We have some secrets to unveil! Start to prepare yourself for the upcoming, 16th edition of the Krakow Photomonth 2018, which will take place on 25 May – 24 June 2018. We are honoured to announce the guest curator for this year’s edition. It is… Iris Sikking!
Iris Sikking (1968) is an independent curator, educated as a film editor and a photo historian. As a curator, she positions herself in the overlapping fields of photography and video art. Since 2006, she has been responsible for several exhibitions initiated with collaborative teams or on assignment for organisations in the Netherlands and abroad. Her research and curation focus on new strategies for storytelling, utilising digital media and multiplatform practices. She has a particular interest in cinematic approaches, and has an eye for narrative structures. Through a wide range of projects she has gained ample experience designing exhibits; working with multimedia presentation formats; editing photobooks; writing and incorporating textual elements into her curatorial practice; creating interactive websites; as well as leading collaborative teams, developing partnerships, and securing project funding.
In 2008, she co-curated Baby: Picturing the Ideal Human, 1840–Now, an international group exhibition about the image representation of infants and babies throughout photography. Other recent endeavours have included her work on Dana Lixenberg’s multiplatform project The Last Days of Shishmaref, and Geert van Kesteren’s exhibition Baghdad Calling. In 2011, she curated ANGRY, a thematic examination of radicalised individuals of all ages, with a selection of works by Johan Grimonprez, Rineke Dijkstra, Willie Doherty, Eva Leitolf, Jules Spinatsch, and Tobias Zielony. She additionally served as producer and curator for Poppy: Trails of Afghan Heroin (2012), a four-channel projection by Robert Knoth and Antoinette de Jong, which travelled worldwide and was published as a photobook. The Fotomuseum in Antwerp also chose her for the curation of Yann Mingard’s Deposit project (2015). In 2016, she curated a group show for Kraków Photomonth entitled A New Display: Visual Storytelling at a Crossroads, which focused on new forms of creating a visual narrative and opening up the practice of documentary photography.
In addition to her curatorial projects, she carries out portfolio reviews for international festivals, serves on multiple competition juries, and was recently appointed to the advisory committees of the Mondriaan Fund and Stroom Den Haag. She is also a tutor at the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost (Breda, NL), where she developed a new BA curriculum for the combined Film and Photography Department, as well as for Arts & Interaction, an interdisciplinary minor.