Every four years, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland pulls together an exhibition of modern artists from around the world for the Carnegie International. Starting Saturday, the 59th Carnegie International will be open — and it’s all about collaboration.
“The Carnegie International … is a programmatic high point for the museum,” said Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art and vice president of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. “It allows us an opportunity to really rethink the museum every four years. To rethink how it’s serving the constituents it serves, how it’s programming, how it’s collaborating, connecting with artists and presenting their work.”
This year’s International contains the work of 61 artists and collectives, with some newly commissioned pieces.
This year’s exhibition was organized by three curators — Ryan Inouye, Danielle A. Jackson and Liz Park — and the whole project emphasizes collectivism.
That spirit is the place from which it draws its title, “if the word we.”
At a media preview Friday, Inouye explained the origins of the title.
“One of the really important dimensions of the ‘we,’ I think … is the ‘we’ as a space of listening. It’s very easy to talk over each other, to talk to each other. But I think at this moment, I do think that what we really need is a space of listening. … The ear always stays open.”
The title comes from an essay by Egyptian writer Haytham el-Wardany that was commissioned by the Carnegie International. The essay can be found in the exhibition’s catalogue.
As the three curators spent 2 1/2 years reaching out to artists, writers and “thought partners” to shape and contribute to the International, it made sense to the team to make that concept — of collectivism and openness — the throughline of the project.
The title leaves itself open to interpretation, also, and Crosby has his own perspective.
“It is kind of a poetic invitation to think about multitudes,” he said.
He added that “we” can mean many different things at any given time.
“We encounter different social configurations every day and imagine ourselves as part of those. … When you visit a museum — when you step across the threshold — you immediately become part of a collective. It may be an unexpected collective, but it’s a collective who showed up at a museum, interested to learn, interested to be transformed by the experience of what they discovered there.”
Another aspect of the exhibition is its unexpectedness and wide-ranging scope. The curators also rethought space, even inserting installations into common spaces and walkways throughout the museum.
The Hall of Sculpture has been transformed by an installation by Brazilian artist Cinthia Marcelle.
Creating the work involved covering the floor in green carpeting and literally raising the floor of the room so that visitors could stand beneath it. On the ceiling of the pavilion-like structure created by the elevated floor are collages of news items and writings.
It’s meant to draw a cross-cultural connection between the events of Jan. 6, 2021 in the United States and the attacks on Jan. 8, 2023 at the Brazilian House of Representatives.
The results are striking.
“She was interested in that process of renovation. Renovating these institutions of democracy, or maybe the institution of democracy, and what that would entail,” Inouye said. “Obviously it’s a collective endeavor.”
The International’s ethos of collaboration reaches beyond the walls of the Carnegie Museums in Oakland to other cultural institutions around the city. The presenting partners for this exhibition are the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, the Kamin Science Center and the Mattress Factory, all on the North Side; and the Thelma Lovette YMCA in the Hill District.
“Each of these institutions, which anchor Pittsburgh’s arts and cultural landscape, bring their own methodologies for working with artists,” Crosby said. “The artists that we’ve identified together are creating works that are embedded within those organizations.”
One example is Indian artist Sanchayan Ghosh, whose work will be presented at the Children’s Museum.
“This current work is a workshop-based public project exploring the relationship among Home, Memory, Neighborhood and beyond,” Ghosh said in an interview. “My practice involves process-based public participation towards a shared public gesture.”
The project pulls together the individual and collective memories of both the Children’s Museum’s site and the participating people.
“It will be an attempt to activate a ripple effect and joining together with other residents and visitors to the site,” Ghosh said.
The artist will hold a drop-in workshop on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Children’s Museum.
The Carnegie International will open at all sites on Saturday and run through Jan. 3, 2027.
The opening weekend will bring a number of exciting programs and activations.
The Carnegie Museum of Art will have extended hours, staying open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. There will be films, performances, programs and activities across the museum and four partner organizations.
Crosby has watched the process of collaboration and dialogue between the artists, curators and partners, and he’s looking forward to bringing the public into the conversation.
“I do think of this as this sort of fountain of continuous renewal. The International is a really important part of this museum’s DNA, not just its legacy. It becomes this source of creativity as we continue to try to expand the imaginative capacity of the work we do here.”
The Carnegie International will open Saturday at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland and will run through Jan. 3, 2027. To learn more about the artists, the diffrent programs surrounding its opening and the process behind the exhibition. visit carnegieart.org.