Doha, Qatar
A cultural entrepreneur at the intersection of contemporary art, media and tech, Alfredo Cramerotti is an art curator, writer and cultural critic. He is Director, mm:museum [Media Majlis Museum] at Northwestern Qatar; co-Curator, Noor Riyadh 2024, KSA + Art Dubai Digital 2024, UAE; Adviser, UK Government Art Collection + British Council Visual Arts Acquisition Committee + Italian Ministry of Culture for the Italian Council Program 2022-24 + Lumen Prize Immersive and Interactive category + Maxxi-Bvlgari Prize for international digital art. Besides currently leading mm:museum at Northwestern Qatar, Cramerotti was Director of Mostyn contemporary art museum, UK (2011-2023), and has curated exhibitions, biennials and projects worldwide, including four national pavilions at the Venice Biennale (Wales and Maldives in 2013, Mauritius in 2015, Malaysia's Pera Fauna Flora in 2022); the exhibition projects Web to Verse (2023-25) and Ideal-Types (2018-2019); Sean Scully's at the Hong Kong Arts Centre (2018); Shezad Dawood at ISMAR/Fondazione Querini Stampalia in conjunction with the 57th Venice Biennale (2017); EXPO VIDEO Chicago (2015); and the biennials Sequences VII in Reykjavik, Iceland (2015) and Manifesta 8, Region of Murcia, Spain (2010). He curated web-based projects, radio and television programs in the UAE, USA, UK, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, and is actively bridging legacy art practices with advanced technologies (AxAT) such as AI/Generative art, immersive art, VR/AR formats, robotic and blockchain-based art. He serves as President of IKT-Int'l Association Curators Contemporary Art; Chair of Digital Strategies Committee of AICA-Int'l Association Art Critics; Member of CIMAM-Int'l Committee Museums and Collections Modern Art, part of ICOM UK (International Council of Museums) and He holds a PhD in Communication Design (2020) and has written extensively on contemporary art and media theory, with over 200 texts published in books, catalogues, monographs and journals. Cramerotti is Editor-in-Chief of the Critical Photography book series (Intellect Books), co-Founder of the publishing platform Multiplicity-Art in Digital focusing on diversity in the arts and society, and his own publications include the books The Possibility of an Image: Hyper-imaging in Art, Media and Visual Communication (forth. 2025); Curating the Image: Notebook for a Visual Journey (2020); Forewords: Hyperimages and Hyperimaging (2018); Unmapping the City: Perspectives of Flatness (2010); and Aesthetic Journalism: How to Inform without Informing (2009). @CuratorView
The Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar, the first media museum in the Arab world and accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), is a museum dedicated to exploring art, journalism, communication and media. Through exhibitions, publications, programs and online resources we engage with themes that connect audiences to an ever-changing media landscape. Our interactive exhibition space uses digital technologies to challenge standard narratives and provide 360-degree views on global, regional and local stories. We aspire to represent the diversity of voices, perspectives, events and people that contributes to the evolving media world that surrounds and affects us all. As a museum we believe there is always another side. The Media Majlis is an active space where visitors can participate, comment and engage. We do not simply collect and commemorate media and journalism in its physical forms, we create opportunities to explore and interact with its content and messages. Our exhibitions are a place where visitors can interrogate and be inspired by all forms of media, challenging preconceptions, delving into the why? and to what end?, not just the when? or the how? Since opening to the public in spring 2019 the museum’s exhibitions and programs have explored discussions ranging from the portrayals of Arab identity in film, to the changing uses of media in social change and by those who aim to bring issues and social awareness to wider audiences, and how smartphones have impacted journalism and the newsroom. The museum is located in the Northwestern Qatar building in Education City. Inspired by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, The Media Majlis is a central component of Northwestern Qatar, its educational mission and building. The Media Majlis is open to everyone—its presence extends Northwestern’s commitment to deliver a holistic education and to provide a site for learning and enjoyment for all residents of and visitors to Qatar.
Multiplicity – Art In Digital is an art curating, collection management & publishing business focused on the work of diversity-driven artists adopting new technologies such as blockchain, immersive, interactive and VR/AR/XR formats. We focus on artists from underrepresented groups because, when art and tech narratives don’t celebrate the multiplicity and diversity of artists working in arts and advanced technologies (AxAT), they reiterate a marginalization that happened many times in art history (and not only in art). Some argue that, for instance, to promote and highlight women-identifying artists separately is to marginalize them, but we believe that, side-lined as they remain (ArtNet report states that currently, 95% of AxAT art sales are by male artists, and the vast majority white and western), it’s important to tackle this imbalance from the very beginning, and not wait for celebrating the work of women artists fifty years after they made it – as it’s happening now with the ‘rediscovery’ of the work by leading female figures working in the 1950s-1970s). We want to emphasize the diversity of artists and artistic practices in the application of new technology to art to alter the record. Many of the artists we focus on and promote the work of represent a globally diverse population, with works about their communities and their politics. We want to influence the stats mentioned above; we want to change art history; we want to empower female-identifying creators and generate sustainable and successful careers for them – now and in the future.
IKT is the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art. It is a members organisation that brings together curators from across the world, to meet, share knowledge, exchange ideas and broaden their professional networks. IKT represents the professional interests of contemporary curators worldwide, and is the equivalent of international organisations such as ICOM, CIMAM or AICA. IKT was founded in 1973 and its early members included prominent curators such as Eberhard Roters, Eddy de Wilde and Harald Szeemann. The aim of the organisation is to stimulate and extend debate concerning curating. In practical terms, IKT offers its members the opportunity to find partners for the co-production of exhibitions, publications or other events. At a time when the art world is increasingly structured around biennales and art fairs, IKT's annual congresses provide a moment for reflection and in-depth discussion amongst colleagues. IKT is represented by a board of six Trustees and a President, elected from amongst its members by its members every three years, at the General Assembly of the annual congress. Members IKT has over 500 members from across Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. The members include curators and artistic directors of non-profit exhibition spaces and museums, as well as freelance curators of contemporary art. Members benefit from an annual membership card that provides free entry to numerous contemporary art institutions across the world. Programme IKT hosts an annual conference held each time in a different place, which acts as moment to come together and to discover the cultural scene of that location. If you would like to propose a site for one of the future congresses, please read our criteria for choosing a host city/venue.
As a member of the British Council’s Visual Arts Acquisitions Advisory Group, I advise the Visual Arts team on its acquisitions of works of art to ensure it acquires those that will best enable the British Council to fulfil its purpose and strategy as laid out in the Corporate Plan and Arts Strategy.
Editor of Critical Photography book series. Since 1986, Intellect has provided a vital space for widening critical debate in new and emerging subjects. Critical Photography seeks to encourage visual and textual reflection on/with contemporary photography. The series is at the forefront in expanding the notion of critical debate: each book investigates an issue via two systems of representation, placing them at equal level. Neither text that 'explains' pictures nor photography that 'illustrates' text, the series addresses aspects of our being and becoming in a thought-provoking and aesthetically stunning form and content.