Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (b. 1957, Ridgewood, NJ, lives and works in New York and Turin) is an Italian-American curator, writer, and one of the most influential figures in the international contemporary art world.

She served as Director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in 2009 and from 2016 to 2023, having previously been its Chief Curator. Earlier, she was Senior Curator at MoMA PS1 in New York. She was the Artistic Director of dOCUMENTA (13), realized across Kassel, Kabul, Alexandria/Cairo, and Banff, and has curated major international exhibitions including the 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008) and the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015). In 2012, she was named the most influential figure in the global art world by ArtReview. More recently, she curated Arte Povera (2024–25) at the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection in Paris, examining the movement’s origins and global legacy. She has taught at the University of Leeds and Northwestern University, and is currently Honorary Guest Professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland.

Her current research for an upcoming exhibition focuses on artistic freedom, corporeality, and transcendence in aesthetics in the digital era, including the dialectic between the angelic and the agentic.

In this event she will speak with Dr Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OAM, who served as Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) from 1999-2021.

The event is presented as part of the program for the 13th Assembly of the International Biennale Association.

Carolyn Christov Bakargiev’s visit to Australia is made possible through a partnership between The University of Queensland Art Museum, The University of Melbourne with support from the Potter Museum of Art, Art + Australia and the Dr Harold Schenberg Bequest, Australian Institute of Art History and the Macgeorge Bequest, The University of Sydney Chau Chak Wing Museum, and Milani Gallery.