Instituting at the Limits of Policy. A Conversation with Charles Esche

In this lecture, Charles Esche draws on his forthcoming book Never There Yet: Possibility and the Limits of Institutional Curating (Sternberg Press, 2026) and twenty years as director of the Van Abbemuseum to propose three functions that might organise curatorial work beyond programming: rearranging, which redistributes what legacy institutions already have; instituting and constituting, which build new forms where legacy institutions cannot reach; and subsisting, which holds memory and possibility open for the times when they may be needed again. These three functions emerge from Esche’s engagement with infrastructural critique, decolonial thinking, and his concept of demodernising – a reckoning with modernity and modernism from this side of the colonial divide. The talk will be followed by a moderated discussion with Pushkin House Director Elena Sudakova, audience Q&A, and drinks. This event is part of the Frame programme, convening curators, artists, creatives, and thinkers to examine the evolving agency of art and the responsibilities of cultural workers.