Curating the Cosmopolis

Abstract

Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis was the first temporary exhibition mounted at Tate Modern from February to April 2001. The exhibition’s central problematic was the intensification—at specific moments in particular places—of the relationship between urban experience and cultural praxis. Iwona Blazwick organised the show, working with a team of curators from within and outside Tate, to showcase the relationship between vanguard culture and the urban through the twentieth century across nine cities from Asia (Tokyo, 1967–1973, Reiko Tomii; Bombay/Mumbai, 1992–2001, Geeta Kapur and Ashish Rajadhyaksha), Africa (Lagos, 1955–1970, Okwui Enwezor and Olu Oguibe), the Americas (Rio de Janeiro, 1950–1964, Paulo Venancio Filho; New York, 1969–1974, Donna De Salvo), and Europe (Paris, 1905–1915, Serge Fauchereau; Vienna, 1908–1918, Richard Calvocoressi and Keith Hartley; Moscow, 1916–1930, Lutz Becker). Now director of the Whitechapel Gallery, Blazwick looks back at this ambitious exhibition, discussing its development, challenges, and legacy in the following interview with art historian Rattanamol Singh Johal.