Researchers in Residence

From November 2020 to June 2021, Villa Arson has the privilege of hosting Nick Aikens in residence, as part of the IDEX Advanced Research program of the Université Côte d’Azur.

Curator and researcher at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (Netherlands) since 2012, member of the Art Praxis program at the Dutch Art Institute since 2013, author and editorial board member of the museum network L’Internationale, Nick Aikens’ curatorial and scientific activity is internationally recognized, particularly for his work on racialized artists from the United Kingdom and ‘deviant practices’ (ongoing since 2015), as well as for his decolonial perspective on visual arts, which earned him the co-editorship
of the collective work The Place is Here. The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain, published in 2019 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.

Invited by Sophie Orlando, teacher and researcher in art history and theory at Villa Arson, Nick Aikens’ research project focuses on nationalisms and internationalisms in European museum exhibitions of the 1990s: within our institution, he will focus his attention on the artistic scene of the French Riviera, allowing us to advance in the historical and artistic knowledge of our own territory.

Nick Aikens’ presence will also allow us to enrich our reflections on new training and research paths oriented towards art criticism and curatorial practices, enabling us to build synergies between our different functions and missions (teaching, research, production, dissemination, promotion, conservation).