Katayoun Arian
Katayoun Arian is a researcher, curator and writer. In 2024 she was appointed artistic director of the Other Futures festival in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
She is interested in how we understand diversity and often misuse and neglect the reality and contradictions of displacement as it connects to under-exposed histories and the (de)coloniality of knowledge, being and power. Her background in art history and social science/anthropology coalesces in projects ranging from exhibitions, to organising discursive events, screenings, reading circles, and other forms of interdisciplinary and collaborative work.
Her curatorial projects include The End of This Story (And the beginning of all Others) (2015) and Voices Outside the Echo Chamber (2016) both at Framer Framed in Amsterdam; and I Speak in Tongues (2017) at 37PK in Haarlem. Other curatorial projects include Kitchen139 (2011) and Conversation Circle (2017), both at W139, Amsterdam.
She has worked with several other Dutch contemporary art institutions including Casco (Utrecht), Nieuwe Vide (Haarlem), Framer Framed (Amsterdam), W139 (Amsterdam) and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam). Katayoun was a fellow at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst (Utrecht) in the fellowship program of 2018/2019 prior to her appointment as a curator at TENT.