Vita
Mi You is a professor in the Department of Art and Economies at the University of Kassel and the documenta Institute. Previously, she was a research assistant in the field of art and media studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (2014-2021). She was a lecturer at the School of Art, Design and Architecture at Aalto University in Helsinki in the Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art program (2019-2020), at the Roaming Academy of the Dutch Art Institute (2018-2019) and as a lecturer at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen (2016-2017).
In 2019 she received her doctorate from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Mi You studied Media Studies and Science and Technology Studies. Her research interests include new and historical materialism, performative philosophy, and the history, political theory and philosophy of Eurasia.
Mi You works internationally as a curator. She works in particular on the theme of the Silk Road as a figure of thought for old and new networks and technologies. She has curated exhibitions at the Asian Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea, the Ulaanbaatar International Media Art Festival, Mongolia (2016), and at Zarya CCA, Vladivostok (2018). Together with Binna Choi, she has been leading the research and curation project “Unmapping Eurasia” since 2018. Political aspects of technology and the future underlie her work on “actionable speculations”, such as the exhibition “Sci-(no)-Fi” at the Academy of the Arts of the World (2019) or her work as Chair of the Media Art and Technology Committee of the Common Action Forum. She is also one of the curators of the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2020-2021).
She is co-founder of the EU-funded project “Transnational Dialogues”, Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, the Independent Curators International in New York and the Berggruen Institute Europe in Venice. She is also a member of the Academy of the Arts of the World, a board member of Arthub and a member of the scientific advisory board of the Institute for Provocation.
Main research areas
New and historical materialism
Art and technology
Solidarity-based economy
Curatorial sciences
Eurasian geo-imaginations
Projects
2023 – 2027: Chair of “Themenjahr 4: Transformationen in Kultur & Zusammenleben” in “SDGplus Lab”, a BMBF-funded Innovative Hochschule project
2024 – 2025: "Künstlerische Praktiken der Fürsorge und ihr transformatives Potential für ländliche Räume", a HMWK-funded „Dimensionen der Kategorie Geschlecht - Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung in Hessen“ project focusing on the artistic practice of female* artists in rural areas of northern Hesse
2023 – 2024: “Art meets Companies”, model project on transformation processes in companies through artistic practice, in cooperation with UniKasselTransfer as part of TRegKS by the BMWK
2023: “Commons.Art”, development of a social platform for artists in cooperation with Casco, with a workshop and public gathering (forthcoming), supported by The Supporting Act Foundation
2022: “The Lost Art of Organizing Solidarity”, migrant workers’ summit, supported by European Alternatives
Curatorial projects
2024
Curator (with David Garcia), “Really? Art and Knowledge in Time of Crisis”, Framer Framed (Amsterdam)
2023
Curator (with Slavs and Tatars), “Clouds and Power”, Mill6 Centre for Heritage Arts and Textile (Hong Kong) and Tselinny Contemporary Art Center (Almaty)
2022
Curator (with Joella Kiu and Kenneth Tay), “Lonely Vectors”, Singapore Art Museum (Singapore)
2020
Curator of 13th Shanghai Biennale, with Andres Jaque, Lucia Pietroiusti and Marina Otero (Shanghai) (2020-2021)
2019
Curator of “Sci-(no)-fi”, exhibition, workshops and sci-fi-a-thon, Academy of Arts of the World (Cologne)
2018
Co-curator (with Binna Choi) “One Northeast” exhibition on Northeast Asia, Zarya Center for Contemporary Art, Vladivostok (October 2018)
Co-initiator (with Binna Choi) “Unmapping Eurasia” long-term research and curation platform at Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons:
“Unmapping Eurasia” year-long study program, Dutch Art Institute (2018-2019)
“Digital Earth” (as mentor) (October 2018-late 2019)
“Eurasia Steps”, Roaming Assembly, Dutch Art Institute, Athens (June 2018)
2017
Curator of transcultural mediation program to the exhibition “Qiu Zhijie: Travels without Arrivals”, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2016
Adjunct curator “Around Ai Weiwei: Photograph 1983-2016”, CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Turino, Italy
Curator “Silk Road: Transgression, Syncretism”, a festival of performance, performative lecture, art and screening program at Asian Cultural Center Theater as part of its inaugural season program, Gwangju, South Korea
Curator of the inaugural Ulaanbaatar Media Art Festival, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2015
Co-Curator, “Herding Islands, Rats and the Anthropocene” research and screening program with Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin) Synapse network curator Renan Laru-An, University of the Philippines – Los Banos
2012
Curator, Audi Urban Future Initiative, research exhibition at Istanbul Design Biennale, Turkey
2011
Founding member and curator, Dashila(b), a think tank for creative urban regeneration in Beijing’s Dashilar neighborhood, China
Co-organizer and Curator, Transnational Dialogues, with European Alternatives, supported by European Union “Youth in Action” Program (first phase until end of 2012, second phase 2015-2016)
Lectures (selection)
"Futurism and Solidarity: Shifting Conditions of Solidarity", workshop with Kathleen Ditzig and Mayumi Hirano as part of the project "Tidal Rifts: Art, Cinema and Solidarity in East and Southeast Asia" (March 2025, Manila, Philippines)
"Beyond the Colonial Echoes", conversation with Ngô Thanh and Su Wei as part of the project "Watch on a Promontory: Artistic Internal and External Exchanges in East, Southeast, and South Asia in the 1950s-1980s” at the Goethe-Institut Hanoi (November 2024, Hanoi, Vietnam)
“The limits of liberalism, post-globalization and the rise of multipolarity”, moderation of a panel discussion with Zhao Dingxin, Jacob Dreyer and Heinz Bude as part of the “Experimental Publics” symposium at documenta Institut/Friedericianum and documenta-Halle (October 2024, Kassel, Germany)
"China, Europe and the Future of Civilizations", introduction and coordination of a talk by Wang Hui (October 2024, Venice, Italy)
"If you had to choose, would you keep the Venice Biennial or all other biennials?", debate with Ben Davis as part of Cem A.'s performance "Crit Club" (September 2024, Zandaam, Netherlands)
"Madang Dialogue" on David Teh's “Imagined nations/modern utopias”, workshop and presentation as part of the 30th anniversary of Gwangju Biennale (September 2024, Gwangju/Seoul, South Korea)
„Art/History Sideways“, moderation of a forum with Su Wei, with panelists Koichiro Osaka & Wang Tuo, Kathleen Ditzig & Wei Ran (September 2024, Beijing, China)
“Endless Southeast Asia”, workshop and public program with Katleen Ditzig, Brigitta Isabella, Sooyoung Leam, Su Wei and Alia Swastika (May 2024, Bandung, Indonesia)
“How to make socially engaged art sustainable?”, lecture as part of the “gendering sustainability_geschlecht in sozial-ökologischer transformation” lecture series by the IAG Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung at the University of Kassel (May 2024, Kassel, Germany)
„Art in a Multipolar world“, lecture as part of the “Zu viel, zu wenig? Moralische Herausforderungen der Kunst heute” lecture series at TRACES (May 2024, Kassel, Germany)
“Zu viel, zu wenig? Moralische Herausforderungen der Kunst heute”, lecture series with Philipp Oswalt at TRACES (May-July 2024, Kassel, Germany)
„Unraveling a map and building a world”, conversation with Rae-Yen Song as part of the research exhibition "life-bestowing cadaverous soooooooooooooooooooot" at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow (May 2024, Glasgow, Scotland).
“South-South Relations: Engaging With New Constellations and Dynamics in the Global Souths”, workshop of the GSSC-research section with Luis Gimenez Amoros, Lotte Arndt, Massimiliano Mollona (January 2024, Cologne, Germany)
Publications (selection)
I. Monographs
You, Mi (2024): Art in a Multipolar World. Berlin, Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz.
II. Editorships
You, Mi (2024): Editorial: "Experimental Publics". In: e-flux journal (Issue 150).
Dellanoce, Leonardo; Kuitenbrouwer, Klass; Steiner, Arthur; You, Mi (2022): Vertical Atlas. Arnhem: ArtEZ Press.
Kiu, Joella; Tay; Kenneth; You, Mi (2022): Lonely Vectors. Singapore: Singapore Art Museum.
Smirnov, Nikolay; You, Mi (2019): Metageography: towards the new politics of geographical imagination. Vladivostok: Zarya Centre for Contemporary Art.
III. Articles
You, Mi (2024): Silk Road as Geo-Imagination of China. In: Nav Haq (Ed.): Eurasia – An Atlas. Antwerp: MuHKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp.
You, Mi (2024): Another Currency, Another Speculation: Reflections on Art and Economies Projects at documenta fifteen. In: oncurating (58).
You, Mi (2024): The Problems with the Critique of Political Economy in the Arts. In: Lateral (Issue 13.2).
You, Mi (2023): In the Middle of History Looking Sideways: On Askhat Akhmedyarov’s Work and His Time. In: Afterall (Issue 55-56), p. 192-207.
You, Mi (2023): Speculation against Speculation: science-fiction and science-non-fiction in China. In: Marina Vishmidt (Ed.): Speculation (Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art). Cambridge: MIT Press.
You, Mi (2023): Forever Possible: Self-Abolition, Speculation, and Platforming in Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Works. In: Ruba Katrib und Yasmil Raymond (Ed.): Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE. New York: MOMA PS1.
You, Mi (2023): Voices from the Desert Sands: The Responsibilities and Possibilities in Studying the Tarim Basin. In: Susan Whitfield, Puay-Peng Ho Ho, June Yap, Selene Yap Yap und Joella Kiu (Ed.): The Gift: Collecting Entanglements & Embodied Histories. Singapore: Singapore Art Museum.