Natalie Pace is a curator and researcher. From 2010 – 2012 she lived and worked in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. During this time she co-founded artXprojects, a collaborative with Kate O’Hara whose work explored contemporary art practices and uses of public space. She worked for Java Arts- Phnom Penh’s longest running contemporary gallery- and as part of the curatorial team for Our City Festival for two editions. She is researching an MA by dissertation focusing on curatorial practices and infrastructures in Phnom Penh which builds on her previous thesis ‘Artistic Dialogues with the City’ completed in 2012. Now based in Suffolk, she is curator at Smiths Row.
Statement of Interest
My main interest lies in the relationship between contemporary artists and their public. More specifically in the context of Cambodia- which lacks infrastructural capacities to help proliferate contemporary artistic practices- my work through artXprojects and my research explores how ‘curatorial’ practices help to support, facilitate and present contemporary art in Cambodia. What artistic and curatorial tools, methods and models have emerged to forge connections between artists and audience? Without a formal mechanism or state institution to enact some of the necessary processes to form a Cambodian art historical backbone, I am also interested in how various curatorial work and artistic practices seek to rectify this.
Image: Kong Vollak Pop Up, by Kate O’ Hara
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