BAU is an institute for contemporary arts and ecology. Since its foundation in 2015 it has commissioned and curated numerous projects in Südtirol - Alto Adige that respond to questions of the present, conceiving of nature and culture together and regarding the human with its environment as part of an ecological cycle.

At the core of BAU’s contemporary arts activities and programming are the exchange of different forms of knowledge in a more-than-human world. BAU can be a school, a shared meal, a laboratory, an exhibition, a workshop, an experimental arrangement. Being situated at the periphery and embedded in a rural landscape we foster a constant exchange between local and international knowledge and read the space around us be it a gallery space, a farmhouse, a library as a negotiable sphere, where different abilities and competencies produce collective knowledge. How can we learn from each other and how can we unlearn internalised knowledge?

Being in constant construction, BAU does not define itself through a fixed physical location but through each project extends a net of relations, an assemblage between international artists, local experts, the rich infrastructure and the landscape of the region that enables for temporary constellations. Taking the role of mediators, we facilitate artistic production that attempt to overcome a strict divide between the local and the international but rather experiments with forms of gatherings in which the landscape is an important source of knowledge.

Organised as a cooperative, the activity is concentrated in three areas: BAU Residency, BAU Alliances and BAU Agency.
Since 2017 BAU is co-directed by Simone Mair and Lisa Mazza.

During our talk we will speak about curating in context and give an insight into our curatorial and institutional practice by unfolding a few projects from their conception until the final presentation.