Norway; and curated “Jonas Mekas 100!” in Italy, the international program celebrating the centenary of the legendary filmmaker with whom they had long collaborated. In 2025, Francesco Urbano Ragazzi was named the first Italian curatorial fellow at the American Academy in Rome.
Marina Fokidis is a curator, writer, and cultural strategist based in Athens whose practice investigates contemporary art as a space for collective imagination, social exchange, and transnational dialogue. She is the founder of Kunsthalle Athenaand South as a State of Mind, an internationally acclaimed journal that later became the publishing platform of documenta 14, where she served as Head of the Artistic Office in Athens and curatorial advisor. Over the past two decades, she has curated exhibitions, public programmes, and research projects for museums, biennials, and independent institutions across Europe, the Mediterranean, and Latin America, with a particular interest in alternative institutional models, decolonial perspectives, and cultural ecologies of the Global South. She has served on numerous international juries and advisory boards and regularly lectures and publishes on contemporary art and critical culture. Since 2025, she serves as the Director of Culture for the Region of Attica, developing new public initiatives that connect artistic practice with civic life and the public sphere.