Milan, Lombardy, Italy
Barbara Casavecchia is a writer, independent curator and educator based in Milan, where she teaches at Brera and NABA art academies. She graduated in art history from the University of Pavia. In 2025, she received an Art Basel Award (category: Media and Storytellers). In 2023/24 she was QuiS Visiting Research Fellow at Städelschule, Frankfurt. Editor-in-chief at Mousse, her features and essays – often focused on Italian contemporary art, visual cultures, and feminisms – have appeared in Frieze, Art Agenda, Art Review, D/La Repubblica, Flash Art, Kaleidoscope, Mousse, Nero, South/documenta 14, Spike, among others, as well as in several artist books and catalogues. In 2018, she curated the exhibition "Susan Hiller. Social Facts" at OGR, Turin. In 2021-23, she lead the research project The Current III "Mediterraneans: 'Thus waves come in pairs' (after Etel Adnan)" for TBA21-Academy and curated the eponymous exhibition at Ocean Space, Venice, with new commissions by Simone Fattal and Petrit Halilaj & Alvaro Urbano (April 22-Nov5 2023). She edited the book 'Thus Waves Come in Pairs. Thinking with the Mediterraneans' (2023, Sternberg Press and TBA21).
Elementi di Comunicazione Giornalistica - Biennio Specialistico Visual Cultures e Pratiche Curatoriali - SCUOLA DI COMUNICAZIONE E DIDATTICA DELL'ARTE
https://www.tba21.org/#item--thecurrentmediterraneans--2237 https://www.ocean-space.org/exhibitions/s-fattal-p-halilaj-a-urbano-thus-waves-come-in-pairs “Waves come in pairs,” says a beautiful poem by Etel Adnan - a lead to open up to propagation, perturbations, and fluid exchanges of energy. The Current III based its modes of operation on collaborations, the possibility of being moved by others, and the attempt to work across scales, from the micro to the planetary. To think plurally with the interconnectedness of shifting climates and warming seas in the Mediterraneans means to think within a rapidly changing present condition. A selection of projects emerged from The Current III: 1) Podcast: Aridity Lines A five-episode series co-produced with Radio Ma3azef. Conceived by Reem Shadid and Barbara Casavecchia. Featuring: Jumana Emil Abboud (#1); Ala Tannir (#2); Cooking Sections (#3); Nadia Christidi (#4); Eyal Weizman (#5) 2) Commissioned artworks Giorgio Andreotta Calò, lacuna, 2021; Rossella Biscotti, The Journey Sonic Diary, 2021; Invernomuto, Black Med, Chapter VI, 2021; Ibrahim Nehme, Carlo Spiga and Derek MF Di Fabio (Cherimus Association), To Become A Sea, 2022; Raffaela Naldi Rossano, Dolphins’ oracles and birds’ declarations, 2022 3) Ocean/UNI: Imagine the ocean dry as lavender With a title inspired by the verses of Egyptian-Lebanese-French poet Andrée Chedid two semesters of OCEAN / UNI focused on the Mediterranean basin as Anthropocenic hotspot: - Mediterraneans as hotspot for climate change and adaptation, Spring Semester 2022 - The Mediterraneans beyond aridity, Spring Semester 2023 4) Walks: “Venice as a model for the future?” Four cycles of free itinerant conversations around Venice and the lagoon, guided by activists, scientists, and guardians of this body of water: Walking (the) Trajectories, 2020; Lagoon Micro-Ecologies, 2021; Cohabiting Within Wetness, 2022; The lagoon / has the moon / between its legs / playing ball, 2023