Léon Kruijswijk (pronoun he) is assistant curator at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. He worked among others on the exhibitions "David Wojnarowicz. Photography and Film 1978-1992"; "Ties, Tales, Traces. Dedicated to Frank Wagner, Independent Curator (1958-2016)"; and "The Making of Husbands: Christina Ramberg in Dialogue." He also organies the public program accompanying the main exhibitions and curates evenings at KW’s Pogo Bar–a bar in the basement of the institution with a discursive program focusing on emerging local and international artists. At KW, Léon started as a Curatorial Fellow in 2018 with support from the Mondriaan Fund.
Besides his institutional affiliations, he also works as a freelance curator and writer. In the Netherlands, he organized exhibitions and events as a freelancer at Framer Framed, NEVERNEVERLAND, De School Amsterdam, ROZENSTRAAT – a rose is a rose is a rose, and Perdu, among others. In 2016, he co-founded the Queer Series –an ongoing series of roving events disclosing queer perspectives in contemporary art. His most recent articles were published on Mister Motley and were included in the graduation catalogue of the Sandberg Instituut.
With his practice Léon addresses themes at the intersection of identity politics, queer and gender theory, activism, and institutional critique. He assesses how these themes come together and resonate across visual art, literature, experimental music, and performance. The guest lecture and discussion will among others move from canonized visual art to noise music, explore perspectives on the marginalized body and the force of performance, and will zoom in on texts on HIV and Aids activism and the meaning of art for marginalized communities, seen through a queer lens.
