TURBA
The Journal for Global Practices in Live Arts Curation
Co-Editors:
Tawny Andersen, University of Surrey, UK / University of Calgary, Canada
Sandeep Bhagwati, Concordia University, Canada / Ensemble Extrakte & Ensemble Sangeet Prayog Pune, Canada/Germany
Victoria Carrasco, PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Canada / Wesleyan University, USA
Dena Davida, University of Québec / International Community of Performing Arts Curators, Canada
Barbara Scales, Latitude 45 Arts / Centre de musique canadienne au Québec, Canada
Yves Sheriff, 3rd Floor Projects at Usine C, Canada
Managing Editor: Dena Davida
Call for Papers forthcoming.
Volume 0 (2020): Issue 0 (Dec 2020): Coming Soon!
Volume 1 / 2022, 2 issues per volume (spring, autumn)
Aims & Scope
TURBA is the first journal for the study, practice, documentation analysis, and theorization of live arts curation.
TURBA: crowd, multitude; uproar, disturbance, tumult; twirl, move around; soil, earth.
TURBA is the first journal for the study, theory, and praxis of curatorial strategies in the live arts. The live arts are broadly defined as those arts in which contingent, momentary acts and events, performed by human or other autonomous agents, are crucial to the aesthetic perception and the emergence of meaning in ephemeral time-based work. They include, but are not limited to, dance, music, sound art, theatre, performance art, verbal arts, circus arts, live media arts and inter-arts performance works. With this journal, we aim to create a platform for the exploration of ideas, concepts, constraints, expectations, and contingencies which guide and drive curatorial practices in these fields.
Within the live arts, the term “curation” is used in a manner that is largely, but not entirely, analogous to its use in the visual arts.[1] The Latin root of the word “curation” is curare, meaning “to take care of” or “to heal.” Live arts curators mediate the intellectual, societal, and aesthetic contexts, as well as the presentational models, which support the development, dissemination, and reception of artistic work. They negotiate relationships between artists, artistic works, audiences, administrators, archives, the media, and society. With TURBA, we aim to foster a community of critical discourse about live arts curation across traditions, genres, communities, generations, cultures, disciplines, and aesthetics.
We seek to connect, amplify, and contextualize movements and voices, thus making TURBA a seismographic observatory for the impact of the live arts on societies and cultures around the globe.
[1] In the visual arts, the term “curator” describes two different roles/professions: 1) someone who cares for, acquires, and manages an existing collection; 2) someone who conceptualizes a temporary exhibition of artworks. Both correspond to curatorial roles in the live arts, but the first category --persons ensuring the persistence of a live arts tradition, an artist’s body of work, or a particular type of live art--are not usually called “curators”. Instead, they are usually called griots, opera directors, dance archivists and reconstructionists, Brechtians or Shakespearians, guardians of temple music etc. TURBA explicitly aims to include critical discourses around their work and practice, too.
Co-Editors
Tawny Andersen
Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Performance Philosophy, University of Surrey, UK
Sessional Instructor, Department of Art, University of Calgary, CanadaSandeep Bhagwati
Professor (Music), Director matralab, Concordia University, Canada
Music director, Ensemble Extrakte & Ensemble Sangeet Prayog Pune, Canada/GermanyVictoria Carrasco
Mngmt/Curator, Public Programs, PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Canada
M.A., Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP), Wesleyan University, USADena Davida
Sessional lecturer, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Québec in Montréal, Canada
Founder, International Community of Performing Arts Curators, CanadaBarbara Scales
Founder/President, Latitude 45 Arts, Canada
President, Centre de musique canadienne au Québec, CanadaYves Sheriff
Independent Curator, 3rd Floor Projects at Usine C, CanadaManaging Editor
Dena Davida
Web Consultant
Alexandre de Verteuil
Solutions Architect, Grafana Labs, USAAdvisory Board
Lieven Bertels
Director, The Momentary, USA
Silvia Bottiroli
Artistic Director, DAS Curator Seminars, Amsterdam University of the Arts, Netherlands
Brandon Farnsworth
Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
Ricardo Dal Farra
Professor, Music Department, Concordia University, Canada
Director, Balance-Unbalance (BunB) and Understanding Visual Music (UVM)
Jennifer Fisher
Professor, Art History, York University, Canada
Co-editor/founder, Journal of Curatorial Studies, Canada
Sigrid Gareis
Co-Director, Performing Arts Curation, Paris Lodron University, Austria
Amelia Jones
Vice Dean, Roski School of Art & Design/ University of Southern California, USA
André Lepecki
Chair, Performance Studies, TISCH at New York University, USA
Keng Sen Ong
Founding Director, International Curators Academy, Singapore
Artistic Director, T:>Works, Singapore
Dylan Robinson
Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Studies, Queens University, Canada
Tom Sellar
Professor, Yale School of Drama, USA
Editor, Theater magazine, USA
Noémie Solomon
Director, Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance, Wesleyan University, USA
Cyril Thomas
Head of Research, Centre national des arts du cirque, France
Beatrice von Bismarck
Professor, Cultures of the Curatorial, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Germany
Ana Vujanović
Lecturer, Theatre Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Team member, SNDO, Amsterdam University of the Arts, The NetherlandsEditorial Board
Wadha Al-Aqeedi
Assistant Curator, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar
‘Funmi Adewole
Senior lecturer, Department of dance, De Montfort University, UK
Rodolfo Andaur
Independent curator/Cultural manager/Writer, Chile
Lior Avizoor
PhD candidate, Theater Department, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Director, BatSheva Dance School, Israel
Clint Bracknell
Associate Professor, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Kurongkurl, Edith Cowan University, Australia
Mauricio Peña Cediel
Director, Music Section, Banco de la Repùblica de Colombia, Columbia
Dana Dugan
PhD. Candidate, Interdisciplinary Humanities Programme, Concordia University, Canada
Founder, Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival, USA
Gurur Ertem
Adjunct Professor, Dance Department, Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Turkey
Founding Co-director, Bimeras Projects, Istanbul
Brandon Farnsworth
Music Curator/Research Associate, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
Bertie Ferdman
Associate Professor, Theater Studies, Borough Manhattan Community College CUNY, USA
Ashley Ferro-Murray
Theatre/Dance Curator, Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center, USA
Curatorial Advisor, Body, Image, Movement Biennial, Madrid
Gustavo Fijalkow
PhD., Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, UK
Performing Arts Curator/Artistic Project Director, Forward Dance Company, Germany
Yohayna Hernàndez Gonzàlez
Dramaturg/ performing arts curator, Canada/Cuba
Amitesh Grover
Performance-based Artist/Curator, ITFoK Theatre Festival, India
Assistant Professor, National School of Drama, India
Priscilla Guy
PhD. candidate, CEAC Lab, Université de Lille, France
Artist-curator, RIRH Biennal, Furies Dance Festival, Canada
Adham Hafez
Doctoral researcher, Performance Studies, New York University, USA
Founder, HaRaKa movement & performance research, Egypt
Anna Kerekes
Senior curator, MO.CO Montpellier Contemporain, France
Juan Menchero
Dramaturg/Playwright
Lecturer/PhD. candidate, Spanish & Portuguese Languages & Cultures, New York University, USA
Helly Minarti
Independent curator/scholar, Indonesia
Bongani Ndodana-Breen
PhD. Music Composition, Rhodes University, South Africa
Co-director, Africa Arts, opera & classical music producer, South Africa
Jay Pather
Director, Institute for Creative Arts/University of Cape Town, South Africa
Curator, Aftrovibes, Netherlands
Roselle Pineda
Artistic Director, Performance Curators Intiatives, Philippines
Faculty, Arts Studies, University of the Philippines at Dilman, Philippines
Anastasia Proshutinskaya
Independent dance curator/educator/researcher, Russia
Alma Quintana
Founder/director, ¿Cómo encender un fósforo? festival & research program, México
Professor, National Folk Dance School, Claustro de Sor Juana University, México
Alma Salem
Founder, Alma Salem Bureau for Curation and Cultural Advisory, Syria/Canada
Aktina Stathaki
Founder-curator, Between the Seas Festival, Greece/USA
Programming director, 1927 art space, Greece
Ken Takiguchi
Manager, Setagaya Public Theatre, Japan
Part-time lecturer, Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan
Fu Kuen Tang
Curator, Taipei Arts Festival, Taiwan
Teacher, Theatre, literature & cultural theory, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Candace Thompson-Zacharey
M.A., ICPP, Wesleyan University, USA
Founder, ContempoCaribe, Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, USA/Tobago & Trinidad
Gordana Vnuk
Founder/artistic director, Eurokaz festival, Croatia
Independent artistic advisor/curator, Croatia
Jingyi Wang
Independent performance-creator/curator, China/Norway
Aaron Wright
Curator, Fierce Festival, UK
Curator, Live Art Development Agency, UK
Submission
Please carefully review the submission and style guide before submitting.
TURBA invites submissions engaging with any tradition, genre, community, culture, discipline, artistic expression, or aesthetic in the live arts. The journal is particularly interested in featuring compelling, experimental, politically engaged, and transformative content that fosters critique and debate, expands knowledge, and provides socio-cultural and historical context for the evolving practices of live arts curation.
TURBA is open to a wide range of genres and formats. Contributions may include: academic papers for [double blind] peer review, critical essays, dialogic exchanges and transcribed group conversations, manifestos, reviews of publications and symposia, analyses of curatorial paradigms and events, poetry, images, notations and graphic representations, etc. They may also interweave such styles and epistemologies if this heterogeneity helps to better illuminate their subject matter.
TURBA welcomes writers in any language to submit texts, including texts previously published in other languages. Such texts must be accompanied by an English abstract and the first draft of a translation into English. Should the text be selected for publication, we will, if necessary, work with the author(s) on a final English version. The original language version, however, will usually be posted on the journal's resource pages.
Academic papers to be peer reviewed should be a maximum of 6,000 words and should be accompanied by a 250-word abstract. Please do not include your name in the article or the document’s metadata. Submit a 50-word biography on a separate page with accompanying image(s).
"Letter from [name of city, region or country]" is a regular feature written in a casual style. About 500 words long, these should be short reflections, reports, explanations, critical observations on something that is happening or has just happened in the writer's local area —a controversy, a new policy, the opening or closing of a venue, a travelling show or a text that have made waves, the death (or birth) of an influential live arts protagonist, a miracle or a scandal, etc.
Other submissions may be of any length and should include a 50-word biography in the main document, with accompanying image(s).
All text submissions should be submitted in Microsoft Word in 12-point Times New Roman and formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style.
All images must be submitted according to the Artwork guidelines on the Berghahn Journals Submissions page.
TURBA appears twice a year both in print and as an e-publication. In addition to two annual calls for specific issues with fixed deadlines, submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis.
Send your contributions, queries, and questions to Dena Davida at turbajournal@gmail.com.
Ethics Statement
Authors published in TURBA certify that their works are original and their own. The editors certify that all materials, with the possible exception of editorial introductions, book reviews, and some types of commentary, have been subjected to blind peer review by qualified scholars in the field. While the publishers and the editorial board make every effort to see that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinions, or statements appear in this journal, they wish to make clear that the data and opinions appearing in the articles herein are the sole responsibility of the contributor(s) concerned. For a more detailed explanation concerning these qualifications and responsibilities, please see the complete TURBA publication ethics and publication malpractice statement.