Lauren Wetmore interviews Swiss American curator and writer Alexandra Stock about her scathing critique of Christophe Büchel’s 2019 Venice Biennale project Barca Nostra. Published that same year by the independent Egyptian online newspaper Mada Masr, Stock’s “The Privileged, Violent Stunt That is the Venice Biennale Boat Project” decries an “artworld that repels all criticism of it,” and describes the repercussion of being one of the first voices to publicly denouncing this high-profile artwork.
Stock is an occasional writer, artist, and consultant based mainly in Cairo since 2007. She graduated from the Zurich University of the Arts with a BFA in Art Theory, participated in De Appel’s Curatorial Program in Amsterdam and studied Arabic at the French Institute in Cairo. For three seasons she represented the region on the International Council advisory board of PBS’s broadcast program ‘Art in the Twenty-First Century’ and later consulted for the Bahrain Authority for Culture & Antiquities. Stock is currently the Creative Director of Archinos, Egypt’s leading architecture, design, and conservation firm.
This episode is supported by Paul Petro Contemporary Art.
Momus: The Podcast is edited by Jacob Irish, with production assistance from Chris Andrews.
